Spas around the world stand out for many reasons. There’s a floating one with views of the Northern Lights in Sweden, a 127-year-old one in Italy, and a Swiss property with healing water on tap. But there’s a new spa catching some buzz for its rather unique location: the Amazon jungle.
NUA, ‘Cielo’ in the language of the Ese’Eja culture, is the most recent in Inkaterra's spa collection. Built on stilts at the entrance of the Inkaterra Hacienda Concepción Lodge, the spa rises in front of the banks of the Madre de Dios River deep in the Amazon. In fact, the only way to reach it is by taking a 25-minute canoe ride down river from the town of Puerto Maldonado.
“Its location within the Inkaterra Hacienda Concepción Lodge, offering elevated views of the surrounding Madre de Dios River and Amazon Rainforest, allows a unique and enriching experience among the sounds of the forest, away from city noises,” Claire André de Cerf of Inkaterra Hotels told Departures. “It also makes it an ideal spot to observe breathtaking surrounding views at sunset or sunrise while enjoying a treatment with natural extracts of local plants”.
Of course, being located in the heart of one of the most bio-diverse spots in the world, NUA uses products that are 100% natural, derived from local botanical extracts, and offer unique local treatments. The bamboo treatment, for example, uses different bamboo rods applied in varying pressures across the body to stimulate the skin and muscles. And cocoa fruits from the hotel’s cocoa plantation are used to exfoliate the skin before a massage with white chocolate milk.
“Nua Spa is a holistic Amazon spa concept, which combines the classic idea of a spa with exotic ingredients from the tropical rainforest, to achieve a sensory mystical Experience,” added André de Cerf.
The rest of the hotel is equally enchanting with 25 private cabanas also perched on stilts scattered throughout the property. Aside from spa services, guests can also participate in a number of activities—hiking, boating, night rainforest walks—led by local guides who are experts in the Peruvian Amazon.
