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Welcome to the second iteration of Vogue’s global spa guide, an index of the 100 best spas in the world, built from the expertise of our global editors and trusted contributors. There is a lot to choose from in the world of wellness, and no matter how far you’re planning to travel—from a subway ride to a trans-Atlantic flight—we want to make sure it’s worth the journey. Whatever your path, let us be your guide.
Why go here?
At Bardessono Hotel and Spa, the spa comes to you. It pioneered Napa Valley’s spa-suite concept, bringing tailored spa experiences to the privacy of guests’ own rooms. Each spacious suite, with tucked-away massage tables, was thoughtfully designed to evoke your own personal spa sanctuary. All your preferences can be easily catered to, from room temperature to the amount of light to soft music via the virtual surround speaker system.
Bardessono boasts some serious environmental bona fides (see more detail below), and its spa program likewise relies on both sustainable products and natural ingredients grown in the property’s on-site certified-organic garden. It also offers oxygen therapy from UK skin-care guru Linda Meredith, of whom Gwyneth Paltrow and Victoria Beckham are fans.
Those crucial tender moments following the spa experience are also carefully cultivated. “It’s important to maintain the state of relaxation post-treatment,” notes spa director Maritsa Victorian. At Bardessono, there’s no padding back from the spa to your room in a chilly robe or sharing a relaxation room with chatty selfie snappers. Instead, each suite offers the choice of a cozy gas fireplace or a serene cloistered outdoor space for post-treatment lounging.
Some rooms also have private outdoor showers, but all have shower-steam rooms and oversized bathtubs. At your service is a bath butler, who will arrange a custom bath infused with relaxing salts and bubbles and surround the tub with fresh flowers and lit candles for post-treatment relaxation.
What’s the vibe?
Sophisticated and modern, but not over the top. Call it quiet luxury, emphasis on quiet, with a warm, light color palette and decor accents made of salvaged wood and rusted steel (representing the colors found in wine). Dotted with 100-year-old olive trees, it feels like Tuscany through a California-ranch lens. You won’t find people posing for ’grams all over the place, although this may reflect its pre-Instagram interiors. (The 65 guestrooms recently underwent a refresh.) Instead, the priorities at this secluded hideaway are privacy and tranquility. A mark of the overall high standards: In 2024, Bardessono was awarded 2 Michelin Keys by the Michelin Guide.
The history?
The hotel and spa, which opened in 2009, are infused with the spirit of the Bardessono family, Italian immigrants who arrived in the Bay Area in 1926 and built a homestead and farm on the site. Today, only the property’s five acres belong to the Bardessonos. Family portraits hang in the reception area, which also includes architectural elements with stone from the family’s wine cellar.
What should you try?
The spa’s wildly popular oxygen-therapy facial made my skin look flat-out amazing. Similar to treatments used successfully on burn survivors, it involves medical-grade oxygen applied to the face with a device similar to an airbrush. You, like me, may at first find the sensation of someone blowing gently all over your face unnerving, but I’ve never seen such immediate results (and they only improve on subsequent days). In the AromaSculpt treatment, a bamboo stick is rolled across your limbs (à la a baker—you’re the, um, dough) to invigorate the body and control the appearance of cellulite. They assure you’ll leave the treatment noticeably more toned, but I was so relaxed that I forgot to check.
Victorian also recommends the Garden Harvest Wrap, an 80-minute offering that starts with a body brushing, body mask, and wrap, and ends with a massage featuring seasonal fresh herbs sourced directly from Bardessono’s garden. The spa director hails it as “a refreshing and detoxifying experience” that leaves the skin moisturized.
How environmentally friendly is it?
Shortly after opening, Bardessono was touted as America’s greenest luxury hotel. It soon became California’s first LEED Platinum–certified hotel and only the third hotel in the world to attain that highest standard for environmental design. Today, it’s still one of only a few such hotels in the country, and it remains committed to a holistic, deep-green approach to sustainability, including geothermal heating, solar-panel-covered roofs, and water recycling. The spa’s carefully selected products are all organic and include smart packaging from companies based locally and regionally.
What else do we need to know?
Bardessono’s spa leans into what makes Napa Valley’s wine country so unique. A “bath and bubbles” treatment combines a bubble bath with select Napa Valley sparkling wine. The seasonal is also celebrated: During mustard season, when the yellow flower blankets the vineyard rows between January and March to protect and replenish the soil, the spa spotlights baths and treatments with mustard-seed oil, packed with soothing and restorative nutrients, as well as the vanilla-ish scent of its blooms.
Who can go?
The full spa menu is available to guests and non-guests alike (the intimate spa area has four treatment rooms), but some bath treatments are provided only in guest rooms.
Booking details for Bardessono Hotel and Spa
Address: 6526 Yount St, Yountville, CA 94599, United States
Read more from Vogue’s Global Spa Guide.
