In the past, these spa reviews focused on award winning, mostly full-service spas located outside of the United States. This review focuses on the Sanford House Inn and Spa which includes a hotel, restaurant and day spa in Arlington, Texas.

As with previous blog posts, you’ll get an overview of the Sanford House spa and its amenities plus find steps being taken at fibre: A Homespun Spa to enhance similar services offered in Silver Spring, Maryland.

For this review, I chose a facial treatment and a 60 minute massage followed by lunch served in the spa.

Getting There

• If you’re used to driving on Texan highways, the trip to Arlington from Dallas is pretty much a straight shot. For me, it was a harrowing experience. The fast moving traffic combined with winding exit ramps feeding into other raised lanes of traffic increased my need for a relaxing massage. Deep breaths.

• Thankfully, the Sanford House is a relatively, slower paced residential area. With lots of parking near the facilities and easy to navigate roads flanked with sidewalks.

• The Sanford House Inn & Spa is at least two separate buildings. The beautiful restaurant and lodging are across the street from the spa.

Reception

• I walked into the restaurant looking for the spa. The hostess cheerfully pointed out the spa across the street which has a traffic light to ease crossing the lanes. In the spa, the receptionist quickly pulled up my reservation and directed me to the locker room to change before my session. Locker room included showers, a nice touch.

• The Spa offers numerous hair services. While I was there, it seemed as if everyone had hair appointments and I was the sole massage client. For the massage sessions, you change into a robe and slippers. In the hair salon (separate area from the massage and facial treatment rooms), the clients wore their street clothes.

Facial

• I started with the facial treatment. Very comfortable and electronically adjustable platform for the service. The esthetician asked about my skin type and goals before proceeding with processes that aren’t offered at fibre (e.g., applying steam, using cleansers). [At fibre, we provide manual lymphatic drainage techniques for the face.]

• The facial felt very relaxing. Pretty sure I fell asleep during parts of it.

Massage

• The session started a few minutes after the facial ended; so , I had a head start on being relaxed. As with all sessions, the therapist makes a difference. The therapist did a great job addressing tension in neck and shoulder muscles as well as in my forearms.

If you’re considering this combination, I highly recommend getting your facial after the massage. The facial may help remove those tell-tell lines which usually appear after having your face pressed into a head rest for about 30 minutes.

Lunch

I ordered a vegetarian lunch. I received a salad with a bread pudding.

Eating in the well-lit hub of the spa area isn’t as fun as I thought it would be.

After seeing the restaurant on my arrival, I would have rather eaten at a table there instead of being in the center of the work area.

I felt sort of guilty sipping on tea while people worked around me or simply passed by.

If you’re unable to make it to the Sanford House Inn & Spa in Texas, you are welcome to schedule a massage, Reiki, manual lymphatic drainage or integrated reflexology session at fibre: A Homespun Spa in Silver Spring, Maryland.

If you missed them, please see earlier posts about European spas (e.g., Serenity in Portugal, Ritz Carlton in Vienna).

How this Visit Helped Enhance Services at fibre: A Homespun Spa

Clients will continue to have access to individually-wrapped snacks before and after a session in a private setting along with a carafe of water.

Tea will continue to be offered to clients receiving a Signature, Rejuvenating or Rebalancing session. Without direct access to a restaurant with a full kitchen, it will not be feasible to offer lunch after a session.

Many existing practices at fibre will continue (e.g., access to private lounge before and after session, complimentary foot bath, client-focused treatment, scheduled time begins when you get on the massage table). The scheduling process used at fibre ensures a private, quiet space for each client (e.g., only one client in the treatment or reception area at a time); thus, no need for separate locker rooms.

Many people travel to different states for specific events (e.g., concerts, sports, contests). The recent total solar eclipse across portions of North America (e.g., Cleveland, OH; Dallas, TX) highlighted the desire to travel for the in-person experience. After looking at the moon for several hours, I’m hoping some folks scheduled a massage to help relax neck and shoulder muscles.

As a thank you for reading this post, please use this code for a 15% discount at fibre: A Homespun Spa in Silver Spring, Maryland:

ECLIPSE

Code expires 30 May 2024.

*New clients, see the online scheduler for a code that never expires.