Go Online to Search Near and Spa

How do you find a wellness spa? We offer a short list of facilities that will get you started and give you an idea of price variations and the variety of options. You can also find advertisements and feature stories in such magazines as Spa and Healthy Lifestyles & Spas. But for the most comprehensive and detailed information, go online.

* Spa Finder ( http://www.spafinders.com/) provides detailed descriptions and links to thousands of spas, including dozens of wellness spas worldwide. You can search the database with great precision, choosing, for example, only the type of spa you want -- medical/cosmetic, medical/wellness, kid-friendly, adult-only, etc. -- and you can ask to see only certain kinds of spas within a certain distance from your home. You can filter out spas that don't supply slippers, or filter in only those that provide certain treatments, from A to W (acne to Western herbal medicine).

* Spa-Addicts.com ( http://www.spa-addicts.com/) allows you to search by, among other things, "spa experience," meaning you check off the various services you want. Click "pre-natal massage therapy" and you'll get 46 options. The more health services you want, the fewer options you'll get. For example, if you want cancer or post-cancer treatment, plus arthritis and healing touch treatment and kinesiology, you get just three options: Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Mass., and Tucson and the Grand Hotel Terme Trieste & Victoria in Abano Terme, Italy.

* Spa magazine ( http://www.spamagazine.com/) also has a worldwide spa search function, as does Healthy Lifestyles & Spas ( http://www.healinglifestyles.com/).

* The International Spa Association ( http://www.experienceispa.com/) has a rather meager listing of medical spas, but a very handy "search for spa travel agent" function, for those who want expert advice and assistance in booking.

-- Cindy Loose