Sometimes, when you’re planning a much-needed getaway, you have to make a tough choice. Should you search for a destination that offers the kind of great golf challenges you crave? Or should you focus on finding a resort that offers the full menu of spa experiences you need to enhance your wellbeing and peace of mind? Luckily, you don’t have to make that choice. Here are four luxury resorts to consider. They’re located in destinations as diverse as Mexico, California, Pennsylvania and Georgia—and each one offers the best of both worlds, great golf and an amazing spa.
Nemacolin
Farmington, Pennsylvania
Luxury resort – Nemacolin Woodlands – Photography by Evan Schiller
About an hour south of Pittsburgh, nestled in the Alleghany Mountains, is one of the great resorts in America. Featuring two fantastic golf courses—Mystic Rock and Shepherd’s Rock—Nemacolin is a suite of luxurious standards and surprises. The golf was the initial star of the resort with Mystic Rock, a Pete Dye-design hosting the PGA Tour’s 84 Lumber Classic in the mid-aughts for three years. Shepherd’s Rock opened in 2017 and both courses take advantage of the mountainous terrain. The more challenging shots on each course require uphill approaches and then offer downhill tee shots that sail high over the mountains and take advantage of long-range views.
The resort recently completed an extensive transformation that included upgrades to the 56 suites at The Grand Lodge and a redesign of the grand lobby featuring a stunning split staircase. Upgraded dining options include the opening of the highly anticipated Fawn & Fable, offering steakhouse fare prepared with locally-sourced ingredients and the resort’s famed Lautrec, which serves a sumptuous six-course tasting menu.
The Woodlands Spa is a blissful affair, featuring a variety of wellness offerings including massages, skin and body treatments and signature therapies such as the Five Elements Journey. The spa also offers a seasonal Golf Wellness Package designed to help players achieve optimum improvement. The resort’s Holistic Healing Center promises an innovative, personalized approach to life balance and integrated wellness.
Sensei Porcupine Creek
Rancho Mirage, California
Set within the foothills of the Santa Rosa Mountains near Palm Springs, California, Sensei Porcupine Creek is a desert oasis where wellbeing has been prioritized and it also includes an outstanding golf course. The resort is a former private estate and therefore its golf course sits on a tidy 75 acres and isn’t a sprawling affair. Unlike other resorts that try to maximize time and golfers on the course to increase revenue, at Sensei the tee times are well-spaced, so golfers never feel rushed. And, unlike other resorts, guests may play as singles, using golfing as a solitary chance to meditate and take in their natural surroundings. This is a reflection of how the resort prioritizes its guests’ well-being and seeks to help them find their center.
Another indication of this focus is the opportunity for guests to have one-on-one sessions in yoga, fitness, meditation and nutrition while visiting the resort. In some instances, they can even add biomarkers to their therapy to help them understand their heart rate variability (HRV) and find their VO2 Max, a measure of their lungs’ efficiency. Visitors to the spa can choose from a menu of relaxing massages, customized bodywork and rejuvenating facials. Sensei’s specialized treatments are novel and also worth trying, including thermal body mapping where a proprietary technology points out asymmetries and tight muscles and areas of pain. The resort’s lagoon-style pool offers guests an idyllic setting to escape the desert heat surrounded by the beautifully designed landscape.
Costa Palmas Golf Club
East Cape, Los Cabos, Mexico
The Costa Palmas Golf Club showcases a world-class championship golf course and offers desert, marina and ocean views amid dunescapes and fairways that unravel down hillsides. The course takes full advantage of incorporating the natural beauty of Baja’s East Cape and offers a pleasant, walkable 18-hole links-style coastal course. One of the best things about the course is that it offers golfers a chance to play a traditional 18 holes or to break them into shorter six-hole loops for faster play or if the ocean is calling. Costa Palmas is attached to the Four Seasons Resort Los Cabos at Costa Palmas, where its spa and private residences are also located. (An Aman resort and residences is currently under construction.)
For those who want a little more out of their spa experience, two deluxe spa suites, Agua Serena and Agua Dorada, offer the ultimate spa day with a loved one. Each spa suite includes an expansive indoor treatment room, outdoor relaxation space and private plunge pool. Before embarking on the spa, guests can set up appointments with the adventure team for an opportunity to commune with nature. Sailing, snorkeling and hiking are all there for their pleasure. For dining, Michelin-Starred Chef Ludo Lefebvre debuted Delphine this year, featuring laid-back but refined French cuisine. And Nancy Silverton’s Mozza Baja offers a Mexican East Cape take on her Italian fare. Costa Palmas also boasts Los Cabos’ only superyacht marina as well as luxury private villas, and for those seeking nightlife, there’s Chiki, a seductively psychedelic private nightclub designed by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio.
Cloudland at McLemore Resort
Rising Fawn, Georgia
Just outside Chattanooga, Tennessee, an oasis has been built in the sky. McLemore looms large on a plateau among the Smoky Mountains and features two golf courses in the air. The resort’s newest course, The Keep, weaves atop the mountain forest with gentle, flat land and 1.5 miles of clifftop edge, offering spectacular views of the surrounding mountain range. Another feature of the property is the five streams that converge into a single source, creating waterfalls along the way. Its older brother, the Highlands Course, offers similar mountain terrain, pushing up to cliffs’ edges on several holes, creating heart-pumping excitement for golfers tackling the course and featuring one of the most distinctive finishing holes in the Southeast.
And while golf is a key driver to the resort, the opening of the hotel makes a definite statement that their clientele extends beyond avid golfers. Its spa, named Selah, provides guests with an indoor retreat, as well. It offers a full menu of spa experiences, including massages, facials and body treatments. One example is the hydrotherapy lounge that offers thermotherapy, a three-step relaxation ritual that alternates between hot and cold temperatures followed by a period of rest. The treatment is designed to stimulate circulation, relieve pain, decrease stress and rejuvenate the body.
Sitting at 2,300 feet above sea level, McLemore is ready to establish itself as one of the more preeminent and unique luxury destinations in the South.
For more luxury resorts check out our Spa & Resorts section here!