With most (not all, but most) things in life quality costs more. This principle applies to everything from handbags to hotels, and Grove Park Inn and Spa is no exception.

Grove park Inn, Credit-orbitz

It is not the kind of place where you can just pop over for a couple of hours. Grove Park strives to deliver an experience and your end of the bargain, as a customer, is to plan well and schedule in advance. It may be difficult to believe that a place tucked away in the mountains of North Carolina can be that popular, but it is. When the Obama’s visited North Carolina last year, they stayed at Grove Park, as did every American First Couple before them. It is that kind of place.

That said, I am a big fan of indulgent and vision-expanding experiences. So, I make a point to save up every year and go to Grove Park for a day or two at least twice a year. It is worth it.

While staying at the grand old place is a fabulous experience, visiting the spa is something more altogether.  After hiding the spa in the depths under the club floor for a few years, Grove Park administration made an executive (and very wise) decision to make it a separate space with its own style and identity, still easily accessible from the hotel but with the distinct feeling of being transported to another world.

I won’t err too much against truth when I say that Grove Park Spa is magic. …Specks of quartz and amethyst crystals embedded in rock walls and sparkling faintly as you walk by.  … Soothing, mind-calming and body-relaxing music. …The quiet lounge where you can sit and read or nap as long as you wish (well, or at least until closing at 9:30 p.m.) …
The underground pools and waterfalls. …The exceptional highly-qualified staff of manicurists, pedicurists, facialists and massage therapists who treat you like a cherished guest that you are. You can’t help but feel loved and cared for in that place.

The best time to go there is on a weekday – you are very likely to have the place almost exclusively to yourself. Even if you don’t schedule a treatment, for $80 you get a day pass with complete access to all facilities – the saunas (dry and wet), the pools (lap and mineral), the hot tubs (two inside, one outside), the outdoor grills, the snacks, and the beverages. During my last visit, I asked one of the spa attendants how she liked working there. “I love it,” she said, “How many places you know of, where people leave significantly happier than they arrived?” Point taken.

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For book and game reviews by Maria K. visit her YouTube channel Ms. Review Central.

Photography courtesy of Maria K.