Australia's Best Spas

Book excerpt: With hundreds of photographs, this spa guidebook presents the best quality spas in Australia--from Queensland's palm-fringed coast to Tasmania's wild mountain wilderness. Australia is blessed with a mind-boggling array of spas in a multitude of shapes, sizes, and locations.Even if it were possible to visit a different spa each month, it would take several years to experience the varied delights of every Australian spa. From just four spas in the late 1990s, there are now over 300, with a dozen more opening in 2005. Getting there is definitely part of the fun. Your journey to inspiring locations will take you through magnificent national parks, to sparkling oceans and sandy beaches, across breathtaking harbors, into glamorous cityscapes and remote landscapes rich in ancient wonders. A spa visit can be a spiritually euphoric experience. With all the laying of hands, cleansing and renewal, sensory stimulation and heightened awareness of our physical presence, the effect of submitting to treatments designed to deliver ultimate pleasure can be mind altering.