The Best Spas in Chicago

Hours spent rushing from landmark to museum and trudging from shop to shop on Michigan Avenue can wear a visitor out. After you've seen the sights, book a treatment at one of Chicago's spas. The best ones are mostly in the big downtown hotels. Most of the spas on the 2010 version of this list have since closed, so this one has been rebuilt. Spas change their menus and prices often, so we've left prices out. Check each spa's own site when you book, and ask whether the pool, steam room or sauna comes with your treatment.

The big hotel spas

The Peninsula Chicago
The Peninsula, at 108 E. Superior St. just off the Magnificent Mile, has long been the top name on lists like this, and it still is. Its spa blends Asian and Ayurvedic ideas, and the half-day packages pair a signature massage with a facial. What sets it apart is what comes after, a half-Olympic-size indoor pool and a sun terrace, according to Time Out Chicago. If you want to make an afternoon of it, this is the one.

Chuan Spa at The Langham
Chuan Spa is on the fourth floor of The Langham, 330 N. Wabash Ave., in AMA Plaza, the last building Mies van der Rohe designed in Chicago. Its treatments take their lead from traditional Chinese medicine and are built around the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water. It's open 8am to 8pm daily, and the hotel has an indoor pool and a health club. If you drive, the spa validates parking, at $30 for up to four hours.

The Spa at Trump Chicago
The old version of this page said the locker rooms at the Spa at Trump International Hotel & Tower (401 N. Wabash Ave.) might be better than the treatments, and the facilities are still the selling point. The spa is on the 14th-floor mezzanine, with a 75-foot heated indoor pool, a eucalyptus steam room and a dry sauna, all open 6am to 10pm. There's no hot tub. Treatments run from 8am to 8pm and cover massage (prenatal included), wraps and scrubs, facials, couples packages and nails. Arrive 30 minutes early to use the facilities before your appointment.

Spa@theWit
Spa@theWit is on the fifth floor of theWit, a Hilton hotel at 201 N. State St., across from the Chicago Theatre. It's smaller and more casual than the Peninsula or the Langham, with massages, facials and nail services in a dim, quiet setting. The signature massage mixes Swedish and hot stone techniques. Afterward there's the Whisper Lounge, which Time Out says serves teas and truffles. It's closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and open 10am to 5pm the rest of the week. It's a good pick in the Loop, especially for a group, since it takes group bookings.

Leaf Spa at the Fairmont
The Fairmont's old mySpa is gone. Its replacement is Leaf Spa, at Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park (200 N. Columbus Dr.), which builds its treatments around nature and the seasons. The hotel also sells a $20 day pass to its B1-level fitness studio to non-guests, and that includes the locker rooms, a eucalyptus steam room and the relaxation lounge. It's a cheap way to get a steam downtown.

Also on the Gold Coast
Three more luxury hotels near the north end of the Magnificent Mile have full spas. Time Out lists a 50-foot indoor pool at the Four Seasons (120 E. Delaware Pl.), and a seventh-floor spa with a 25-yard lap pool at the Park Hyatt (800 N. Michigan Ave.), called NoMI Spa. The spa at the Waldorf Astoria (11 E. Walton St.) leans into the unusual, with a jet-lag body treatment and crystal meditation, and it has even offered tarot readings.

Something different

AIRE Ancient Baths
If you'd rather soak than be rubbed, go to AIRE Ancient Baths, 800 W. Superior St. in River West. It fills a restored 1902 factory, and at nearly 20,000 square feet, it's the biggest location of this Spanish chain. You move at your own pace through a series of thermal baths at different temperatures, and every massage and ritual includes the bath circuit. The one thing no other AIRE has is Palestra, a warm outdoor pool you swim into through a waterfall. Book ahead. It's a walk from the Chicago and Grand stops on the Blue Line.

Chicago Male Salon
The old version of this page listed two men-only spas. Halo for Men's website now belongs to someone else, but Chicago Male Salon is still at Halsted and Roscoe streets in Boystown. It's part barbershop and part spa, with haircuts and color, facials, peels and microdermabrasion, face and body waxing, lash lifts and a free skincare analysis.

What's gone

Several spas from the old list have closed. Galos Caves, the salt cave on Irving Park Road, is listed as closed, and its website is down. Bliss, which had its spa at the W Chicago Lakeshore, has closed its spas and now just sells skincare. Gone too are the websites for Thousand Waves, the Japanese-style women's spa, and Nail Bar, the BYOB manicure spot. Red Door's old spa site now just sends you to Elizabeth Arden's online shop. Hotel Felix, the eco-friendly River North hotel, is still open, but its website no longer mentions a spa.

If you're planning a group trip around a spa day, see our girls' weekend in Chicago guide. For more ways to unwind, try romantic things to do in Chicago, or work up to it with ways to work out in Chicago.

Photo by Diamondduste