For mother’s day my daughter booked us spa appointments. I had the privilege of going to the Spa at Pinehurst twice with my previous job and once with my sister when she was visiting, but I was excited to share the experience with my daughter.
The spa is located at the historic Carolina Hotel in the Village of Pinehurst and is often booked by guests of the hotel during their golf vacations.
My favorite thing about the spa is that you have full use of their amenities for the whole day of your spa treatment, so if you only book one treatment you can still maximize your relaxation for the whole day. That was my daughter and I’s plan and it was amazing.
Our treatment was at 10 am so we headed to the resort and arrived at the hotel around 9:30. Our first step was the coffeeshop in the lobby and we both got chai tea lattes with almond milk. We walked down the beautifully landscaped brick pathway from the hotel lobby to the spa to get checked in.
The receptionist was so friendly and professional and explained how the spa worked and even suggested we try the water massage table because we did not have any massages scheduled for the two of us, I didn’t even know that they had that option. She directed us to the woman’s locker room and upon entering we were asked for our shoe size and given black sandals to wear.
The locker room has changing rooms, restrooms and showers and is fully stocked with lotions, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, anything you could need. You are given an individual locker with a passcode and a heavy, comfortable, high-quality robe to wear for the day. Through the locker room is the best part-the ladies waiting area.
I couldn’t wait for my daughter to see this area as it is so relaxing and my favorite part of the spa day experience. The room is set up like an octagon and has wicker chaise lounges with comfortable pillows on top. There is a hot tub, a sauna, and a steam room. There is also a spa menu where you can get a face or eye treatment while you relax. This room is also stocked with fruit and beverages.
You are asked to wait in the swimming pool area for your appointment so my daughter and I left the serenity of the ladies waiting room and waited for our treatment. We still had our teas so we sipped on those while we reclined on the chaise lounges and read magazines while waiting to be called. We had booked a 50 minute pedicure.
We each got to pick a shade of polish and we were directed to our spa chairs. I loved the fact that the pool of water for your feet was retractable so you could easily enter the chair without having to maneuver around the water. The water temperature was perfect and they also gave me a lavender pillow to place around my neck during the pedicure. We were asked if we wanted anything to drink and I got the fruit smoothie that I knew was coming with our spa day. Every time I have visited in the past it was a mango smoothie, so I was excited to find out this time they had raspberry and tropical. I opted for raspberry and it was perfect.
The pedicure was lovely and included an exfoliating scrub, a massage, hot towels and plenty of relaxation. Once our toes were painted we headed to the drying area and waiting for 10 minutes for the polish to set.
We were done with our booked treatment by 10:50 and had the rest of the day to utilize the spa and we looked forward to the challenge. We headed to the locker room and changed into our robes and headed for the woman’s private waiting room. Our first stop was the steam room. We had the room all to ourselves and we steamed for 15 minutes, my daughter kept strict timing rules for our spa day. After the steam room we went and showered and entered the lap pool. It was cool and we opted instead for the hot tub. I don’t like bubbles in my hot tub and we had the tub to ourselves so no bubbles-I was excited. We stayed for our 15 minutes and then we headed to the pool. We enjoyed our time in the lap pool going from side to side and talking about the future. The pool goes from 3 feet of depth to 4 feet of depth, which was great for my small body, I have difficulties in pools that have 4’8″ depth and I am uncomfortable in that situation, so this pool was perfect. At the end of the pool there is an area with trail mixes if you are hungry. We decided to get in the sauna next to dry our swimsuits and head for lunch. We did have to share the sauna but it seemed larger on the inside than on the outside so it wasn’t too bad.
The Spa at Pinehurst has the option to order lunch in, in case you don’t want to leave the premises but we love the food at the resort. We usually at eat at the Deuce in the Pinehurst Country Club so we wanted to do something different. We chose to eat at the Carolina Vista Lounge in the Carolina Hotel. This location replaced the beloved Ryder Cup Lounge. The day was a beautiful sunny 70 degree day so we opted to dine outside. We split the burger and the chicken sliders. The dessert menu really appealed to my daughter, specifically the bread pudding and the inside out brownie, but the menu stated desserts were 5-10pm. We made plans to come back another day to get dessert but were pleasantly surprised that you could order desserts during lunch time. The toffee bread pudding was the best bread pudding I have had in Moore County and I am already looking forward to our next one.
After lunch the plan was to read while we rested our stomachs. We headed back to the ladies waiting room and read on the lounge chairs. We both took naps due to being so relaxed and then headed back to the hot tub. We also went back to the steam room and finished our day with the sauna. As we changed back into our street clothes the spa gave us a bag for our wet swim suits. We stayed at the spa from 9:30am-5pm, and we were so relaxed.
We did check out the water massage table, but it was only for one person and was timed and we wanted to spend the day together so we passed on the water table massage. It was hard to leave the tranquility of the spa and head to the real world, but it was an amazing blessing to be able to spend the day together and I highly recommend this as a mother/daughter day to anyone interested.
