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Is there any city in the world more in need of a good shoulder rub than New York? It’s no surprise, then, that the best spas in NYC are a varied and excellent bunch. Even within the city that never sleeps, people sometimes need to turn off. As part of Vogue's Global Spa Guide, we’ve curated a sub-list for those harried urbanites in need of a day off, or those just visiting the city and overwhelmed by its excess. These places offer a different kind of excess—in the best way.
Building up the full list of 100 was no easy feat; finding the best spas in NYC was a bit more a treat. Recommendations ricocheted around the office, discoveries we made, and might just be making some of these places regular stops on our wellness itineraries.
Aman New York
Visiting an Aman is a bit like getting on a spacecraft destined for planet Luxury. From the moment you enter the hotel’s lobby, you’re enveloped in an all-encompassing aesthetic, each detail—from the sprig of eucalyptus poking from a hammered pewter pot to the swathes of haute taupe decor—calibrated to create a just-so environment that banishes the hectic hubbub speeding along 57th Street outside. This hotel might be in the very heart of Manhattan, but it is also worlds apart. Is this the best spa in New York City? It is certainly striving to set a very high bar. Housed in a three-story 25,000-square-foot complex, the spa has an overall aesthetic that can be described as Asian minimalist. Within the warren-like structure, an unmarked wood-paneled door opens up into a lofty atrium-like space; the private yoga studio is situated in something like a private bento box, sealed off by key card access. This is the vibe at Aman: extensive yet extremely private. The treatments menu is truly encyclopedic. You can get a bit of everything here.
Shibui Spa
“Basement spa” doesn’t exactly conjure up visions of grandeur and sumptuousness, but Shibui Spa at the Greenwich Hotel is subterranean in the sense that diamond mines or truffle deposits are subterranean. Heaven is in the stratosphere, but paradise is in Tribeca, where Shibui is an oasis modeled on the Japanese onsen. Its treatment rooms are pin-drop quiet, the enormous indoor pool is heated, and the entire scene is framed under a bamboo crosshatch roof that Japanese craftsmen imported and reassembled in a painstaking homage to ancient bathing ceremonies. Even the heated towels are soaked in hot sake. Other spas boast aerial views or shout about amenities; Shibui whispers, and the result is the world’s most opulent ASMR experience.
The Four Seasons Downtown
While the OG Midtown Four Seasons is known the world over for its iconic I.M. Pei design, its Lower Manhattan outpost, which opened in 2016, is home to one of the finest spas in the city. Let’s start with the showstopper: the 75-foot heated lap pool—one of the city’s largest—which is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows. The pool is perfectly heated at about 82 to 85 degrees, and the floor is set at a temperate 85 (meaning no teeth-chattering strides back to your towel). There are seven treatment rooms, a Peloton-packed fitness center, a steam room, infrared sauna, and a sundeck that overlooks Downtown Manhattan. The Four Seasons Downtown is the kind of place you’d expect Succession’s Shiv Roy to turn up. Stylish and discrete, the hotel is for those who live in quiet luxury (but who’d never utter such a phrase). The spa is just as refined—all white marble and dappled sunlight—with plush sitting rooms for whiling away the afternoon or taking over a business empire.
The Well New York
How are you feeling today? The Well has a service for that. With an encyclopedia of options, The Well prides itself on providing a 360-degree approach to care. They offer massages and facials, saunas with eucalyptus branches, meditation domes, Reiki, and more. The treatments at The Well position it between Eastern and Western healing practices, and the entire idea behind the enterprise, when it was founded, was that it would bring disciplines, traditions, and experiences from other parts of the world to the city that has it all. Expect a massage therapist to ask about your latest moods and an energy healer to ask about a crick in your neck. “I want to create that opportunity for other people to have a different tool kit,” says The Well CEO and cofounder, Rebecca Parekh. “Something else to help navigate the stress, the anxiety, the loneliness—all the things that people are feeling in the city today.”
Remedy Place
There’s no gym equipment, massage tables, or beauty offerings at Remedy Place. Instead, there’s an extensive array of holistic treatments. Facilities include an infrared light sauna, acupuncture and cupping rooms, cryo chambers, hyperbaric chambers (they’re different!), and ice baths, just to name a few. Some experiences are solitary, but many can be done with friends, and that is part of the DNA of Remedy Place. When Remedy Place founder Jonathan Leary opened his first location in West Hollywood in 2019, he had the idea that he would create a “social wellness club.” (Let Leary himself define that for you: “It’s a club that is temptation- and toxin-free, that enhances health and social life at the same time.) The second opened in 2022 in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, and if you're interested in getting your lymphatic drainage done with a friend or bringing your boyfriend along for emotional support while you endure a whole-body cryo chamber, this is the place for you. Or corral a few of your friends to take the (literal) plunge in one of their icy baths. Meanwhile, those looking for a hangover cure can opt for one of their many IV treatments.
Read more from Vogue’s Global Spa Guide.