When Fontainebleau Las Vegas makes its long-awaited debut Dec. 13, it will unveil Lapis Spa, a 55,000-square-foot refuge with unique amenities like a spa-within-a-spa, a European event sauna, a foot spa, décor that changes with the body’s circadian rhythms and one of the largest hotel gyms on the Strip.
Forbes Travel Guide got an exclusive preview of the 44-treatment-room spa inside the $3.7 billion newly built resort. Here are the highlights:
The Inspiration
While the sanctuary shares the same name as Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Lapis The Spa at Fontainebleau in Miami, the only carryover will be the “heritage of great service,” said Jennifer Lynn, director of spa and wellness for Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
The Vegas spa will embrace the name’s inspiration, the lapis lazuli, a stone that encourages strength, power, wisdom, truth and spiritual connection. A rare 150-pound piece of the cobalt-blue crystal will greet you at reception, and the stone will appear throughout the facilities. Plus, the Lissoni & Partners-designed spa will pepper the lapis hue among the dominant desert tones.
Known as the stone of the sky and the heavens, the lapis also inspires the spa’s celestial theme. “The sky and the heavens are very timeless and ageless,” Lynn said. “It allows us to hearken back to these ancient healing traditions, but there’s also something very modern and mysterious about the sky and the heavens as well. And so that’s where we lean more into that modern technology.”
The Spa-Within-A-Spa
Lapis will open Vegas’ first “spa-within-a-spa,” Lynn said. Accommodating parties of up to eight people, its Supernova Suite will have its own amenities, including a vitality pool, a steam shower, lockers, restrooms, a grooming area, three treatment tables and a dining area. A spa butler will greet you at Lapis’ check-in desk, escort you to the suite and oversee your spa day.
“We know very few people come to Vegas by themselves, but a lot of people come in small groups, and so the Supernova Suite is going to be the perfect opportunity for any small group that wanted to spa together,” she said. “It’s a beautiful space.”
The Facilities
Your spa experience will include Celestial Waters, innovative wellness facilities that you can use before or after a spa treatment (or you can just purchase a four-hour Celestial Waters Passport). Some of the facilities will be familiar to luxury spa devotees, like vitality pools, cold plunges, an herbal inhalation room scented with essential oils and experience showers (called star showers here) with sprays, overhead bucket deluges and simulated gentle rainstorms.
The most unusual offering sits in the center of the spa in the coed bathing area. The Aufguss, or event sauna, is a detoxifying and entertaining communal European ritual that Lynn first brought to the U.S. in 2021 when she led Awana Spa at Resorts World Las Vegas across the street. The 15-minute theatrical experience features a “sauna meister” who performs towel choreography set to music and lights and moves the aromatherapy steam around the sauna. Lapis will add a 120-inch LCD screen as a visual complement to the show.
“I can confidently say that we will certainly be the best and the biggest at the moment with 30-plus seats,” Lynn said about Lapis Spa’s Aufguss, which will be one of the country’s largest, “but you know the reality is it’s all about the programming and how you bring it to life.”
To that end, Lynn went to Europe last year to study under Netherlands native Rob Keijzer, a three-time Aufguss world champion (who will train the staff in Vegas and help develop the experience). They began at the annual Aufguss World Championships in the Netherlands and then made their way to Belgium, Germany and Italy, watching nine sauna shows a day.
If you don’t enjoy sweating in a sweltering sauna, the spa will offer a cutting-edge alternative: an infrared sauna. Infrared light will point at different body parts, warming you from the inside out in a much milder manner.
The spa also will introduce a new spin on halotherapy, which is supposed to help reduce inflammation, clear toxins and improve lung function. Inside the salt-brick-walled chamber, the spa will add a salt mister. “It can definitely assist with the efficacy [of the salt therapy], and the sensation that you feel from this inhalation is a little bit different,” Lynn said. “You can almost taste the salt.”
When you want a reprieve from the saunas or the relentless Nevada sun, you can cool down quickly in a snow shower. The space’s temperature will hover around a frosty 14 degrees Fahrenheit while a machine pumps out fluffy snowflakes. Heated floors will make the falling snow disappear and keep your feet warm.
Biohacking Décor
According to Lynn, a leading wellness trend is longevity, priming the body to live its longest, healthiest life. One way to do this is through your biological clock, she said. “It is important to honor that natural circadian rhythm as a way of biohacking so that you can get your optimal performance out of your mind and your body.”
The neutral-colored spa incorporates that thinking into its design, with Celestial Waters’ décor changing as the day progresses. During Lo-Tide Mornings, light panel walls will glow calming soft blues, purples and greens. Then during Hi-Tide Afternoons, they will radiate energizing reds, oranges and yellows as visitors prep for a late night out.
The Foot Spa
When your feet get ravaged dancing the night away in heels at a club or strolling the Strip for hours, visit the Reboot Lounge. It will be a drop-in space — you won’t need to make an appointment or even go to the spa locker room to change out of street clothes.
You will sit in one of 12 relaxation loungers, sip a wellness shot and watch the nature scenes projected on three walls while a therapist goes to work on a foot and lower leg treatment to include a Theragun deep-muscle massager.
The Gym
The spa will reside on the second and third floors of the 67-story tower — the Strip’s tallest occupiable building — in what’s dubbed the wellness corridor. There, you can access the 14,000-square-foot gym — one of the largest on the Strip — outfitted with Peloton and Echo bikes, Woodway treadmills, Hydrow rowers, VersaClimbers, a Jacobs Ladder, a HIIT modular system, and a sled-push and tractor-tire-flip area. Lynn said it also will have equipment that isn’t commonly found in commercial gyms, like a Keiser Triple Trainer, a strength machine that uses compressed air for resistance.
A studio will hold daily yoga, Pilates and stretch and recovery classes. And there will be a stretch and recovery zone with compression boots and other offerings. However, the one feature likely to energize your workout most in the city of excess will be the floor-to-ceiling windows running the length of the fitness center and overlooking Las Vegas Boulevard.
