Spa Review: The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago Guides Guests Through a Seasonal Journey of Wellness
Four Seasons Hotel Chicago is known for its award-winning hospitality and experiences.
The Four Seasons Hotel Chicago recently underwent a major renovation, one that reimagined its iconic pool (it was used in the filming of “Home Alone”) and spa facilities. It also introduced treatments by 111Skin and Augustinus Bader to the Windy City.
Chicago Spa Guide: The Best Windy City Spas
I made a return visit to the spa a month after the renovation was completed—a renovation that installed a new 21-foot by 6-foot whirlpool and expanded the pool to 44 feet with a waterfall edge. They are now set up to provide poolside wellness treatments and chef-curated food and beverage offerings. They also transformed their spa menu.
Spa Profile: The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago
The spa manager suggested that I experience their new signature massage, an extraordinary service that elevates massage to a new level and fits in seamlessly with the thematic story told at Four Seasons properties around the world. Their 80-minute Signature Massage takes you through all four seasons in what they accurately call a “transformative journey.”
Here’s what you’ll love about The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago:
The services at The Spa at Four Seasons and the Fitness Center offer access to unbridled luxury. Whether it is the facial using fine diamond particles or the Night Spa experience where you and your partner have private access to the spa and receive services poolside with champagne and pastries, the Four Seasons Spa has curated opportunities for unforgettable memories and the ultimate in grandeur.
The staff treats each of their guests like a VIP from the moment they arrive at the spa, carefully attentive to any potential needs they might have.
Before and after a service, guests have access to the pool area where they can float, swim, or soak in the pool or hot tub. The relaxation room is a peaceful, quiet space with homemade lemon cookies (flecked with gold), apples, and their signature cucumber and strawberry-infused water.
My massage therapist Anna Marie was an experienced, seasoned professional.
If a chair massage is a hamburger and a table massage a steak, then the Signature Massage experience at Four Seasons Spa is a filet mignon. More than just a massage, it is a journey—a year’s worth of wellness packed into 80 minutes.
My massage therapist was Anna Marie, a very experienced, seasoned professional. We spent some time talking before the massage. She explained to me the journey she was about to guide me through and asked about my massage experiences and expectations.
Spa Review: The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago
More than just a business-like discussion, it was an opportunity to form a connection that would elevate the massage that was to come, one that paid dividends in her responsiveness to my physical and emotional needs.
She left the room and I undressed and sank into the wide, comfortable massage table. At my request, she had turned off the heat, and the crispness of the sheets were welcoming on a hot summer’s day.
My private treatment room.
The rooms had been redecorated since I was there last year. They were shades lighter with a brighter, cleaner feel to them. The wallpaper featured a butterfly motif which can be found throughout the spa.
The point of the Signature Massage is to take you through all of the four seasons with each distinct part of massage having a different form of service. It starts in autumn and works its way back around to summer.
Anna Marie started by having me take three deep breaths, a moment of intentionality that drew me into the experience and out of the rest of the world. She began rocking me and circled my body with her hands, a ritual that would be repeated at the beginning of each of the massage’s season.
The ritual began in autumn, a time when the trees shed their old leaves to prepare them for the new. This service imitates nature by performing an exfoliating technique, using full-body dry brushing that is simultaneously relaxing and invigorating—and yes, that is possible.
It started with me face down and then I turned over to finish the season. While there was more turning than usual in this service, it never felt disruptive; rather it felt like a transition that reinforced the cyclical nature of seasons.
A butterfly motif wallpaper can be seen throughout the spa.
Next up was my favorite season outside the spa and was very easily my favorite season in this treatment: winter. Four Seasons has built cryotherapy into the massage with the use of cold stones. Like hot stone massages, these icy stones are used both to glide over the skin and to press into the muscles.
Throughout the past two years I’ve experienced several different types of cryotherapy, but this was my first time with a cold stone massage and I loved it. It’s something I would cheerfully have incorporated into every massage I ever get in the future. I’ve been telling everyone who will listen to me about it because it was an incredible experience.
Four Seasons tells you they use it to soothe sore and inflamed muscles. That’s true. However, more than that, it awakened my senses. It chased away the heaviness I associate with heat and transported me to a place of lightness, of clarity, and of comfort. It surprised and delighted me.
While I was sad to pass out of winter, the melancholy did not tarry because the next part of the service invited me to participate in the joy of spring’s rebirth. This part of the massage focused on Swedish techniques and aromatherapy. Earthy and floral scents chased each other as Anna Marie lightly misted my body with the scented water.
I experienced the Signature Massage, which took me through each of the four seasons.
Then we arrived in the season that matched what was taking place outside the doors: summer. She began applying warm poultices, massaging them into my body. However, because she was already in tune with my needs and how much I delighted in the winter season, she offered to trade out the hot stones to give me more of the cold stone treatment. I couldn’t say yes fast enough.
It gave me the summer experience of walking into a deliciously air-conditioned room, a relief from oppressive heat, even if there was nothing so heavy in this treatment. But for a heat-sensitive person like me, the additional cold stone treatment was whipped cream on top of a delicious sundae.
It's also evidence of both the expertise of Anna Marie and the overall commitment that The Spa at Four Seasons has to customizing and personalizing services to the individual guest. It is also yet another reason why it is a spa that draws so many regulars.
The retail area is tucked away on the entrance to the spa, but I encourage you to duck in before you leave. They offer many ways to take the spa home with you. There have been few nights since I left that I haven’t used their lavender and eucalyptus pillow mist, a nightly aromatherapy ritual that not only helps me sleep, but reminds me of the restorative time I had at The Spa at Four Seasons.
It sends me off to dream of my next visit.
Cost: $370 for the Signature Massage (80 min).
Insider Tip: Give yourself time to drink plenty of the infused water and hang out in the aquatics area. Swim a few laps, soak in the hot tub, or just lounge beside the pool in the naturally lit Chicago oasis.
Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily for spa treatments, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. (pool hours), and 24 hours for the fitness center.
Address: 120 East Delaware Place, Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: 312-280-8800
For more information and to book a service, visit the website. Follow on Instagram: @fschicago. To book your next stay, click here.
[Photos by Bridgette Redman]
Bridgette Redman, 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 www.bridgetteredman.com