Daily housekeeping service is discontinued as a health and safety measure, but whatever you need is a phone call away and a member of the housekeeping staff can deliver it to your door. Each room is deep cleaned and sanitized prior to guest arrival and is outfitted with the resort’s private-label lavender amenities of bar soap, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. Guestrooms, recently renovated and presented in a calming light aqua, tan, and white color scheme are immaculate and spacious. Temperatures are taken daily at the front desk and color-coded wrist bands are issued daily to indicate the guest and employee has had his or her temperature checked and is normal, a requirement for any guest participating in an activity. All employees are masked indoors, and the same is required of guests. There are sanitizing stations located throughout the resort so anyone can take a squirt of sanitizer or a sanitizing wipe when and where they need one. Hand sanitizer is perched at the gate keypad so you can use it before and after you call the front desk to announce your arrival. Welcome Masks are required indoors at Lake Austin Spaįrom the moment you enter the gates, it is clear that management has put thought into the guest experience relative to keeping everyone safe. Its irreplaceable location on the banks of Lake Austin, the shade trees, landscaping, and thoughtful outdoor spaces, and its minimal public spaces make Lake Austin Spa especially suitable for guests during this time. Plus, the unique feature of the resort is its natural setting. The resort only has 40 rooms, each of them separate with no shared ventilation or air conditioning, and has limited occupancy during the pandemic. I reviewed the information on the website and felt safe with their approach. Lake Austin Spa Resort closed down March 21, during their busiest time of year, and reopened July 1 after developing and implementing comprehensive health and safety standards, protocol and training for employees including servers, housekeepers, spa technicians, massage therapists, fitness instructors, programming consultants such as chefs, musicians, mediation experts, and others who provide their services for LASR’s unique wellness-focused programs and activities. In three words, Lake Austin Spa is: Intentional, Peaceful, Restorative. I haven’t felt more present in any moments this year than when I was there, watching turtles pop up to the surface of the lake and birds glide from tree-to-tree. Paddling in the mornings while the water was still and the air was thick with dew required me to breathe deeply, thoughtfully. The composition of Lake Austin Spa and the programming it offers is intentional and healing. I’m very grateful to have been in such a beautiful, peaceful setting while I was processing this. While I was at the spa, I learned about the passing of another friend who died tragically and unexpectedly. As I was headed to Lake Austin Spa, I was grieving the loss of a friend who had just passed away after a battle with cancer. The thing that, during a pandemic, can be a contagion is the very same thing that revives and energizes us. Deer make surprise sightings, as do birds, butterflies and bumblebees. But now, determined to leave town, I connected with the resort and made the easy three-hour drive a few weeks later. The pandemic interrupted their media tour and my plans to visit. The perfect solution turned out to be Lake Austin Spa Resort, the 19-acre luxury wellness resort on the banks of the Colorado River in Austin.īack in early March, I had lunch with Mike McAdams, co-owner of the wellness retreat, who, with several key team members, was in Dallas to promote the resort’s recent $2 million renovation. With the country starting to reopen, I decided the time was right for a change of scenery that would not involve commercial transportation and would infuse money back into the local economy. Trips to Mexico and Florida were canceled, the holiday-less period until Labor Day loomed ahead bleakly. It was the second week of July and I felt like I had been sweltering in place for years. My first morning at Lake Austin Spa Resort was restorative. I focused on my breathing, uncontained by stress, unveiled, my breath a gift of life I took in the scent, a gift of the moment. The smell was a combination of rosemary, lavender, oregano, thyme, and renewal. The morning was peaceful, birds stretched their wings in the cooler air before heat drove them into thick tree cover, their tweets lyrical and apolitical.Īfter 45 minutes of cruising the Colorado River, I steered the yellow kayak toward the boat dock and inhaled deeply the scent from the nearby herb garden. The lake was still tranquil aside from ripples caused by occasional jumping fish and gentle swirls from the paddle blade. Song Pairing: The Breath You Take – George Strait Breathtaking in Austin: The Perfect Medicine
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