Travel guide announces top-rated spas

CHICAGO -- Five stars were awarded to just two of the 125 spas visited by inspectors for the Mobil Travel Guide's 2006 edition.

The Spa at Mandarin Oriental in New York, and Spa Montage at Montage Resort, in Laguna Beach, Calif., won the travel guide's top ratings.

Last year, Spa Montage was the only spa to earn five stars from Mobil. In 2004, the first year Mobil began rating spas, no spa was deemed good enough for the top slot.

Spas at Mandarin Oriental hotels in Washington, D.C., and Miami both won four stars.

Also on the four-star list were nine Four Seasons spas -- in Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, and Teton Village (Jackson Hole), Wyo.; Maui, Hawaii; Scottsdale, Ariz.; and in California, in Beverly Hills, Carlsbad, and Santa Barbara -- and eight Ritz-Carlton spas, in Half Moon Bay, Calif.; in Florida at Key Biscayne, Naples, Orlando, Sarasota, and Miami (South Beach); Greensboro, Ga., and Henderson (Lake Las Vegas), Nev.

Factors considered by the undercover inspectors include the reservation process, check-in, public areas, locker rooms, guest comfort, convenience, luxury, therapists' skill, and facility cleanliness and condition. Inspectors completed two treatments at each spa.

Three new spas that earned four stars despite having just opened last year were the Spa at the Sanctuary at Kiawah Island, S.C., the Spa at Setai in Miami Beach and the Spa at Wynn Las Vegas.

Other spas on the four-star list were Ancient Cedars Spa, Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, British Columbia, Canada; Post Ranch Spa at the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, Calif.; SpaHalekulani in Honolulu, Hawaii; The Spa at Emerson Place, Mount Temper, N.Y.; and I SPA at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D.C.