North Carolina Spa Guide: The Best Spas in Asheville
Nestled amidst the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains, Asheville, North Carolina stands as a tranquil haven for wellness enthusiasts seeking rejuvenation and serenity. It is a city with a thriving spa culture, a blend of Southern charm and holistic well-being.
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Asheville is home to a diverse collection of spas from world-class resort spas to quaint boutiques to those providing unique atmospheres for social and solitary retreats. Visit these wellness centers to receive luxurious treatments inspired by the region's natural beauty, drawing upon local ingredients like mountain herbs and healing minerals.
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Whether immersed in the soothing embrace of nature-infused therapies or embracing innovative wellness practices, Asheville's spas invite visitors on a transformative journey. This guide unveils unique spa offerings, from meditation sessions in lush gardens to therapeutic massages in rustic, elegant settings.
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In Asheville, where the pace of life harmonizes with the rhythm of nature, you can find myriad locations that beckon you to unwind, rejuvenate, and discover the art of self-care in a city known for its enchanting landscapes and Southern hospitality.
Check out our North Carolina spa guide that features the best spas in Asheville. If you’re looking for the best deals on flights to Asheville, click here.
Adelaide Spa
27 Resort Drive, Asheville, NC 28806; (828) 575-2196
Tucked away inside the Asheville Racquet Club at the Crowne Plaza Resort in Asheville, Adelaide Spa has a variety of wellness facilities available to guests from group fitness classes to an aquatics center. The spa was named for the sister-in-law of the Confederate Colonel who led the Battle of Asheville in the Civil War. The family cemetery is located on the Crowne Plaza Resort property.
They provide free childcare with any spa service. Inside the spa, the facilities are designed to be tranquil and relaxing—a place where guests can book a world-class wellness experience through massage, body therapy, skin care, and peels. Services can be paid for with money or with hotel rewards points. Massages include relaxation, integrative, sports, hot stone, reflexology, and pre-and post-natal. Guests can also get a sinus relief treatment or assisted stretching therapies.
For those seeking a full-body experience that combines skin care with massage, the hydrating wrap with body polish involves a therapist wrapping the guest in luxurious linens, applying a body masque, then massaging the face, neck, shoulders, and feet while applying steamed towels and hot stones.
Appalachian Beer Spa and Massage Lounge
142 Airport Road K Arden, Asheville, NC 28704; (828) 230-1441
North Carolina’s first Appalachian Beer Spa, Appalachian Beer Spa & Massage Lounge offers a chance to both drink and soak in beer or wine. They welcome individuals, couples, and even parties of four to 20 people. It’s a different vibe than what a traditional spa offers. It has an almost rustic feel where you can escape for stress relief in either a social or solitary environment. Beer and wine are woven into many of their services either as an ingredient or a beverage.
While they offer several traditional therapeutic massages and organic skincare facials, they also customize their offerings to specific needs. Since they are five minutes away from the airport, they offer airport layover stress relief massages. They have Hoppy Hour Reflexology foot soaks where you soak your feet in hop-infused waters while drinking your choice of craft beverages from beer, wine, cider or Appalachian mountain brews.
For the non-drinkers, there are also sodas, juices, teas, and other drinks. If you’re looking for more than a foot soak, you can melt into their tubs and take a beer soak, a wine soak, or a hemp and hops CBD soak. Many of their packages include one of their massages, facials, a soak, sauna, and a half hour in their sauna lounge. For those who prefer not to be touched but still need relief, they can take advantage of the zero-gravity lounge massage chairs.
Beauty Bin Day Spa
117 Sweeten Creek Road, Asheville, NC 28803; (828) 417-9915
Beauty Bin wants people to leave feeling beautiful inside and out. They promise that they “know that being yourself is the most beautiful thing you can be,” and that their goal is to help everyone feel comfortable in their own skin, to achieve confidence, and display an outer beauty that matches their inner beauty.
Founded by Asheville native Courtney Maybin in her home after she graduated from esthetician school in 2018, she soon launched a spa focused on inclusivity, where people of all races can get services ranging from lashes to nails to skin to body all in one place.
Beauty Bin provides services from head to toe and everywhere in between, even providing vajacials and V-steams for those concerned about ingrown hairs or dark spots between the legs. They offer a variety of mud wraps, scrubs, and lymphatic drainage treatments on various areas of the body. Clients can get traditional or hydrafacials as well as peels. Other services include makeup instruction, microblading, and waxing.
Blue Lotus Ayurveda
12 Elk Mountain Road, Asheville, NC 28804; (828) 713-4266
Blue Lotus Ayurveda is a wellness retreat offering individualized Ayurvedic healthcare and therapies. They also offer Panchakarma, a cleansing and rejuvenating program. From day-long retreats to single services, they seek to help guests restore harmony and balance in their lives while pursuing natural health options. Founded by Vishnu Dass, his herbalism book is also available at the center.
Taking a holistic approach, the clinic and spa offers health consultations (both in person and remote), individualized herbal treatments and therapies, counseling, Ayurvedic therapies, massage, and weight management programs. They’ll do astrology readings and offer private meditation sessions. There is lodging available for those who sign up for the 3-day Ayurvedic getaway retreats or their Panchakarma retreats, which can last anywhere from a single day to a full week.
Poseidon Spa at Grand Bohemian Hotel Asheville
11 Boston Way, Asheville, NC 28803; (82) 398-5540
At the Grand Bohemian Hotel Asheville, Poseidon Spa wants to help you discover the art of relaxation through water-related rituals that tap into healing and wellness. Located in Biltmore Village, the spa launches guests on a journey of bliss. A boutique spa, they are one of the luxurious and relaxing experiences the hotel extends to its guests, alongside their art gallery.
While they offer many enhancements, add-ons, and seasonal specialties, their base menu offers only a single massage and two facials. The reason? They don’t want you picking services from a list. Instead, they will completely customize the massage or their two facials (“Custom Facial” and “Premium Custom Facial”).
Massage styles include reflexology, deep tissue, prenatal, Swedish, neuromuscular, stretching, and anything else the therapist is an expert in. Facials are based on each individual’s skincare needs and include cleansing, toning, exfoliation, deep-pore cleansing extractions, and a custom hydrating max.
Recline and Unwind Social Spa
20 S. Pack Square, Asheville, NC 28801; (828) 348-7650
Heidi and Kelly wanted to create a different sport of spa. The two friends have a combined 25 years of experience working in all sorts of settings from resorts to clinics to day spas. Their experience taught them that even though everyone needs wellness, not everyone can afford spa services and they are too often looked upon as a splurge or luxury.
So, they created a more accessible spa, one where people can make self-care an affordable habit. They did this by shortening the spa experience and lowering the prices. Based on studies that showed a person needs only 10 minutes of massage to start experiencing its benefits, they created focused 15-minute sessions and then added a social element where people could connect with others at the spa.
Each experience costs $30 for 15 minutes and guests can mix and match as many services as they want. Guests can select a focus on heads, shoulders, feet, hands, or feet. They can add optional upgrades such as aromatherapy, scrubs, masks, or eye gels. Then each guest gets to pick a drink from local beer, wine, champagne, natural sodas, and more.
Recognizing that childcare costs can be a barrier to spa services, RU Social Spa offers spa experiences to children ages 3 to 11 while the adults are getting their services. Spa parties are available for groups of 5 to 12—including a Kid’s Care Jamboree where party participants get to make their own salt blend for a foot soak.
Sauna House
230 Short Coxe Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801; (828) 505-6393
Hot. Cold. Relax. That’s the plan that the Sauna House wants you to follow to tap into hundreds of health benefits and to get the most of the therapies and services that they offer. It’s a chance to do a technology detox as you’ll have to leave your phones and other devices behind when you enter their bathhouse and choose between either public or private services. Their hot and cold therapies are based on ancient traditions that have been growing in popularity over the past few years.
Their most popular service is a two-hour visit to the bathhouse (bathing suits required) where you start with a shower and then move between the wet aspen wood sauna, the dry cedar sauna, the cold shower/ice plunge, and the lounging deck with its stone-cast heated furniture. Between circuits, you can partake of water, tea, kombucha, sparkling beverages, and electrolyte mixes.
They’ve also built private hot-cold-relax rooms where guests can program their own audio and chromotherapy lighting. The relax part of the circuit includes sitting before red light therapy panels. For those seeking a gentler heat experience, they can book a 45-minute stay in an infrared sauna cabin. They are a facility committed to being good for the planet and those in it, which is why they are living wage-certified and work hard to eliminate unnecessary waste, use clean ingredients, and practice composting.
Sensibilities Day Spa
The Hilton at Biltmore Park 43, Town Square Blvd., Asheville, NC 28803; (828) 687-8760
Asheville’s longest running day spa, Sensibilities Day Spa can be found at Hilton Asheville Biltmore Park. Founded in 1999, they offer a full menu of luxury spa services and experiences. They marry beauty and wellness services using Eminence Organic Skin Care products to provide natural nail care, rejuvenating body treatments, and many types of therapeutic massage.
In addition to helping bolster the wellness of their clients, they also seek out ways to create a healthier community and environment. Their products are eco-friendly and free of harmful chemicals. Nail products are vegan, while massage lotions and skin care lines are organic. They also participate in a sustainability program that has helped them to plant more than 22,774 trees. They are also living wage-certified and frequently donate in-kind services to the community.
Their body treatments include scrubs, body masks, and hydrating moisturizing treatments using such ingredients as horse chestnuts, stone crop, rosehip oil, turmeric, gooseberry, and organic botanicals. Massage modalities include integrative, deep tissue with heat, hot stone, maternity, and scalp-hand-foot massages.
Facials are customized in many ways and some of their services include a European Facial, Age Corrective Facial, Marine Flower Peptide Facial, and an Eight Greens Balancing Facial. They also offer microdermabrasion and dermaplaning.
Shoji Spa
96 Avondale Heights, Asheville, NC 28803; (828) 299-0999
Roberta Jordan wanted to bring the best of Japan’s ancient ideas of health and wellness and hydrotherapy to Asheville. It led her to creating Shoji Spa & Retreat, a destination spa that brings a Japanese-style spa experience to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Pisgah National Forest. Just minutes from downtown Asheville, it provides traditional Japanese bathing and soaking, seasonal showers, and locally-sourced spa products. Guests can stay overnight at the House of Wind, House of Earth, or the owner’s retreat (a one-story house with three bedrooms).
Each guest is given a Japanese Yukata (a cotton robe) and sandals to wear while they visit their private hot tub overlooking the National Forest, a cedar sauna, and a double cold shower. Guests can soak in a salt hydrotherapy tub for 60 to 90 minutes and even order a tubside tea service that includes tea, honey, and Japanese tea crackers.
Massage offerings are labeled with such names as Zen, Okubukai, and Okasama. You can also spend time in their massage pods, which are medical massage chairs designed by doctors that scan your body and then position the rollers to provide you with a customized massage.
They have several packages arranged to provide specific wellness journeys. Most take guests through specific locations such as the House of Fire or the outdoor Treetop deck. Many include the Savasana Retreat, which includes a meditative relaxation on a warm gemstone far-infrared tables and tatami mats.
Spa at Biltmore Village
18 Brook Street, Suite 104, Asheville NC; (828) 277-2639
After experiencing the best spa treatments around the world, sisters Brooke Roberts and Cristy Patten decided to open a spa where fellow North Carolina residents could experience all their favorite treatments without having to leave the state. Spa at Biltmore Village is committed to green, sustainable practices and their boutique is filled with local products from jewelry to skin care.
The luxury spa offers up a selection of massages, body work, facials, nail care, and waxing. Some of their special offerings include a Monticelli Mud Wrap, the Tingly Tootsies Peppermint Pedicure, a Tension Tamer Massage, and a Glo Flower Facial.
They’ve put together some deluxe packages for those who want to spend the day at the spa either by themselves or with a loved one in their romantic couples room. Most of their packages include local organic chocolate truffles and champagne while a few include a gourmet lunch.
Spatheology
53 College Street, Asheville, NC 28801; (828) 255-4171
Spatheology was a second career for a Los Angeles pop star and songwriter who found respite in the world of spa while on tour with a girl group. After opening more than 25 luxury hotel spas and launching a skincare line, Privai, Christina Stratton created Spatheology as a sanctuary where guests can tap into luxurious spa treatments and personalized skincare solutions.
Their website explains that “Spatheology is an urban oasis dedicated to creating your ultimate spa experience. With locally-inspired treatment offerings, Spatheology brings the spirit of wellness through the healing and therapeutic touch of our talented therapists.”
Their spa offerings include massage, body services, facials, waxing, nails, and wellness soaks. Facials use Stratton’s Privai skincare as well as such local ingredients as honey from Asheville Bee Charmer. Privai body butter can also be included as an enhancement to any massage. Spatheology also offers curated packages for brides, men, moms-to-be, and couples.
Still Point Wellness
946 Tunnel Road, Asheville, NC 28805; (828) 348-5372
Sometimes what the body, mind, and spirit needs is a chance to float in a saltwater tank where all the rest of the world will fade away. Still Point Wellness aims to provide that opportunity to the people of Asheville. It’s a place where you can float, take workshops, engage in somatic experiencing, take yoga or get a massage. They even offer massage programs for other therapists, 100-hour experiential learning classes designed to be transformational in the way they connect technique, intuition, and creativity.
Their therapists specialize in Esalen Massage, a technique created in California to provide deep relaxation while integrating the body, mind, and spirit. It involves long flowing strokes, a slow pace, and rocking the body to help promote relaxation. Somatic experiencing is a way to work through trauma that is stored in the body by relieving patterns of tension and stress. A session involves guided meditation that teaches the body how to hold emotions.
Guests can also add on an hour-long sauna experience in the spa’s infrared dry sauna suite. Guests are provided with robes and luxurious Turkish towels, and the opportunity to move between the sauna and a shower for those who make a hot and cold circuit. Afterward, they’ll provide a heated neck wrap, weighted blanket, and locally-sourced herbal tea so that guests can rest in the integration lounge, which features a saltwater aquarium.
The Spa at Omni Grove Park Inn
290 Macon Ave., Asheville, NC; (800) 438-5800
Recognized by Conde Nast as one of the top resort spas in North America, The Spa at Omni Grove Park Inn wants guests to find a serene retreat within their walls. Home to 20 water features including mineral-based pools and wellness pods, they are a subterranean spa with cavernous rock walls, arches and tunnels.
The 43,000-foot spa has two therapeutic waterfall pools and a lap pool covered in 6,500 fiber-optic stars and underwater music. There are private men’s and women’s inhalation rooms, saunas, eucalyptus-infused steam rooms, and three fireside lounges where guests can enjoy snacks and tea from the Spa Café.
The demand for their services has been so great that as of December 2023, spa services were available only to overnight guests of the hotel. It is a completely electronics-free environment. Those reserving a service or a spa day pass can use all of the spa facilities for an extended wellness journey. Facials combine skin care technology with classic European techniques including a HydraFacial.
Spa Profile: The Spa at Omni Grove Park Inn
Among their body treatments are anti-oxidant rich wraps, detoxifying clay masks and Vichy waterfall massages. In addition to traditional massage modalities, they offer a Arnica and hot towel massage and a Himalayan hot stone massage. Some additional special treatments include their wellness pods, the mind-sync wellness lounger, meditation, and aura imaging paired with chakra balancing. The wellness pod combines such elements as gemstone and vibrational therapy, infrared heat, mood-enhancing lights, and calming negative ions.
The mind-sync wellness lounger combines technology and ancient medicine in a zero-gravity lounger that uses vibro-acoustic sound waves and scientifically composed music designed to quiet and calm brain activity. There are several programs designed to reduce stress and anxiety, enhance restorative sleep, and calm brain activity.
The Salt Spa of Asheville
473 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC 28803; (828) 505-1838
Inside the walls of the Salt Spa of Asheville, guest can breathe more openly, pursuing wellness in the man-made salt cave that uses a dry salt Halogenerator. The founders were introduced to halotherapy in 2009, something that inspired them to create The Salt Spa of Asheville.
Ines was a physical therapist in Germany, trained in natural healing methods including hydro/Balneotherapy, light therapy, ultrasound, electrotherapy, and massage therapy. She was also trained in cranio-sacral therapy, manual therapy, and diverse neurophysiological methods not available in the U.S. Upon moving to the U.S., she, her husband, and son decided to open a spa that offered the only solidly scientifically-researched form of salt therapy: halotherapy.
Determined to create an environmentally-friendly space that was safe for people with chemical sensitivities, they did not use any glues, toxic or off-gassing substances in the spa, and the three of them applied all of the millions of salt crystals to the walls and floor by hand. In 2011, they opened and now offer both private services and public events.
Public events include singing bowl meditations, community salt therapy sessions, and small spa parties. There are two groupings of services. The first are offered in the Himalayan Salt Cave and include salt therapy sessions, individual and couple massages, chakra tune-ups, vibroacoustic therapy on a sound table, and hot salt stone massages. All sessions include aromatherapy. The second set of services are offered in the wellness salt room and include private massages, crystal energy cleansing, and a heated gemstone frequency mat.
Urban Exhale Massage Spa
68 N. Lexington Ave. Suite 207, Asheville, NC 28801 (828) 301-2113
Environment matters, which is why Urban Exhale Massage has created a sanctuary filled with rare tropical plants and fine art. The five-star destination spa defines itself as an urban oasis, one founded by Micah Haines. Each room creates a secret garden escape in which guests can experience bodywork and relaxation.
One of their rooms is the Garden Oasis treatment room, one designed for couples massages. It is a tropical retreat with flowing water, lush tropical plants, and colorful orchids. Their focus is on massage and they offer several different modalities.
Their signature massage is the Jade Orchid Massage where they use hot jade gemstones, hot towels, and essential oils for an integrative massage experience. They also offer Thai massage, prenatal massage, and an integrative sports massage. Any massage can add-on jade stones, hot towels or cupping as an enhancement.
Bonus Experience:
The Foundry Hotel Asheville has partnered with Urban Exhale Massage to provide massages to their guests. They also curate ongoing wellness experiences that include leaf peeping, local honey, luxury picnics, and interactive tours through Asheville’s original African-American business district and steel foundry.
Before the pandemic, they worked with Asheville Wellness Tours to curate wellness adventure itineraries that included whitewater rafting, sound healing, interactive botany lessons, wildflower bouquet making, Vinyasa flow atop the Blue Ridge mountains or sound healing in a salt cave.
[Photos courtesy of spas and resorts]
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Bridgette, who is a second-generation journalist, fell in love with spas and travel while working as a writer and editor for 16 years at the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. As a freelancer for the International SPA Association, she co-wrote two textbooks, nine workbooks, and numerous case studies on spas. Her freelance career began in the 80s and she has written for publications in Michigan, Arizona, California, and Texas along with several regional and national publications. She is a committed storyteller who loves sharing narratives which improve people's quality of life and build community. Born and raised in Michigan, she currently lives in Lansing with her husband and son. See more of her writing at bridgetteredman.com.