Travel + Leisure Names Rancho La Puerta World's Best Destination Spa

  • July 22, 2011
Travel + Leisure Names Rancho La Puerta World's Best Destination Spa
Destination spas are ranked based on readers' ratings in five categories: accommodations/ambience, treatments, service, food, and value.

The original fitness resort and spa, founded in 1940, Rancho La Puerta welcomes 100 to 125 guests each week to its 3,000 private acres of gardens, mountains and meadows. All facilities and land are for the exclusive use of guests, most of whom come for an entire week, ensuring the delights of getting to develop lasting friendships with other guests and staff. The climate is near-perfect; warm and dry, with some rain showers, in winter, and warm with very low humidity in summer – cleansed by an occasional mountain thunderstorm that lasts but an hour or two. Rancho La Puerta is located at the juncture of the Laguna and Sierra Juarez mountain ranges only about 25 miles from the Pacific Ocean at an elevation of 1,700 feet. Guests enjoy inclusive rates that cover all accommodations, fitness classes, gourmet organic meals, activities and special presentations. Spa treatments, personal training sessions, and cooking classes at the new culinary center, La Cocina Que Canta, are available at reasonable fees. The Ranch's approach to wellness strikes a mind, body and spirit balance. Outdoor activities in nature such as swimming and guided hikes are coupled with over 50 different classes each week in yoga, Pilates, tai chi, dance, and many other traditional strength, stamina, and flexibility disciplines.

The cuisine is lacto-ovo vegetarian with some seafood options and features an abundance of organic fruits and vegetables from the resort's own six-acre organic farm. Freshest-of-the-fresh seafood comes from the port of Ensenada, Baja California; brought in from a fishermen's market where the local boats come in daily, allowing Ranch chefs to prepare spectacular seafood meal options five times week. All meals offer both vegetarian and modified-vegetarian alternatives.

Week-long packages start at $2,985 per person for a double occupancy room, a price that includes accommodations, all meals, a wide array of fitness classes, use of all facilities, daily learning workshops and seminars, nightly entertainment, and complimentary scheduled transportation from San Diego airport, and the return.