Miami is known for its beautiful beaches — and beautiful people. In this city of glitz and glamour, luxury hotels are catering to travelers with total wellness programs offering healthy menus, celebrity trainer-designed fitness programs and wellness-oriented spa treatments. After all, everybody in MIA wants to look and feel their best on the beach and out on the town. Here are five elite hotels providing the ultimate in total-body health and wellness.
With a state-of-the-art fitness center, innovative workout classes and a stunning jogging path, this Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star hotel offers top-notch facilities for those wanting to stay fit and active. Guests can work out with Technogym equipment — each piece outfitted with on-board entertainment systems — in the hotel’s fitness center while enjoying floor-to-ceiling views of its infinity pool and Biscayne Bay. Among the high-tech equipment: the Cardio Wave, an innovative cardiovascular machine that uses multiplanar motion, similar to skiing. The spa also offers private Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Kundalini yoga, mat-based Pilates, tai chi, meditation and visualization, and belly dancing classes, all held outside on the lawn overlooking the bay or in a waterfront VIP spa suite. (Weekly group yoga sessions have also returned to the lawn for the season.) For solo training, the hotel’s 1.3-mile jogging path circles the private island of Brickell Key with views of the Miami skyline and the bay.
The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort
This newish resort offers a personalized wellness program designed to meet each guest’s individual needs. For the culinary conscious, mini-bars come stocked with nutritional protein snacks and shakes while J&G Grill features fresh, in-season natural and organic ingredients in dishes such as grass-fed New York strip and tropical fruit vacherin. On the fitness side, classes developed by celebrated trainers Tracie and Christopher Vlaun of V Art of Wellness include early morning beach sculpt and BeFit Method beach boot camp. To unwind, the hotel has meditation, reiki and yoga classes. The resort’s Remède Spa also offers premier pampering with services like the royal muscle rejuvenation to ease stress and the Remède customized wrap to improve skin condition, plus two newly added customizable two-night wellness packages: Recharge, which consists of challenging personal training and group fitness classes, and RenewMe, a deal that contains a private yoga session and a post-workout spa treatment. Personal training, one-on-one consultations, nutrition counseling and pre- and post-natal training are also available.
At this standout Miami Beach hotel, travelers can get a hard-core total-body workout with a unique, award-winning interactive training system called TRAZER. Fontainebleau’s expert trainers use this game-like tool to tailor fun workouts based on personal goals and fitness capabilities. One-on-one private sessions with a certified trainer or instructor are also available, and each experience can be customized to meet individual needs and interests. Afterward, relax, indulge and soothe sore muscles in the hotel’s signature spa, Lapis, with mineral pools, massage-jet showers, eucalyptus steam baths or a restoring massage.
The Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, Miami
Guests at the Four-Star resort can take full advantage of the hotel’s idyllic outdoor surroundings with an array of cool fitness classes created around the breathtaking views. Take a dip in the tranquility pool with a Poolates class, a course designed for all ages by Poolates innovator Rebecca “Boo” Pfeiffer. During the Atlantic Walk, you rove along the beach for a three-mile jaunt to and from the historic Cape Florida Lighthouse. At the lighthouse, ascend the 109 stairs to the top where sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean, from Coconut Grove to South Beach, await. During a full moon, spin under the stars with a Full Moon Spin on the resort’s Grand Lawn right as the sun sets and the moon rises over the water. The next Full Moon Spin is October 18; reservations are required.
The Four-Star spa at Four-Star The Setai provides the ultimate Zen-like experience with an intimate, peaceful ambience and Asian-style techniques and services, such as the ancient Balinese massage and traditional Thai massage. To get the body back in sync post-travel, they offer a distinctive ila bio-rhythm envelopment for jet lag, a service consisting of an ion mineral mud wrap and Kundalini and marma massages. Another pick-me-up treatment is the ila envelopment for energizing, which uses a body polish, mud wrap, hair mask and stimulating scalp massage. The newest addition to the roster is the Voya organic seaweed leaf envelopment for detoxification — a two-hour treatment that features a body and facial exfoliation using seaweed and spiny bamboo, body envelopment in seaweed and special leaves, and hair and face masks, plus seaweed-infused creams, moisturizers and serums. Personal trainers, sunrise yoga on the beach and 30-minute, poolside mini massages are also available at the pampering property.
Photos Courtesy of Kikor Photography, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group LLC and Fountainebleu
