How We Made It
We will be the first to admit it, this is not a bad project to work on. (Try explaining to your friends that you can’t meet up with them, you have to get a massage after work—for work.) Nonetheless, building the Vogue Global Spa Guide is a time-consuming process, in part because we create it based on real-life experience.
This version of the guide—our third annual edition—builds on what we have previously covered. But while the first and second versions pulled, in part, from our historical coverage, almost all of what you will now find in the guide was reported out within the past three years for the sole purpose of offering targeted insight for the guide.
As in previous years, more than one-third of what you will find in the guide is newly written—this includes the addition of 22 new spas. Some of those, like Canyon Ranch Tucson, are well-known places, with longstanding acclaim (and represented obvious gaps in our coverage). Others, like One&Only Moonlight Basin, are newly opened since we published the 2025 edition. The rest of the new writing reflects comprehensive updates, and first-person reporting, for spa write-ups that needed a bit of refresh. All of the write-ups were fact-checked—though if you visit one of these places and find anything mis-represented, please let us know!
Why We Made It
As the way we consume information about when and where and how we want to travel becomes increasingly aggregated, we want this guide to serve as a bulwark against the rush to the average. The places we are highlighting here are exceptional—and we know because we tried them. We’re firm believers in first-hand experience, and this guide is built from exactly that. Artificial intelligence, after all, will have a hard time expressing the precise feel of a massage, the aroma of a sauna, or the temperature of a tropical breeze.
This guide has evolved into something of a travel guide—highlighting destinations that focus on wellness, an objective that is increasingly motivating people to get on a plane or set out on a long drive. This focus on “destination wellness,” as in previous years, means that some of our local favorites have left the “top 100.” You may notice that a few of our city stalwarts have migrated off the 100 Best list onto some of our city lists. These beloved local institutions still rank high in our estimation.
Who Wrote It
The Vogue Global Spa Guide is edited by Chloe Schama, Florence O’Connor, and Liam Hess, with contributions from staff and freelancers with a specialty in wellness and travel. Read more about them here!
Read more from Vogue’s Global Spa Guide.