According to the President of the International SPA Association, Lynne McNees, there are more than 14,000 spas in the United States and many offer classes on self–improvement, which can be learned at the spa and then applied in daily life. In fact, 51 percent of spas offer educational programs and nutritional consultations, 40 percent offer healthy eating classes, 39 percent offer stress management classes and 26 percent have educational offerings on obesity or other weight issues.

If you’ve been hesitating taking your first trip to a spa, consider the spa getaway specials below.

Spa-goers can sample a complete menu of spa services, including massage, facials, reflexogy, reiki, and a maple sugar body scrub at the Mirror Lake Inn Resort & Spa, located in the Olympic village of Lake Placid, New York. The spa has a comfortable, yet elegant ambiance and features special “spa sanctuaries” for guests waiting for treatments.

Spa packages for two adults start at $370.00 and include accommodations, one fifty-minute spa service for each person and breakfast. Choose from Swedish aromatherapy, or mothers to be massages; facials, maple body scrubs, or manicures and pedicures. This AAA four-diamond resort offers a full service restaurant, spa and fitness center, golf, tennis courts, fireplaces, Jacuzzis, and indoor outdoor/pools. Phone: 518-523-2544, Web: www.mirrorlakeinn.com

The only AAA Four-Diamond boutique hotel in downtown Los Angeles, California, the Hilton Checkers Los Angeles dates back to the 1920s, and has been fully restored to its original splendor. The hotel’s stunning rooftop deck offers up a breathtaking view of the Los Angeles skyline, perfect for dinners, receptions or romantic evenings for just two. Enhance your visit to Los Angeles with their “Be Well” in Los Angeles spa special, which includes two sixty minute Spa treatments at $200.00 per person. Choose from the massage or facial with one add on masque.

The hotel is in the heart of downtown Los Angeles’ financial district and within easy walking distance of the theatre district, restaurants and nightlife. Award winning Checkers Downtown restaurant features California fusion cuisine with a French and Asian influence, served in intimate surroundings. Gourmet Magazine ranks Checkers Downtown as one of the top 20 restaurants in Los Angeles. Web: www.hiltoncheckers.com, Phone: 213-624-0000.

Blueberries. Maine wild roses. Juniper. Sea salts. Seashells. Guests not only discover these native accents outdoors, but find them as ingredients in the body wraps, exfoliations and massages offered among the more traditional treatments at the new 20,000 square-foot oceanfront spa building at the Cliff House Resort & Spa in Ogunquit, Maine.

In the spa building, the 32 oversized guest rooms feature a king bed, sitting area, gas-fired woodstove, wet bar, and the option of spa treatments in your guestroom, all with remarkable ocean views. The resort’s Spa Sampler Package, through December 6, 2008, includes: three nights’ ocean-view spa lodging; lobster dinner or choice of entrée, appetizer and dessert one night; full breakfast each morning; $200.00 spa credit and $25.00 Cliff House money per person. The rates are $744.00 - $921.00 per person, depending on season. Web: www.cliffhousemaine.com, Phone: 207-361-1000.

Located on 19 acres of land with views to Rochester, Bristol Hills and Finger Lakes, the Desired Haven Bed and Breakfast in West Bloomfield, New York (Finger Lakes), sits on 19 acres with trails for hiking, cross-country skiing, or watching a sunset and wildlife. Their spa package includes two nights and three days in a deluxe Jacuzzi suite; a relaxing candlelight aroma therapy soak in the two-person Jacuzzi; a one-hour massage for two by a licensed massage therapist in the privacy of your room. The rate is $599.00 weeknights, or $699.00 weekends.

Enjoy a full gourmet breakfast served elegantly with china, crystal, silver and linens. The Inn is central to lakes, wineries, state and county parks, ski resorts (Bristol Mountain, Hunt Hollow ), all less than a half-hour away. Ideal for small meetings and weddings. Web: www.desired-haven.com, Phone: (585) 739-6594.

Indulge in the Grand Spa Sojourn package at the Grand Del Mar Hotel, San Diego, California, featuring lavish accommodations, two 60-minute spa treatments, and daily breakfast for two. The rate is $735.00 USD per night, two people and is valid through December 30, 2008. The Spa offers soothing experiences enriched with elements of the earth such as warm mineral mud, native herbs, and calming botanicals inspired by the resort’s secluded natural setting.

The luxury resort features 249 elegantly appointed guestrooms and suites; San Diego’s only Tom Fazio-designed championship golf course; two outdoor tennis courts; a 21,000-square-foot Renaissance-inspired spa; four swimming pools; regional dining, including Addison, the signature restaurant and Amaya, an all day Mediterranean-style venue; an enclave of residential Villas; and more than 20,000 square feet of indoor/outdoor meeting space. Web: www.thegranddelmar.com, Phone: 866-504-5132.

Nestled between Mexico’s Sierra Madre Mountains and Banderas Bay, CasaMagna Marriott Resort & Spa in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. earns a spot on the 100 World’s Best Hotels by Conde Nast Traveler and is a recipient of the AAA 4 Diamond Award. The hotel has a new 22,000 square foot spa, newly redecorated guestrooms with luxurious bedding and bathrooms and new furniture with Mexican-inspired colors.

The 404 luxury guest rooms and 29 suites all feature a private balcony or terrace. Their spa package is $257.00 to $279.00 per room, per night (when you stay a minimum of four nights) and includes accommodations for two in an ocean view room, daily full breakfast buffet for two, two Ohtli Spa treatments, two access passes to Ohtli Spa’s wellness areas, two fitness classes, and access to the Ohtli fitness center. Valid through December 18, 2008. Phone: 52 322 226 0000, Web: www.puertovallartamarriott.com

Courtesy Travel Features Syndicate 2008

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How to Be a Better Hotel Guest

Being a Hotelier with over 20 years of experience, I meet thousands of people, all with varying personalities from complete idiots to just good old plain folk. Here are a few hints to make your stay more pleasurable:

The hotel business has to be one of the most stressful jobs, (just ask any front desk agent) with employees having to take the brunt of personal abuse aimed at them by guests who have had a terrible day of traveling and want to vent their rage and displeasure at the poor hotel agent who is just trying to get them into their room as fast as possible.

Oh sure, we also screw up. We have “unexplained stayovers”, an industry term meaning we overbooked and your room is no longer available, and “unplanned emergencies”, another term meaning something went really bad (like no hot water, phones do not work and that door knob hanging breakfast order we totally forgot about)

For some reason, some guests assume we make far too much money and try and make our life miserable by complaining about everything until they get the “Manager” to either offer a discount, or, have to give them a comp room. We can tell who these guests are the minute they walk in the door, or call for an airport pickup and our staff takes turn being “The Manager” just for the fun of it.

One guest, from one of those “Internet cheapo sites” paying such a low price for their room (hovering around our actual cost) wanted a complimentary room and a free meal because the free internet we offered to our guests was too slow for his use. We sell rooms to these sites because they are either right next to the railroad tracks or the elevator shaft and our lower demand for that night means we would not be able to sell even our worst rooms. Our regular guests are too smart to be put in there. Hint: always look at the hotel room map to see where the front desk puts you before you walk 10 miles to get to the room.

Hint, for the regular traveling public, we are far more likely to offer an upgrade (better room, free breakfasts, coupons or an invitation to the General Manager’s reception) to just good old plain folk that are nice to our staff! Yell or scream, shout profanities, say bad things about our ancestors or throw things at the front desk agent and you can kiss those upgrades goodbye!

We have guests who drink all the bottles of vodka in the mini-bar and then fill them up with tap water and of course, everyone believes that the towels, face cloths, the duvet on the bed and that cute coffee maker are all free samples that you are legally allowed to cram into your suitcases and sneak out the back door.

Simple complimentary upgrades are easy to ask for, including, corner rooms, suite upgrades, additional breakfast coupons and are more easily obtainable if the hotel’s occupancy is fairly low (Hint: ask how busy they are that evening). I have put couples into a $1000 a night Presidential suite at less than $100 per night just because they were “just such a nice couple”.

Ask if the hotel offers a discount in their dining room (often up to 50%). Many front desk agents forget to mention this when they are really busy.

Be nice, stay nice!

The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately 4 mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard that runs from Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino at the southern end to the Stratosphere Las Vegas Hotel and Casino in the North. The Strip is one of the most famous and most valuable stretches of real estate in the world, and is the heart of the city that is known as the gaming capital of the world.

The Strip is ever changing and growing. Recently non-gaming properties in the form of tall condominium towers have been spouting up in between and behind the casino-hotels. Of course casinos are also being built, with most seemingly designed to outdo prior properties. Also, while new properties are being developed existing properties are evolving and improving in an attempt to remain competitive.

This non-stop growth can occasionally cause headaches for people trying to drive from place to place on the Strip. Closed lanes, closed side roads, and traffic from construction vehicles cause this already busy road to become difficult to traverse. Las Vegas has tried to keep up with increased traffic by adding pedestrian walkways, a monorail, more buses, and improved alternative side roads as alternatives to tourists simply driving down the Strip. By keeping a few tips in mind a visitor can save time and frustration when traveling around the Strip.

One way to get around is to walk from one property to another. Just keep in mind that Las Vegas is brutally hot in the summer, with normal daily highs over 100 degrees, and the nights from late fall until mid spring may be surprisingly cool. Also, while casino security and the cops do an excellent job of keeping as safe as possible, you need to keep your own security in mind, especially in areas that aren’t near a casino. The north end of the Strip past the Wynn, especially, has areas that are not near any casinos. Also, some of the side streets are less safe after dark than the Strip is.

The monorail is useful is some cases. It is located on the east side of the Strip, and is excellent for going to the Convention Center and the hotels on the east side. The monorail stations are MGM Grand, Bally’s/Paris, Flamingo/Caesars, Harrah’s/Imperial Palace, The Convention Center, and the Sahara. Buses run 24 hours a day up and down the Strip, and a Trolley (really another type of bus, not a San Francisco style trolley) zigzags from Strip hotels to off Strip hotels. Taxis are everywhere, all day long, and are another alternative way to get around the Strip.

If you want to drive you should try to become familiar with the side streets that run parallel to the Strip. On the west the streets to learn are Frank Sinatra Drive and Industrial Road, and on the east the Roads to know are Koval Lane, Sand Avenue, and Paradise Road. These roads will lead you to the back entrances for most of the Strip hotels and are almost always easier to get around on, although Paradise Road can be slow when a very large convention is in town.

In my previous writings I spoke about my Myrtle Beach and Disneyworld golf vacations, which are two excellent choices for golf and vacation destinations, no two ways about it. I had been alternating between both places for about ten years and had some great times but we were ready for a change, for something different. Where would we go next ? I had always wanted to return to Las Vegas since my first visit there in 1976, but just never had the opportunity. I had stopped in Las Vegas for three days on my return trip home from my Honeymoon in Hawaii, my favorite place on the planet, met some friends there and had a blast.

In 2002, my 50th birthday was quickly approaching and my significant other surprised me with a gift that I did not expect, a four day golf trip to Las Vegas. Can it get any better ? I guess maybe a five or six day trip would be better but she wanted to make sure we did not go broke while we were there so four days was a good compromise. We were staying at the MGM on Las Vegas Blvd., more commonly known as “The Strip”, where most of the more famous hotels in the city were aligned. From Mandalay Bay, The Luxor, Excalibur and New York, New York on the one end to Circus, Circus, The Riviera, The Sahara, and The Stratosphere on the other, and The Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Paris and Bally’s in between how could you go wrong ?

Then there was the golf. Upon review of the available golf courses we chose three venues that we thoroughly enjoyed. We played Bears Best, a Jack Nicklaus design and who is my favorite player of all time, as some of you may remember from a previous writing, Angel Park, an Arnold Palmer design and another magnificent golf venue, which includes three courses, The Mountain being my favorite, and last but certainly not least is Bali Hai, adjacent Mandalay Bay, right on the Strip. Jacks’ Bears Best course was designed by utilizing the signature hole layouts of some of his other outstanding golf course acomplishments to date and reproducing them in the Las Vegas landscape. The green fairways contrasting with the desert mountains and sand dunes in the background was a breathtaking site, especially if you have never been in the desert before. Angel Park was also very enjoyable and there was a great view of the golf course and a real green miniature golf course, (the only one I had ever seen) right off the dining veranda and the club house. It was a great setting for lunch as we took in the gorgeous panoramic view. Bali Hai was as exotic as the name exudes. With well over two thousand Palm Trees imported by the course designers, and many thousands of other varied forms of exotic plant life, complimented by the beautiful white sand bunkers, it added a tropical touch of the South Pacific to the desert, a unique and fun innovation to say the least. After 36 holes of golf at Bali Hai, my birthday celebration meal was a real treat. Dinner at the elegant Wolfgang Puck, “Cili” restaurant located right on premises, in the club house, at the Bali Hai golf course. The design and the ambiance of the restaurant and clubhouse was a continuation of the tropical theme so blatantly displayed on the golf course. Great food, fine wine, dessert and espresso with a touch of Sambuca to top off the meal, which included some live piano music playing in the background was the icing on my birthday cake so to speak.

After our dining experience at Cili’s we headed to the casinos. New York City is known as “The City That Never Sleeps”, but Las Vegas is the literal personification of that expression. We walked from one end of the Strip to the other stopping at almost every well known Casino in town and all the joints were hopping no matter what time we went in. New York, New York, MGM, The Bellagio, Caesars, Bally’s and Paris were our favorite stops. I actually won a few grand at The Bellagio but gave it right back at the Paris, but you only live once ( or do you ? - a topic for another time)so having fun should be the priority. It’s only money. Once you become enamored with the casino atmosphere and lack of daylight and get into a hot run on the Blackjack or Craps tables, it is very easy to transpose night and day. The hours pass quickly and I see many people having dinner at 5:00 or 6:00am and breakfast at 10:00pm or midnight for that matter. Since we were playing golf , we usually went to sleep around midnight and were out and about by 5:00am or so the next morning, which is when we noted the varied dining habits of the habitual gamblers and night time crowd.

As we strolled down the Vegas Strip I could almost feel the presence of some of the larger than life personalities who frequented Las Vegas in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy and the rest of the Rat Pack to name a few. I was especially reminded of Frank because Frank Jrs.’ face was plastered on the big sceeen video monitor and he was singing all of his dads hits and doing a pretty good job of it at that. Wayne Newton has been a lifer in Vegas and is still as popular as ever. Las Vegas has perhaps the biggest line up of top notch entertainment in the world. Wayne Newton, Barbra Streisand, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Celine Dion, Tony Bennett and The Blue Man Group plus the first class Magic acts and much more all entertain in Las Vegas. The list of famous Las Vegas personalities from the Golden Age would not be complete without including mention of perhaps the most well known and idolized entertainer of all time, Mr. Las Vegas himself, the veritable “King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley”. His name is synonymous with the hierarchy of Las Vegas Royalty, they don’t refer to him as the King for nothing. The list goes on and on, but just check on line if you are planning a visit and you will note a dozen or more top rated shows at any particular time you may choose to plan a trip there. On our next night we walked the entire Strip again (aka Las Vegas Boulevard) starting at Mandalay Bay and finishing at the Sratosphere. We stopped in a least a half dozen Casinos, including MGM, New York, New York, Paris, Ballys’ and The Bellagio. The lights were incredible and the water light show in front of The Bellagio was most enjoyable and entertaining. It also kept me out of the casinos for a while longer and saved me some dough which made the time spent there that much more rewarding.

We revisited Las Vegas about four months later and we got some great deals on golf and hotel rooms. I guess they figured they should lower the rates for anyone crazy enough to play golf in 114 degree temperatures. It was tough I must say, but we played and still had a good time, wet face cloths and all. It was another wonderful vacation under our belt and they just keep getting better. If you’re considering Las Vegas for your next trip, I can guarantee you won’t be bored. It truly is the “City That Never Sleeps”. You can get some terrific packages, both for golf or just to stay and play at the resorts. Las Vegas is truly the ultimate playground for the over 21 crowd. Happy Vacationing and Golfing To All!