World > U.S. > Texas

Lake Austin Spa Resort

• World's Best Winner

COST: $$$$$

<p>Just outside Austin's city limits, the Lake Austin Spa Resort has 40 ranch-style guest rooms facing a sparkling lake where tame geese paddle between rowing sculls. Granite gravel crunches underfoot as you climb a garden path to the limestone-and-cedar LakeHouse Spa, the evocation of an oil baron's Hill Country retreat. Make that an oil baron with a New Age sensibility: the slate-blue barn shelters a lap pool instead of livestock. On a screened-in treatment porch, therapist April Day administers a mind-bending craniosacral massage, which is followed by an equally impressive Tajii Moxa (Chinese heat therapy) session. But all this doesn't mean Lake Austin has lost its twang. An exfoliating scrub uses locally grown pecans, and the hallways are draped with quilts by a blue ribbon winner at the Texas State Fair. Meals are alcohol-free.</p>

AS FEATURED IN...

From Travel + Leisure , APR 2005

Just outside Austin's city limits, the resort has 40 ranch-style guest rooms facing a sparkling lake where tame geese paddle between rowing sculls. Granite gravel crunches underfoot as I climb a pesticide-free garden path to the limestone-and-cedar LakeHouse Spa, which evokes an oil baron's Hill Country retreat....MORE>>

– Shane Mitchell Southern Comforts

Last updated April 2005