Great getaways: spas and retreats help calm both body and soul - Traveling Fare

Vegetarian Times, May, 1996 by Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin

Everyone needs to get away from time to time. Whether you need a break from work, a haven from hassles on the homefront, or simply a quiet spot where you can re-evaluate your day-to-day life, it helps to have a place to escape.

Vegetarian spas and retreats fit this bill. They range from spartan spiritual retreats that offer simple accommodations, family-style meals and few or no extra services to elegant fitness spas with gourmet meals, aerobics classes, massages, facials and a host of other services. Prices also vary dramatically, from as little as $25 a day to $500 or more.

Breitenbush Hot Springs and Retreat, located in the heart of Oregon's Willamette National Forest, is a good example of the spartag variety. Guests leave their cars in the lot and use a gurney to transport their luggage down a winding, bumpy path to a small, one-room cottage, some of which include bathrooms. It's a glorious location, featuring old-growth trees, the rushing Breitenbush River and natural hot springs. Meals are served buffet-style in the lodge, and tend to be ethnic, simple, hearty and delicious. Aside from soaking in the hot springs, guests can attend yoga classes, arrange for massages and herbal wraps, or just wander the paths along the river and through the woods: It's rustic, much like camping without having to pitch your tent or cook your own meals.

By contrast, when guests arrive at the Heartland Spa in Gilman, M., their luggage is taken for them to their lodgings: small, comfortable bedrooms in an old farm house. Clothing for the weekend is provided--T-shirts, shorts, sweatpants and sweatshirts--guests need minimal baggage and return with little laundry. The day is jam-packed with classes and lectures. You can start the day with a before-breakfast walk, have a generous portion of a healthful peach coffee cake for breakfast, then choose between high-impact and low-impact aerobics classes, aquacize, yoga, marital arts, race-walking, working out in the high-tech weight room, or simply hanging out and reading a book or napping between meals. Guests are made to feel comfortable doing as much or as little as they like. There are also a full range of massages available, from Swedish and shiatsu to foot reflexology and craniosacral therapy. And every desire--including my constant request for more calories at every meal--is cheerfully fulfilled.

The following list should give you a good idea of what each retreat and spa is like, but be sure to write or call for more information-including transportation advice--and current prices. Also, even though all of these. getaways are vegetarian, many have fish available. Be sure to make your specific dietary needs dear. Bring your walking shoes, but leave your worries at home. These are truly places for getting body and soul together.