Pennsylvania Spa Guide: The Best Spas in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA. [Photo credit: Action Vance]
In a city filled with historic landmarks and vibrant neighborhoods, Philadelphia’s finest spas have created havens of tranquility, places to escape, and spend time focusing on beauty, wellness, and relaxation. Whether you’re seeking a rejuvenating massage to melt away the stresses of urban life or a luxurious facial for glowing skin, the city boasts a diverse array of wellness sanctuaries to cater to your every need.
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From sleek urban retreats to intimate boutique spas, Philadelphia offers an array of experiences to suit multiple preferences and budgets. Some spas even offer free meditation classes or complimentary skin consultations. Immerse yourself in serene surroundings and expert care as you embark on your journey of self-care and wellness.
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Read on to discover our top picks for the best spas in Philadelphia in our Pennsylvania spa guide. If you’re looking for the best deals on flights to Philadelphia, click here.
Body Restoration Spa
1611 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103; (215) 569-9599
Since 2002, Cara Solomon has been helping Philadelphians make self-care a priority through services offered at Body Restoration Spa, also known as Bodyrest. It’s a spa with five treatment rooms (including a couples suite) and a spa lounge where guests can indulge in healthy snacks while wearing one of the spa’s plush robes and slippers.
Services include massages, facials, cupping therapy, gua sha, waxing, brow and lash tinting, electrolysis, henna brows, and intimate brightening and anal bleaching. They offer a variety of massage modalities including Swedish, CBD, sports, deep tissue, prenatal, cupping, aromatherapy, and stone massages. They’ll teach couples how to give each other massages.
Add-ons include collagen socks and gloves, LED light therapy, dry brushing, and gua sha. Facial services incorporate a patented Oxfoliation treatment, ultrasound, lymphatic massage, aromatherapy, gua sha, masks, serums, steam, extraction, and essential oils.
They also host continuing education classes for massage therapists and estheticians that include facial cupping, reflexology, spa body treatments, foundations of cupping, and sports massage.
Eviama Life
109 S. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107; (215) 545-3344
Since 2002, Eviama Life has committed to being the region’s premiere eco-wellness spa, a green facility that helps guests tap into their body’s magic to heal themselves. They incorporate energy work, plant allies, crystals, colors, sound, and ancient tools and traditions to provide transformative care. Their commitment to operating in a sustainable manner has led them to create a tranquil space that draws from “heaven and earth, spirit and science, guided by compassion, intuition, and curiosity.”
Their services include massage and bodywork, organic facials and skin treatments, wraps and body treatments, waxing, and spiritual renewal. They offer massages targeted for women that includes prenatal, postpartum balancing, and menopausal massage. They also practice Arvigo techniques of Maya Abdominal Massage to help prevent painful menstruation, improve fertility, boost hormone health, and promote digestive, intestinal, and bladder health. It’s a massage that focuses on the uterus.
Many of their massages target specific areas of the body and health concerns such as those with repetitive stress disorders, body pain, headaches or anger issues. Skin care incorporates protocols from Dr. Hauschka including such things as aromas, biodynamic formulas, attention to the feet and hands, focused cleansing, extractions, lymph brushing, and masks.
Spiritual renewal services include guided meditation, Maya spiritual healing, crystal chakra harmonizing, Reiki, and Karuna Reiki.
Fabriq Spa
728 S. 4th Street, Philadelphia PA 19147; (215) 922-3235
A spa that is “cut from a different cloth,” Fabriq is a day spa, acupuncture, and wellness center found in Philadelphia’s Fabric Row, an urban retreat that is the creation of Acupuncturist Gabrielle Applebaum. It’s a place where antiques and art speak to the history and personality of the spa, and its staff and help to create a homey atmosphere.
They carefully research each product line with a goal of finding organic, cruelty-free, food-grade, and wildcrafted ingredients that can promote guest wellness. Rather than insist on each therapist fitting a protocol mold, they encourage each practitioner to provide unique treatments that take advantage of their expertise and experience.
Services include massage, facials, acupuncture, waxing, and lash and brow tinting. Massage treatments include bamboo massage, aromatherapy, hot stones, Swedish, deep tissue, shiatsu, craniosacral therapy, pre-natal, Thai, sports, and Spontaneous Muscle Release (SMRT).
Facials start with detailed skin consultations for both women and men. Variations include gua sha facials, purifying facials, healthy aging facials, organic facials, and peels. Acupuncture specialists work with guests to create a personalized treatment plan that might combine acupuncture with such things as moxibustion, gua sha, and cupping.
Formation Sauna + Wellness
305 Brown Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123; (267) 324-3193
The practitioners at Formation Sauna + Wellness have thought carefully about what spa means and the ways saunas can promote a communal wellness experience that leaves their guests feeling radiant. Founded by Sarah Hummel, their stated mission is: “We are a curated experience of relaxation seeking to provide a refuge for you to feel grounded, beautiful, and at home in your body.”
Based on centuries-old Nordic sauna traditions, they help their guests move between hot and cold temperatures to help naturally detoxify the body. It is a process, they explain, that helps a person detach from stress, communicate gently with the body, and elevate health and energy. Bathing suits are required for sauna services and guests can book a solo or a community session.
Private saunas are paired with a cold plunge and cold shower while community ones have cold shower only. Sessions last 90 minutes and you can add on an herbal foot soak, an immune-boosting elixir, a radiant glow facial treatment, and a popsicle or miracle water. Other services include massages, private meditation, full-body sound immersion, and self-care bodywork.
Green City Beauty
1036 Pine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107; (267) 908-4148
Green City Beauty wants people to shun waxing as a hair removal service and instead try their “naturally lush sugaring hair removal services,” services that have won city-wide awards. They are committed to encouraging balanced and healthy skin from the inside out.
Sugaring is their main service, a process that they point out dates back to ancient Egyptians. It is a gentle and long-lasting way to remove unwanted hair, especially from sensitive areas such as Brazilian, bikini, underarm, and eyebrows. Hair removal typically lasts four to six weeks and the process becomes less painful with time.
In addition to sugaring, they offer plant-based/vegan facials designed to be affordable and customized to each skin type and individual. Their signature facials include empowering, soothing, deep cleansing, sweet city, rejuvenating, and luminous.
Body treatments include back facials, body scrubs. and a bikini zone treatment. Wellness services include a head-to-toe holistic harmony ritual, gua sha, facial reflexology, and an herbal eye zone.
Joseph Anthony Retreat Spa and Salon at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel
1200 Market Street, 5th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107; (215) 231-7350
Known as the preferred spa and salon of both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Philadelphia Freedom, Joseph Anthony Retreat Spa and Salon is a family-owned business that has been in business since 2007. This luxury spa specializes in unique treatments that set them apart from the competition, services that delve deep into the spa tradition of water as a key element of health and wellness.
The facilities include a spa, salon, fitness center, and Turkish hammam. Located on the 5th floor of the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, their menu features advanced treatments and techniques. Anyone who reserves a treatment is invited to change into spa robes and sandals, enjoy a complimentary essential oil foot soak in the Zen transition suite, relax in the Brine Inhalation Room, and sip complimentary beverages. They can also take advantage of steam rooms and saunas in the locker room.
Spa Profile: Joseph Anthony Retreat Spa and Salon at Loews Philadelphia Hotel
Their four main treatment types include body treatments, Turkish bath, body massage, and facials. Full-body scrubs are performed on a heated massage table and they also provide soft pack floats which include full-body exfoliation, a wrap treatment, and a float on the soft-pack system while getting a scalp and facial massage. The Turkish bath is a retreat in an ornately tiled, heated room that incorporates vibrational therapy, light therapy, and steam under a Swarovski Crystal Sky.
Massages include Swedish, deep tissue, pre-natal, couples, bamboo, and hot stones. Specialty massages include lomi lomi, warm oil, reflexology, and CBD. Their facial menu incorporates modern, advanced therapies and ancient treatments. Estheticians will provide personal consultations and help guests choose from their signature facials, hydrafacials, peels, Cryo Gloss facials, or Glo2 facials.
Modrn Sanctuary
1420 Walnut Street, Suite 1212, Philadelphia, PA 19102; (215) 278-6824
Under the roof of Modrn Sanctuary, guests can seek out therapies to promote their wellness, beauty, and mental health. Owner Alexandra Janelli, who founded a similar facility in New York City, designed a wellness center that integrates traditional and alternative beauty, wellness, and healing therapies and treatments. Janelli is a hypnotherapist, life coach, and wellness entrepreneur.
The 1,200-square foot space blends modern aesthetics in its décor, seeking out sober colors and design elements that influence the subconscious with dark-textured crocodile walls, pops of gold, and original modern art. Wellness services include massages, medical-grade lymphatic drainage, infrared sauna, oxygen treatments, Reiki, Sensory7 crystal bed rebalancing, tarot, spiritual guidance, and somatic healing.
Beauty treatments include facials, microchanneling, cryoskin body contouring, and full-body LED. Mental health treatments include hypnosis, life and business coaching, holistic psychotherapy, and shadow work. The spa hosts a series of classes that include tarot reading, soul flow, and crystal readings.
For their facial treatments, the spa has partnered with Sabbatical Beauty, a woman-owned, local skincare brand. All facials include high frequency, gua sha with crystal tools, and light extractions as needed. Massage modalities include Thai yoga stretch, Indian head massage, acupressure, deep tissue, Swedish, hot stone, cupping, manual lymphatic drainage, reflexology, chakra balancing crystal, and prenatal.
Nirvana Wellness Med Spa
925 N. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123; (267) 764-2835
Nirvana Wellness Med Spa takes high-tech medical treatments to help their guests feel their most radiant. As a health and wellness med spa, their goal is to help guests feel peace, calm, acceptance, and well-being. Born during the pandemic, founder Taralyn Freda wanted to help people with skin and nutritional care and to create a space where people could escape and focus on holistic wellness.
To help guests achieve this, they offer facials, laser treatments, medical injectables, massage, reiki, waxing, brow and lash services, integrative health coaching, makeup, microneedling, and hair removal. They have an extensive facial menu that includes microdermabrasion, microcurrents, microneedling, chemical peels, LED light therapy, dermaplaning, oxygen, oncology, back, Glo2Facials, masks, and eye treatments.
Massage customers can choose from Swedish, deep tissue, sports, hot stone, Reiki, cupping, CBD, prenatal, dry brushing, lymphatic drainage, and reflexology.
Remedy Spa & Wellness
1208 N. 29th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19121; (215) 678-2738
A wellness destination dedicated to self-care, Remedy Spa & Wellness defines itself as a results-drive spa that wants to help guests restore their body to its natural state. They identify as guides, not healers. The body itself is able to heal itself and they facilitate the process. Their staff is licensed and insured in each of their specialties and also trained and certified in CPR. They’re also willing to go on the road and bring their services to a guest’s home, office or venue.
Their services include skin care, massage therapy, stretch therapy, IV infusion therapy, acupuncture, waxing, and sauna. Facials are designed to balance and hydrate the skin while exfoliating dead skin and debris and providing tension relief to the more than 43 muscles in the face and neck. Their facials are called glow, detox, sculpt, resurface, gent, lift, purity, 02, and LED Light therapy.
Medical-grade services include peels and microneedling. Their IV infusion therapy offers immunity boosts, hangover healing, athletic performance boosts, and energizers. Massage options include Swedish, prenatal, CBD, hot stone, sports, and date night. Their meditation classes are offered free of charge.
Rescue Spa
1811 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103; 1 (866) 772-2766
Founded by Danuta Mieloch, this luxury spa owner has created spaces in Philadelphia and New York that help change people’s lives through skin care. The Philadelphia spa is a 9,700-square-foot oasis with 15 treatment rooms for facials, massage, and bodywork; a nail lounge, a hair salon, a brow room, and a beauty and makeup boutique.
Rescue Spa takes a personalized, integrative, and comprehensive approach to skin care and beauty with services delivered by highly-trained estheticians who analyze not just a guest’s skin, but also their lifestyle and how it affects their wellness.
Their business was built on “creating the perfect, most sought-after facials in the industry.” They are designed to be transformative treatments that cumulatively provide lasting changes. The facials feature cleansing, exfoliation, lifting massage, and treatment masks.
Body treatments include massages, scrubs, wraps, laser hair removal, and LED Body. Manicures and pedicures are formaldehyde and paraben-free. The spa offers free skin-care consultations over the phone that will help guests craft a skincare routine.
Richel d’Ambra Spa & Salon at The Ritz-Carlton
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Ten Avenue of the Arts, Third Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19102; (215) 523-8035
A luxury spa in The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia, Richel d’Ambra Spa + Salon has collected numerous awards recognizing it as one of the top spas in the city from such publications as Allure, USA Today and Philadelphia Magazine. Their stated philosophy is “Om Suasti Astu,” a Balinese blessing meaning “Peace in Your Heart and in the World”
Committed to an integrated approach to wellness, they invite guests on a journey of luxurious spa rituals from around the world. Their rituals and regimes are designed to help guests dwell in a place of beauty and tranquility.
They offer massage, facials, hydrafacials and salon services. Their couples massage incorporates Tibetan singing bowls to promote harmony and togetherness. Other massage services include chakra balancing and Reiki.
Their facial menu offers both specific solutions and signature treatments designed to combat the pollution and stress of city living. Their healthy aging facials focus on peels and LED light treatments. Their medical-grade hydrafacials use the Syndeo system that can track client progress over multiple treatments.
The Rittenhouse Spa & Club at The Rittenhouse Hotel
210 West Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA 19103; (215) 546-9000
The calm above the concrete, The Rittenhouse Spa & Club is a luxury wellness retreat whose services and rituals are designed to help guests unwind and achieve rejuvenation. Located in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Hotel, they offer a unique menu of services along with curated programs and partner spa events.
It’s a spa that is constantly creating new and unforgettable experiences that help to restore the body, mind, and spirit. The spa has 10 treatment rooms, a full-service salon, a state-of-the-art fitness center, a saltwater pool, a eucalyptus sauna, and a steam room.
Spa Profile: The Rittenhouse Spa & Club
Services are centered around three experiences: skin care, touch, and body. Skincare experiences include a signature chocolate and champagne facial, a customized facial, an advanced brightening facial, a Vitamin C facial, Hydrafacial, and men’s skin management.
Touch experiences include such massages as therapeutic, hot stone, recover, relaxation, and sleep. Their body experiences embrace modern trends to focus on rejuvenating skin with ingredient-conscious and natural products.
Sanctuary on 2nd
752 S. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147; (215) 922-5323
Sanctuary on 2nd is designed to be a respite from stress, a place to receive life-changing massages. The spa is located in a 150-year-old Victorian storefront that used to be a millinery shop. Their massage philosophy focuses on four everys: Every massage, every person, every time, and every therapist.
Every massage means that each massage is customized to the guest’s needs using a variety of styles. They keep an open schedule so that they can take time with guests before each service and not have to rush them out afterward and destroy the relaxed state they’ve just managed to create.
Every person is a philosophy that welcomes bodies of all varieties and commits to creating a massage experience that each person needs. They do not charge extra for aromatherapy, pregnancy or deep tissue massages.
Every time recognizes that body needs change and that approaches need to be different with each session. Every therapist guarantees that each person can provide the same high-level quality of massage. Everyone is licensed and certified and committed to continuing education.
Their massages can incorporate hot stones, warming wraps, foot scrubs, cupping and CBD. There are massages designed for both the under-12-year-old set and for seniors. Add-ons include face massage with mask, foot-focused treatments, paraffin dip, and mud therapy.
The Spa at Four Seasons Philadelphia at Comcast Center
One North 9th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103; (215) 419-5050
The first Philadelphia spa to earn the Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating, The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center builds on its unique location and strengths to provide individualized and unforgettable experiences. Set on the 57th floor of the hotel, it offers a view of the city from high in the clouds.
The space has more than 700 pounds of healing crystals built into the walls and their menu offers a range of signature experiences while their boutique offers local and bespoke gifts. The relaxation lounge features plush, anti-gravity chairs with a view of Philadelphia, and for hotel guests there is a 30,000-gallon infinity-edge pool. Locker rooms are fitted with a sauna, steam room, and ice fountain.
Spa Profile: The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center
Services include body treatments, massages, facials, energy healing, nail services, hair care, and fitness. The Night Spa experience gives a couple private access to the spa and pool while indulging in a massage and complimentary champagne and a bouquet of roses.
The Crystal Oil Massage is a full-body treatment that incorporates crystal-infused oils for stress relief and balancing. The Seasons of Chakra is a massage inspired by the seven chakras and incorporates seven different scents in a holistic approach that helps nourish the skin, decrease stress levels, and promote a positive mood.
The Underground Spa & Wellness Center at The Logan Hotel
One Logan Square, Philadelphia, PA 19103; (215) 405-2815
The Underground Spa & Wellness Center wants to be a tour guide on the journey to peace and renewal. Found at The Logan Hotel, they invite their guests to put their technology to sleep, give their brain a nap and bring their body back to sensory pleasures one breath at a time. It’s a place where thoughtful practices provide guests with a range of services from traditional to unique.
Skilled practitioners help guests unwind and choose among tailored treatments that are delivered with top-of-the-line products. Facilities include treatment rooms, an indoor, heated saltwater pool, a fitness center and wellness classes. A relaxation area features a Vitality Tea Bar while snacks from Urban Farmer can be enjoyed poolside.
Spa Profile: The Underground Spa & Wellness Center at The Logan Hotel
The spa welcomes guests to plan their events at their facility, and they host bridal parties, showers, private retreats, bachelor/bachelorette parties and girls’ days out. Amenities in the package include access to the pool, a Chill Vibes room, locker rooms, and the fitness center. They also offer memberships and corporate wellness packages.
Massages include relaxation, stress relief, hot towels, CBD, arnica, sports recovery, hot stone, pre-natal, and couples. Body treatments incorporate wraps, scrubs, foot therapy, wrist and hand relief, and hydrating, cleansing rituals.
Their skincare menu is designed to meet a number of needs with options including Doctor Babor Prescription Therapy Facial, lifting facials, Naturopathic facials, prenatal facials, acne clarifying, Vibrant-C, dermaplaning, hydrafacials and LED light treatments.
[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.