I am a spa hound. I've been to Miraval, Canyon Ranch, the Lodge at Skylonda, the Inn at Spanish Bay and Casa Palmero. I decided to try this spa because I wanted to get away from my San Francisco digs and because this spa was ranked as the #2 spa last year by SpaFinder. My conclusion: whoever did the judging had never been to a spa!

The good: the robes, the slippers (they are yours to keep), the room is well-appointed, they have DVDs you can watch at night, the hot chocolate, the room's shower, the indoor swimming pool

The bad: they don't tell you that the airport transfer is not included and requires paying the driver directly (it's $90, not $75 as listed on the website); the massages were terrible - apparently deep tissue means run your fingers over a body part without pressure in Texas, even when I asked for more firm pressure, I got nothing even close to what I can get at my local massage places in San Francisco; same thing with the facial - just ordinary and really over-priced; the meals - not a lot of vegan options and while I do like cheese, everything had cheese and the dessert did not have calorie counts; in addition, this is just not the place for a 35 year old woman who is in shape - the classes were super easy/not challenging and the hikes were basically walks - it was particularly disappointing to see that I was more in shape than most of the fitness staff

If weight loss or even weight maintenance is your goal this is NOT your place. If you want a nice hotel room in a nice setting (though the hotel is NOT situated on the open part of the Lake so it looks more like a river - note to anyone who still wants to go after this review: don't pay more for the supposed Lake view rooms - all the rooms are in one line and this supposed view is really no different than the other rooms - save your money!) then by all means go stay at this place. But a true destination spa experience this is not.

It's really a hotel with a few services added on that were really not that great. Another perspective - the same guy who led me through a stress relief class also read my Tarot cards!