Lake Austin Spa Resort marks 20th year with new treatments, activities

The Lake Austin Spa Resort is celebrating a big anniversary this year and, as if fans needed a reason to visit, the destination spa is giving them 20.

The 40-room resort, overlooking the picturesque hillside lake, is offering 20 new amenities at its LakeHouse Spa to celebrate its 20th anniversary — all tailored to and inspired by the property’s beautiful setting. It also has added more programming and retooled its lineup of guest instructors.

Inside the 25,000-square-foot LakeHouse Spa, visitors can enjoy new services like a Weekend Warrior (an 80-minute massage with stretching, designed for athletes, $230) or Neroli Blossom Sensory Massage (50 minutes, $175; 80 minutes, $230). The latter uses essential oil to reduce tension and promotes better breathing.

Leaving no massage stone unturned, Eastern therapies are also offered, including Energy Balance with Healing Sound (50 minutes, $155), which features Tibetan singing bowls used to promote “vibrational healing.” The Star of India (100 minutes, $350) is an Ayurvedic treatment that begins with warm oil streaming over the forehead and then massaged into one’s scalp and neck, followed by a full-body Dosha balancing massage.

For more spiritual reawakening, the new Floating Meditation (50 minutes, $155) positions patrons for relaxation on a floating mat in the temperature-controlled Pool Barn.

Well-known chefs regularly stop at Lake Austin Spa Resort for talks, and demonstrations — and not just for typical “spa food.” One recent guest instructor was Los Angeles chef Valerie Gordon, a Food Network regular and guest judge of “Top Chef: Just Desserts.” (A few bites of her strawberry-rhubarb creation seemingly dismantled the good work one did, say, on a three-mile River View Hike. But it was worth it.)

Other chefs cooking in the kitchen this year include Chicagoan Danny Grant (Maple & Ash restaurant, April 10) and husband-and-wife tandem Nick Roberts and Brooke Williamson (May 19-20). Williamson’s name might ring a bell with “Top Chef” fans — she just won Season 14.

The resort offers so many daily activities that guests inevitably run into scheduling conflicts. If you miss a cooking demo, you won’t go hungry. Resort chef Stephane Beauchamp has created delightful menus that incorporate the fresh produce grown in the resort’s garden.

A daily salad bar features pickles brined from the vegetable garden. Luscious microgreens get piled atop a crispy flatbread pizza from the lunch menu. Nightly specials include filet mignon with roasted potatoes and excellent sauteed bay scallops.

But make sure to save some room to move.

On the water, “LakeFit” exercise offerings this year include new bikelike Hobie leg-powered stand-up boards. Resort personnel say it was the first U.S. property to receive the core-building, leg-strengthening apparatus, which also allows participants more than a spot of cardio.

Also new: A water taxi whisks guests directly to the property from downtown Austin, about a 25-mile trip.

For those interested in condensing a visit into one day, a special $650 package includes the water-taxi trip, a glass of prosecco upon arrival, a floating meditation session, 50-minute facial, 50-minute body treatment, lunch at the spa’s Aster Cafe and then a car transfer back to reality — er, downtown Austin.

This story was originally published March 21, 2017 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Lake Austin Spa Resort marks 20th year with new treatments, activities."