Soothed Without Getting Soaked

CUERNAVACA, Mexico — Does a week at a spa--say, Canyon Ranch or the Golden Door--sound good to you?

That's a rhetorical question. Who wouldn't want to get trimmed, toned, polished, pampered, deeply rested and generally improved at either of these high-end spas? But a seven-day program at Canyon Ranch in Arizona costs $3,830; it's $5,250 at the Golden Door outside San Diego. And even less sumptuous health and fitness resorts can set you back big time--about $2,800 for a week at moderately priced U.S. spas, and $1,700 at budget places (according to Spa-finders, a New York-based booking agency).

So maybe the question is, can you afford a week at a spa in any category?

Here's another question: How do you feel about Mexico, particularly the mountainous region around easygoing Cuernavaca, 50 miles south of the Mexican capital, where thermal springs gush and active volcanoes pump clouds of vapor into the sky? In this geological hot spot, favored by Moctezuma I, Hernan Cortes and stressed modern Mexicans, spas abound, from luxurious health and fitness retreats like Mision del Sol, to moderately priced resorts with spa facilities like the Hotel Hacienda Cocoyoc, to rock-bottom budget spas like the one in Ixtapan de la Sal. In all three price categories, rates are much lower than in the U.S. (None of the three was damaged in the earthquake that struck Mexico on Sept. 30.)

For instance, the seven-day Venus Reductive package at top-of-the-line Mision del Sol, a walled adobe compound on the outskirts of Cuernavaca, costs $1,798, which covers accommodations, meals, tax, exercise classes and 13 treatments. The seven-day Revitalizing Week at Hotel Hacienda Cocoyoc, in a historic sugar plantation 20 miles east of town, goes for $995. This includes accommodations, meals, 15 spa treatments, airport transfers and a sightseeing tour; it doesn't include a fitness program, which is why I put Cocoyoc in the moderate category. And at the old Hotel Spa Ixtapan de la Sal, west of Cuernavaca, the seven-day Spa Classic package could take your breath away: accommodations, meals, exercise classes, three golf or tennis clinics, horseback riding, six massages, six facials, a luffa scrub and mud treatment, four hair and nail treatments, a manicure/pedicure and one hairstyling for $1,075. (All rates above are per person based on double occupancy.)