It was a warm, sunny and very breezy day in late March when I visited The Spa at ARIA in Las Vegas. Not the kind of day you might normally want to spend tucked away indoors at a cozy spa, but The Spa at ARIA had some nice surprises in store for me.  It seems that Las Vegas, once very much an indoor destination unless you were basking by the pool or walking along The Strip, has had a re-birth of sorts. And that rebirth means that hotels and spas are incorporating fabulous outdoor spaces in their design, and ARIA is no exception.

Conde Nast Traveler recently named ARIA to its Hot List Hotels for 2010. At 80,000 square feet with 62 treatment rooms, The Spa at ARIA remains one of the larger spas on the Las Vegas Strip. Fortunately, that size doesn't come with a loss of intimacy.  But first, you have to figure out how to get into the spa.  It's not that the signage in the massive ARIA complex isn't top notch at directing you to your destination – we found the spa lobby without any missteps.  We took the elevator to the spa level, and that's where things got really cool. To enter the women's spa area, you don't use a doorknob or door handle.  You simply wave your hand in front of the motion sensor and the door magically opens.  And that is just one of the fun surprises in store for you when you spend the day at The Spa at ARIA…..(continue reading Michele McIntyre's blog on the Examiner)