Holly Baldwin’s Waterfront Reset
Last year, the team at JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort brought in wellness tourism consultant Adrianne Chandra Huff from Chandra Wellbeing in California to help design the program, inspired by her time spent in Costa Rica, where she learned about Blue Zones. She helped create a framework that maximizes the therapeutic effects of the Gulf, drawing on the Blue Mind Theory, developed by marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols. The body of research proposes that proximity to water produces measurable physiological shifts, from the salty air’s anti-inflammatory properties, caused by negative ions released when the tide crashes against the shore, to the sound of waves, which can align sleep with natural circadian rhythms. “The Gulf is our greatest teacher,” spa director Eric Lopez says.
Working in the local advertising scene for more than a decade, our sales representative Holly Baldwin has spent time at many of the local spas, but a day at JW’s all-encompassing campus sticks in her mind. She describes the sensory arrival as immediate: salty outdoor air crossing eucalyptus at the door, a reception desk that echoes the pattern of moving water. “The moment you walk through the doors, you feel a calm rush over you,” she says. Set within an 800-room resort with 3 miles of beach, the experience moves between indoor and outdoor spaces, with the shoreline never far from view. The 24,000-square-foot facility is split across two levels, with treatment rooms above and reception and relaxation lounge below.
Courtesy JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort
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On the Menu: When Holly visits the spa at JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort, she opts for the 50-minute Marco Island Custom Facial, with ingredients built around your skin type. “The gentle cleanse and the nourishing mask on my face, along with the oil’s smell that floated in the air—so refreshing,” she says.
The spa is designed to be moved through, inviting guests to move through a full-day circulation rather than a single appointment. Structured around four pillars (calm, nourish, invigorate, renew), the programming ranges from sound bowl meditation at 10 a.m. to a dip in the hot and cold plunge hydrotherapy suites before winding down with sunset yoga on the shore. Guests also have access to the spa’s gym—separate from the other two facilities on JW’s campus—complete with showers and lockers to easily transition from a day of wellness to dinner on the rooftop Tesoro.
Treatments cater to bodies that have been in the sun. In addition to the arsenal of wellness technologies, aestheticians offer hydrating facials and body scrubs, using natural humectants such as coconut milk and honey. Massages combine therapies, such as cryotherapy and Gua Sha, to cool the skin while tightening it. After a treatment, guests sink into elevated mineral tubs overlooking the water or take to the adults-only pool, where they can take a breather between spin class and order a nutritious lunch from a curated menu or simply while the day away.
Courtesy JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort
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Tess Woods’ Garden Escape
In Bonita Springs, Shangri-La Springs is built around a natural mineral spring that has drawn visitors for more than a century. First, the water served as a medicinal resource for the Calusa tribe; then, settlers built a small hotel that went through several owners and iterations. Since the 1990s, it’s operated as a nature-centric health retreat. The spa sits behind the main building, surrounded by four acres of mature trees and a working organic garden maintained using no-till and permaculture practices.
Inside, the spa is modest in scale, with a Himalayan salt–infused sauna and an eucalyptus steam room, both available to guests with any service. The restraint, with nothing overbuilt or overprogrammed, is part of the draw. “They take a more holistic approach to their treatments,” our associate publisher Tess Woods, who often stops in for a massage or facial, says.
Courtesy Shangri-La Springs/Erik Kellar
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On the Menu Tess loves how the spa at Shangri-La Springs incorporates crystals into its treatments, like the Buddha Goddess Trio Enhancement. The facial add-on makes for a three- part experience, including a warm paraffin hand or foot wrap, a contour- firming crystal eye and lip treatment, and a décolletage and upper back exfoliation.
Massage therapists use essential oils and CBD-infused lotions, focused on circulation, grounding and skin nourishment rather than clinical and technology-driven results. “Our goal is to create a space where guests can slow down, reconnect and experience the restorative power of this historic setting,” spa manager Robert Placona says.
The connection between the land and treatment room comes through in services like the Voya Warm Muslin Bag Massage, which uses steamed bundles of orange, clove, ginger and seaweed, and the Yon-Ka facials, which draw on botanical extracts and plant serums. The Garden Springs Chair Massage takes guests into the foliage, where the nearby stream’s trickle replaces standard spa ambient music.
Tess describes the sensibility as “Old-Florida-meets- Eastern-retreat.” After her treatments, she enjoys walking the courtyards, where placards reveal historic facts and sculptures, such as the 1962 Indian Maid of the Springs at the entrance, giving the sense that you are somewhere that predates the commercial wellness industry now surrounding it. Garden tags identify key plant species, such as the mysore fig trees, whose tangled roots have become an emblem for the storied hotel.