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Welcome to Vogue’s first-ever spa guide—a compendium of the 100 best spas worldwide, pulling from the expertise of our global editors. There is a lot out there in the world of wellness, and we are here to sort the cryo from the cold plunge, the infrared light treatment from the IV infusion. Or if your path is a more holistic one—there’s something for you here as well.
Why go here?
While the OG Midtown Four Seasons is known the world over for its iconic I.M. Pei design, its Lower Manhattan outpost, which opened in 2016, is home to one of the finest spas in the city. Let’s start with the showstopper: the 75-foot heated lap pool—one of the city’s largest—which is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows. The pool is perfectly heated at about 82 to 85 degrees, and the floor is set at a temperate 85 (meaning no teeth-chattering strides back to your towel). There are seven treatment rooms, a Peloton-packed fitness center, a steam room, infrared sauna, and a sundeck that overlooks Downtown Manhattan.
What’s the vibe?
The Four Seasons Downtown is the kind of place you’d expect Succession’s Shiv Roy to turn up. Stylish and discrete, the hotel is for those who live in quiet luxury (but who’d never utter such a phrase). The spa is just as refined—all white marble and dappled sunlight—with plush sitting rooms for whiling away the afternoon or taking over a business empire.
The history?
The Four Seasons Downtown, while a sister to the Midtown landmark, is anything but little: The skyscraper houses 157 private residences, as well as the hotel’s 189 rooms and suites. In fact, as wellness goes, the downtown outpost outshines the NYC original. Not only are there more treatment rooms, but the hotel also offers a more expansive and customizable wellness menu (including more self-care-style offerings, like crystal therapy and chakra clearing).
What should you try?
At the beginning of 2024, the Four Seasons Downtown introduced a high-tech offering into their treatment menu: the Medispa Facial. The souped-up device used in this treatment promises to deliver total rejuvenation through several non-invasive facial techniques—the results of a dermatologist’s syringe without the recovery, supposedly. This is just one of the medical-type treatments that the hotel is adding to the menu in response to their clients’ growing taste for cutting-edge skin care.
The Medispa Facial is also entirely customizable, which is a good thing for those with hypersensitive skin (like me). The Platinum Experience begins with a suction device (genuinely reminiscent of the thing used for teeth cleanings), which primes the skin and gently unclogs pores. This is followed by a tingling C02 mask (to encourage the skin to produce more oxygen), and then a buffing disc, which feels a bit like a light wood sander. Finally, the skin is vacuumed dry. (I imagined the water beading off my face as though I had just gone through a very tiny, albeit powerful, car wash.) Because my skin is usually fussy, my aesthetician changed course in the final act, using a cooling sheet mask on my face and then massaging my skin with two chilled metal orbs. “I’m known for going rogue,” she said. “I do what the skin tells me to do.” My skin, rosy and refreshed, had never looked better.
Who can go?
All the facilities on the main wellness floor—pool included—are open to hotel guests and those who book a spa service. The hotel also launched a membership program in 2020, Club27, for locals (or frequent visitors) who want more of a personalized wellness experience.
Booking details for Four Seasons New York Downtown
Address: 27 Barclay St, New York, NY 10007, United States
Read more from Vogue’s Global Spa Guide.
