From top The Ace’s pool area, viewed at dawn the following morning: a spectacular setting at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains. The Laughing Yogi beamed in from LA to offer blessings for the Feel Good Spa. The entry to the gym, easily located by its colourful bar patterns on the windows. The compact gym at the Palm Springs Ace has all the right machines.
The Feel Good Spa at Palm Springs’ Ace Hotel & Swim Club celebrated its official opening with a poolside gathering under the full moon. To the rhythmic beat of a pagan drum circle, belly dancers sashayed about, as guests tucked into a light buffet. The Ace offered free massages (ask for Marianne K, who definitely knows her pressure points), gym and spa open house, product samples, and featured an impassioned blessing from LA’s Laughing Yogi who beamed in to act as pandit for the night. The compact gym has all the right machines and is open 24 hours. The spa consists of several warmly furnished treatment rooms and three yurts, free-standing tents for mud, mani–pedi and groovy lounging. It’s a warm, accessible spa where you’ll feel pampered and blissed out, and then get back to the business of enjoying the wacky, irreverent atmo of this totally hip hostelry.—Stanley Moss, Travel Editor