Ultimate VI Guide – Create a DIY Spa Vacation
A week of rejuvenation is within your grasp and in your budget. It takes a little more planning on the front end, but follow these easy steps and you can be a noodle of relaxation and tranquility for a fraction of the price of an all inclusive spa vacation.
Your Personal Spa Vacation
Imagine winning a Virgin Islands spa retreat!! Terrific, right? Seven days and six nights – unplugged, pampered, and served healthy, gourmet delicacies for breakfast, lunch and dinner… Can you just feel the stress melting away?
Problem is the tickets to the free spa vaycay are not in the mail and you can’t spare $500 a day for a spa getaway. Don’t despair! You can create your own retreat à la carte.
Here’s how:
Clear Your Calendar
Tell everyone (family, friends, and colleagues) that you’ll be unreachable for one week – let your phone battery run down, turn on your “out of the office” reply, and leave your computer at home. Most importantly, give yourself permission to drop everything. No guilt and no, “Oh shit, I forgot to…” The only thing on your agenda is self-care, healthy food, supportive friends, and a good book or two.
Create a Sanctuary
To create a Virgin Islands DIY spa vacation you will need a pristine, quiet, and beautiful environment among like-minded people. This will be your biggest expense, but the perfect space is necessary to melt your worries away!
Find a friend or three to split the cost of a room at an affordable eco-resort like Concordia Eco-Resort St. John or book on airbnb.com. Create a check-list for your perfect sanctuary. Look for a garden or beach environment, turn-down service, an outdoor patio or deck, and close proximity to a fitness/yoga studio or on-site wellness classes. (Concordia has two yoga classes per day in their yoga pavilion and they allow up to five people to share an eco-cabin.)
Do your research and book well, the wrong friends (no rum drinks please, or at least not too many), or uncomfortable accommodations will ruin the peace and quiet. Relaxation and health is the goal!
Hire a Personal Chef
Here’s the best travel tip ever!! Most caterers offer in-villa services and it’s not nearly as expensive as you think. Bonus, the USVI caterers are some of the best chefs in the Caribbean. You can get a week’s worth of wonderful prepared meals for as little as $200. Imagine how much you would pay to eat at restaurants twice a day for a week! Best thing, with drop-off service, your food comes to you. Stock the fridge with kombucha, dark chocolate, and gourmet snacks and let your private chef do the rest!
My favorite caterers are East West Catering, Lindsey Chabot, and Mathayom/St. John Caterers but there are many, many more! Most VI caterers have exceptional vegetarian and vegan options.
Two Treatments or Classes a Day
Success! You have the ideal space and companions for your spa vacation, but what about the spa treatments? First, create your schedule ahead of time and stick to it.
Buy a weeklong pass to a wellness studio of your choice or a package with your favorite teacher. The variety in the USVI is overwhelming – yoga, tai chi, kickboxing, pilates, and African dance. Really, there are too many to list. Commit to working out two times a day. Maybe even hire a personal trainer.
Set aside time for meditation, journaling, hiking or swimming at a secluded beach, heart-to-heart chats, and plenty of naps!! Buy some of the locally made bee’s wax candles, incense, and body treatments made with local nut oils, natural sea salts, and essential oils. Scrub, masque, and oil yourself on the beach or in your DIY sanctuary twice a day.
Lastly, splurge on at least one massage, mani-pedi, facial, or other body treatment. The Virgin Islands boasts some of the best body workers in the world. Again, in-villa/room treatments are not as expensive as you think and start below $100. Book everything ahead of time to eliminate the stress of calling around during your spa retreat.
There you go, a custom, all-inclusive spa vacation for under $150 per day. It takes some planning and willing friends but you won’t regret this gift to yourself. Enjoy!
Tags:caterer, massage, retreat, spa, yogaAbout the Author
Catherine Turner spends her time sailing, blogging on the beach from her MacBook Pro, and sipping coconut water from the nuts that plop into the sand next to her. Before tuning in and dropping out Catherine was a nightclub owner and a resort showgirl. A lifetime ago, she spent a decade chained to a desk as a computer programmer/data analyst. She loves to write, paint, snuggle, and to practice yoga. If she doesn’t answer her phone, she is probably in the middle of the ocean somewhere. Leave a message.
