The Best Spa Hotels in Dallas, Texas

The Spa at the Crescent is a wellness whopper, with 22,000sqft (2,044sqm) of pampering pleasure, including 16 treatment rooms, separate men’s and women’s lounges and a couple’s suite. The Texas Spa Day is 150 minutes of indulgence, including a massage, manicure, pedicure and lunch. On a related note, check out the website for a fabulous spa etiquette page.

This place delivers pampering with pedigree – Cooper has been in the business of exercise, diet and nutrition for half a century. Contemporary client favorites include the 80-minute deep-tissue massage and the Swedish massage (same duration). It even offers a pregnancy and postpartum massage. Also, sign up for a visit with a dermatologist, who is on hand for laser treatments and skin-cancer screenings, among other services.

You’d better have a head for heights swimming at the Joule – the cantilevered outdoor infinity pool hangs over Main Street halfway up the building. With its art-stuffed rooms housed in a wedding cake of a neo-gothic 1920s skyscraper, the Joule is a brilliant example of what Downtown Dallas does best: a pitch-perfect combo of old and new. The lavish subterranean spa goes big on facials, in particular, those using vitamin-A-boosted Environ products. Also, expect diamond microdermabrasion, massages, negative pressure therapy and a special “Remodeling Face Machine,” which aims to lift facial tissue with instant results.

While it’s been going strong for more than a century, the Adolphus isn’t an old hat; instead, it’s a nipped-and-tucked icon with light-filled modern rooms above a wood-paneled lobby adorned with jewel-toned velvet chairs. It also has a rooftop pool surrounded by skyscrapers. The 5,000sqft (465sqm) spa uses cult US-made Red Flower products. If you have time and the budget, go for one of the themed “journeys,” among them the six-hour Japanese-inspired To Invigorate package, which takes you through an exfoliation, a wrap and a facial before a shiatsu-inspired massage.

If you believe wellness goes hand in hand with fitness, check into the Highland Dallas, with its Peloton bikes in the 24-hour fitness center. This hotel has a cabana-edged heated infinity pool outside and a spa inside. The latter offers reiki healing, cupping and acupuncture alongside the standard waxing, nails and massage roster you’d expect to find here, in swanky Highland Park, 4mi (6km) north of Downtown. Afterward, treat yourself to dinner at the on-site Knife Restaurant, a steakhouse from Top Chef contestant and four-time James Beard-nominee John Tesar.

Big, brash and bold – the W is Dallas in a nutshell. Whether you go for a Mega, Fabulous or Spectacular room, you’re in line for loudly patterned carpets, faux-snakeskin headboards, tiaras on cushions, clashing drapes and feature wallpapers – and that’s just upstairs. In public areas, chandeliers dangle above you while the sexy mood lighting envelops you, and – because everything’s bigger in Texas – the ceilings seem to rise a mile above you. As with all Ws, the hotel’s crowning glory is the 16th-floor WET pool deck – which, in this case, has an infinity pool overlooking the Dallas skyline and Downtown, just on the other side of the freeway.

What will draw you to the Four Seasons? So much. There are self-contained villas overlooking the 18-hole, par-70 golf course – complete with native plants and wildlife – should a regular (upper-crust) room not suffice. Then there’s the 25,000sqft (2,323sqm) pool – one of three – along with the real-sand beach in the kids’ area. The spa is a triumph, with massages focusing on adrenal fatigue and stress relief alongside the usual line-up. Expect, too, a regular seasonal menu, with the likes of gingerbread mani-pedis, and candy cane and champagne moisturizing treatments.