One of the most exciting things I did in Las Vegas was pay a visit to Qua Baths & Spa inside Caesars Palace. Jess & I spent a few hours there on our last day in Vegas, & it was the perfect wind-down to a wonderful holiday.

(In the interests of full disclosure, my visit & treatments were provided to me gratis. Thanks, Michelle! However, my thoughts & opinions are mine alone.)

I consider myself a bit of an expert on the spa experience. I have indulged myself in Wellington & Auckland, Sydney & Melbourne, New York & Las Vegas, & I know a thing or two. Yes, I judge a spa by the softness of its robes & the products in its locker room. I am well-versed in massage. I know a good facial from a hack job. So it is from this basis of knowledge that I can tell you, with some authority, that Qua is an excellent spa. I really enjoyed my time there.

I was thrilled to discover that Qua’s focus is on relaxation, not on flashy opulence. This is Las Vegas, after all — if they had a gold-plated spa bath & masseuses wearing togas, I wouldn’t have been surprised. Thankfully, when you’re inside, you could be in any city in the world. It’s a wonderful escape from the slightly ridiculous pace of the Strip, & the constant over-stimulation of miles & miles of chromatic, hallucinatory carpet.

As you walk down the hallway, the unabating “KA-CHING!” of slot machines fades into the background & gives away to the sound of a waterfall. But it’s not some cheesy spa soundtrack — the hallway actually features multiple waterfalls. Water trickles down the walls & rain falls softly onto statues. It’s fabulous.

So, what’s on offer? They’ll scrub you down with coconut crème, indulge you in a Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage, wrap your body in essential oils. They do Shiatsu & have Thai floral foot baths. You can have your chakras balanced or get your dreams interpreted. They’ll spoil you with a chai tea mud wrap & rinse you down with a customised Vichy shower experience. You can float in a lotus flower bath or bliss out in a session of reflexology. There is even a Tea Sommelier, who will match a tea to your treatment. Basically, they have everything you can think of, & more.

Listen to this.

The Qua Mystic Journey: To begin, you will enjoy a pearlescent body gommage with pure virgin coconut oil, lotus flower and imported Bora Bora sand. Warm towels remove your gommage leaving a silky glow to your skin. A fine, warm French mud is applied softly, then you are layered with warm towels and wrapped in a blanket to maximize your experience. An essential oil facial to relive fatigue coupled with a mini scalp treatment combining deep sea blue algae and essential oils, will help send you into your own relaxing sensory stimulating journey.

Just reading about it is relaxing.

So what did I get into? I had their Signature Hourglass Treatment. It’s really the best of everything. You choose a few treatments which appeal to you, & they employ a bit of multi-tasking magic so that you can experience them all within an hour. I chose Raindrop Therapy, Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage & a mini-facial.

I can hardly even tell you about it. The treatments blended together in beautiful synchronicity & when the time was up, I could barely speak.

A fun thing about Qua is that in addition to your treatment, you’re also able to explore the facilities for the rest of the day. Jess & I made great use of this, going from pool to pool, hopping in & out of herbal steam rooms & drinking lots of water.

In the picture above, you can see a couple of the baths. This room is fantastically appointed. There’s a cold dipping pool (Frigidarium), a perfectly warm spa (Tepidarium) & a bubbling hot pool (the Caldarium). All the pools are enriched with minerals to restore essential elements to your skin. The shower you see in the middle is the temperature of an ideal shower, & the loungers are made of stone, & heated from the inside. They’re amazing to lie on & warm your muscles — especially if you’ve been doing a lot of walking, as we had!

Okay, okay, I’m not done. I saved the best until last. What you see in the picture above is the Arctic Ice Room. Yes! You heard me.

The Arctic Ice Room was one of my favourite facilities. It’s utterly unique. The room is kept at a cool 55°F (12°C) & is decorated in deep blues & luminous white. It’s the perfect place to go after a long session in the sauna or spa. This idea is fantastic on its own, but the best thing? FLAKES OF SNOW MADE OF BODY LOTION FLUTTER FROM THE CEILING. When I first heard that, I could hardly wrap my brain around it — but as you can see from the photo, it is true & IT IS AMAZING!

Hello, whoever designed this is a genius.

I don’t know that I need to say any more than that. Qua Baths & Spa are fantastic, we had an incredible time & I recommend it really, really highly. The whole place is immaculate, the staff are charming & knowledgeable, & the treatments are radical & unique. It doesn’t get much better than that.