The Best Spa Hotels in Philadelphia

In Philadelphia for a crucial business meeting or two? Need to look and feel the part? Worry not – the Rittenhouse Hotel Spa & Club has your back (and face, and shoulders). Go for the 1000 Roses Facial, which uses Bulgarian petals to pep up your tired complexion. Everything practised at this spa in Philadelphia – from the first-step aroma therapy to the deep exfoliation – succeeds in bringing you harmony and relaxation. And when you’re ready to step out, this hotel is right in the centre of it all: Rittenhouse Square.

Set in a former neoclassical bank, this spa hotel in Philadelphia itself is a feel-good experience, all lofty ceilings and swathes of marble. And the chakra-aligning Richel D’Ambra Spa & Salon here takes you higher. It specialises in centuries-old East Asian treatments. For a unique journey try the Tibetan-singing-bowls massage using body butter and aromatherapy oil: the bowls are placed on strategic parts of your body to release tension, and are a resounding triumph among guests.

Step into this Renaissance Revival building and breathe in the grandeur, from the Tiffany boutique to the chandeliered restaurant and spacious bedrooms. This luxury spa in Philadelpia is lovely to inhale, too, with its menu of fragrant massages. You’ll also have access to the premier Sporting Club; with steam rooms, saunas, an 82ft (25m) indoor pool, racquetball and squash courts, and much more.

The Underground Spa & Wellness is very much at home in this welcoming hotel. Its team of fantastic, silky-fingered practitioners are renowned for signature soporific treatments such as a scalp massage with Moroccan oils. While you’re here, try a shea-butter wrap, which moisturises skin while sloughing off dead cells. Factor in a relaxing swim in the club’s indoor pool.

20mi (31km) north-west of the city, the Valley Forge Casino Resort is a conference and banqueting hotspot. If one-to-one meetings, or too many celebrations, have left you limp and lacking in energy, the massage menu is your oyster. Hot stone, maternity, couples, therapeutic… Try them all over a weekend if you win first thing at the casino.

Atop the Comcast Technology Center, Philadelphia’s tallest building, the Four Seasons is a stunner of a spa hotel in Philadelphia, looking down over other skyscrapers. The spa is right up there among the city’s best – be sure to Instagram those vertiginous views. With its smooth-edge good looks, it’s a temple to serenity, hugely popular for an aromatherapy full-body deep massage that will leave you feeling energetic and rejuvenated; you’ll be walking around Philadelphia on a cloud.

On the historic Main Line, less than half-an-hour north-west of central Philadelphia, you’ll find The Radnor spa hotel, which does brisk business in weddings and private events. Hence the busy booking desk at the Essent Spa – popular with locals as well as guests. If you have always wanted laser body sculpting, you’ve come to the right place; say hello to a whole new you.

A three-minute walk from Reading Terminal Market and its local produce, Loews Hotel is in an impressive central location, with the shops of the Fashion District shopping mall close by. Weary consumers, having struggled back with their bags, know just where to head: to the Joseph Anthony Retreat Spa and Salon, with its Turkish Bath treatment, in a tiled, heated space.