F2 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, APRIL 3 , 2022
Editor: N icole Arthur • Deputy Editor: Elizabeth Chang • Art Director: T alia Trackim • Photo Editor: M onique Woo • Staff Writer: A ndrea Sachs
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TRAVELThis sign was spotted by Susanna Bunzel-Harris of Takoma Park en route
to Burg Drachenfels (Dragon’s Rock Castle) near Bonn, Germany. Have you
seen an amusing sign in your travels? We want to feature your photo in this
space!
Here’s what to do: Email your high-resolution JPEG images to [email protected] with
“Sign Language” in the subject line. Please include your name, place of residence, sign
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section. Photos become property of The Washington Post, which may edit, publish, distribute
or republish them in any form. No purchase necessary.SUSANNA BUNZEL-HARRISSIGN LANGUAGEwater hot tub at SunWater Spa.
The waters aren’t the only
reminders of Colorado Springs’
tuberculosis past. Another is the
octagonal wooden huts scattered
throughout the town. Originally
part of sanitariums, they were
where tuberculosis patients
would be confined to not further
spread the disease. After the
invention of antibiotics, those
structures, though obsolete,
didn’t disappear; they were in-
stead repurposed. Today, you’ll
find them throughout town as
snack bars, sheds, artist studios
and playhouses for children.
Similarly, one of those tuber-
culosis-era health-care centers
was eventually repurposed as the
U.S. Olympic & Paralympic
Training Center.
William Jackson Palmer,
founder of Colorado Springs, be-
lieved in the healing power of
nature and invested much of his
own wealth in developing parks
and trails for locals. According to
Visit Colorado Springs, there are
about 8,000 acres of parks and
130 miles of trails.
“Today, that’s one of the things
that Colorado Springs is known
for: an extraordinary park sys-
tem,” Mayberry said. “On week-
ends, there are thousands of
people out on our trails seeking
health. It’s just in a different way
than they were in the 1870s.”
Though places such as the
Strata spa and SunWater Spa
were new to Colorado Springs in
recent years, there’s one spa that
has seen the city through much
of its wellness transformation —
and has changed with it.
When the Broadmoor opened
in 1918, it caused a stir for myriad
reasons. For one, the owner,
Spencer Penrose, was known to
have kept a retired circus el-
ephant named Tessie as a golf
caddie. For another, it was one of
the first spas in the country to
offer dedicated spaces for both
men and women.According to Krista Heinicke,
public relations manager at the
Broadmoor, the facility “was con-
sidered advanced for its time.”
Guests would take the service
elevator to the spa area, where
Turkish-style shampoos and
showers or a tonic bath cost
$1.50 (roughly $25 today). Alter-
natively, a half-hour massage set
patrons back a mere dollar, and
an oil rub with a salt glow was 50
cents.
Today, the five-star spa has
expanded to more than 40,0 00
square feet with 36 treatment
rooms where guests can indulge
in an extensive menu of massag-
es, peels, facials, body wraps,
hair and nail treatments, and
more. Additional amenities in-
clude steam rooms, saunas, mul-
tiple pools, a whirlpool and oxy-
gen rooms, which are essential
for out-of-towners unaccus-
tomed to the thin air in a city
with a more than 6,000-foot
elevation.
A few months ago, I found
myself wrapped in an oversize
robe in the Broadmoor Spa
lounge after a day of personal
wellness endeavors. That morn-
ing, I’d completed the Manitou
Incline, a humbler of a hike that
gains more than 2,000 feet of
elevation in less than a mile, and
just moments before, I’d finished
an hour-long deep-tissue mas-
sage that unraveled years-old
knots and left me feeling relaxed.
As I sat there, staring out the
window at the postcard-perfect
mountains and sipping herbal
tea, I thought about my own
recent move to Colorado Springs.
I didn’t necessarily move here for
wellness, like the city’s original
transplants, but, given more days
like that, it may very well be the
reason I stay.Berg is a writer based in Colorado
Springs. Find her on Twitter
(@baileybergs) and Instagram
(@byebaileyberg).BY BAILEY BERGAs a travel writer, if my eyelids
grow heavy during a workday, it’s
usually due to having taken a
red-eye flight the night before.
But, on a recent morning, it was
because I’d been pierced by 30-
odd needles.
“If I were to describe acupunc-
ture in a single word, it would be
‘balance,’ ” said Kelli Miller, a
licensed acupuncturist at the
Strata Integrated Wellness and
Spa at Garden of the Gods Resort
and Club. She told me that
inserting the fine steel pins into
my scalp, shoulders, legs, feet
and abdomen would bring me
into equilibrium, that it would
make my organs perform their
duties more efficiently and an-
chor my attention span in the
coming days and weeks. Though,
in the moment, lying like a
pincushion on a massage table
with a mineral heat lamp warm-
ing my stomach, it mostly,
strangely, made me sleepy.
Acupuncture isn’t the only
form of care provided under this
roof. Here, Western and Eastern
medicine are separated only by a
flight of stairs. Clinicians offer
chiropractic care, nutritional
guidance, health assessments
and medical-grade facials on the
lower level. On the second floor,
one can practice self-care with
Himalayan salt stone massages,
body therapies such as a quinoa-
based scrub, or a reality-bending
dry flotation therapy (a treat-
ment where guests are essential-
ly lotioned and cocooned in a
body-temperature water bed so
they feel weightless).
In the past decade or so,
travelers have been drawn to
Colorado Springs, where the
Strata spa is based, for these and
other wellness opportunities, in-
cluding an increasing number of
hot springs, spas and chances for
outdoor recreation.
However, it’s not necessarily a
new trend for the city. Many of
those who first settled in the
Springs roughly 150 years ago
came to seek health. They had
tuberculosis and were hoping
that moving to the Front Range
community would be the Hail
Mary they needed.
“The concept of it being a
destination for health problems
was built into the DNA of this
town,” said Matt Mayberry, direc-
tor of the Colorado Springs Pio-
neers Museum.
When Colorado Springs was
founded in 1871, tuberculosis, a
bacterial infection concentrated
in a person’s lungs, was one of the
leading causes of death world-
wide. Up until World War II,
Mayberry said, more than one-
third of residents in Colorado
Springs had tuberculosis.
“There was no cure for the
disease back then, so physicians
would often tell their patients to
‘chase the cure,’ ” Mayberry said.
“And so, many destinations
across the country tried to lure
people with what was then called
consumption to them.”
Because of Colorado Springs’
high, dry climate, many doctors
prescribed travel to the city (and
In Colorado, springing for self-care
GARDEN OF THE GODS RESORT AND CLUBHISTORIA/SHUTTERSTOCK
TOP: Guests meditate at the Garden of the Gods Resort and Club in Colorado Springs. The city, once a
tuberculosis colony, has become a wellness destination, with hot springs, spas and outdoor recreation.
ABOVE: Seen in 1926, the Broadmoor, now a five-star spa, was advanced for its time when it opened.much of Colorado’s Front Range)
as a treatment option. Once
there, many decided to go a step
further, Mayberry said, by “tak-
ing the waters” (or visiting the
area’s natural hot springs).
“The belief was that these
springs contained compounds
that would improve your health,”
Mayberry said, adding that the
science behind it was question-
able. Still, visitors today can sip
the water from eight fountains in
the neighboring Manitou
Springs (they’re said to each have
a different taste and efferves-
cence) or book a private mineral-If You Go
WHAT TO DO
Garden of the Gods Resort and
Club
3320 Mesa Rd.
719-520-4988
gardenofthegodsresort.com
The Strata Integrated Wellness and
Spa offers Eastern and Western
treatment practices. Guests at the
resort can also play golf, tennis or
pickleball, swim in the pools, and
dine at the restaurants. Rooms
from $299 per night. Massages
from $160 for 50 minutes, facials
from $160, acupuncture from $75.
The Broadmoor
1 Lake Ave.
844-602-3343
broadmoor.com
This destination hotel o ffers
upscale rooms, bars and
restaurants, and a five-star spa.
The latter offers wellness practices
such as massages, facials and
body scrubs and nail care. Rooms
from $230 per night. Massages
from $180 for 50 minutes, skin-
care treatments from $95 and
body treatments from $105.INFORMATION
visitcos.comThe H amilton Princess Hotel
& Beach Club in Bermuda has
traditionally seen itself as an
oasis for culture-seeking
travelers; it features about 300
original works of art from artists
including Andy Warhol, Roy
Lichtenstein and Pablo Picasso.
Last year, the hotel kicked it up a
notch, offering an art-inspired
package that includes a private
tour of the hotel’s collection,
plus art-inspired amenities and
passes to the Bermuda National
Gallery. Executives hope those
packages will inspire more
visitors as travel picks up.CitizenM, the Netherlands-
based boutique hotel chain that
opened its first Los Angeles
property Aug. 23, hired a curator
to add original art to its rooms
and marked its opening with an
exhibit by local photographer
Corinne Schiavone, whose
images appeared on the hotel’s
facade. Not to be outdone, the
hypermodern Dream Hollywood
hotel, in conjunction with the
Crypt Gallery, unveiled an NFT
(non-fungible token) art gallery
in August — the hotel has a
massive wall of screens in its
lobby — featuring works from
some of Los Angeles’s top digital
artists.
Other properties looking to
increase their appeal are looking
backward rather than forward.
Late last year, the Alexandrian, a
luxury hotel in Alexandria, Va.,
introduced a package that allows
guests to book an evening in its
Carlyle Suite and get treated like
1920 s royalty. There’s a car with
a private driver, monogrammed
bathrobes, and sparkling wine
on ice. There’s also a VIP dining
experience in the Cocktail
Garden with a custom tasting
menu from its on-site restaurant,
King & Rye. Rates start at $5,000
a night.
Will these gambits work?
Maybe, maybe not.
In the end, good customer
service is the bottom line for
hotels, whatever novelties they
offer returning travelers. Guests
such as Kristen Bello have
noticed some changes in their
hotel experiences, such as
improved cleaning protocols and
countless promises to keep
rooms “covid clean.” But that’s
about it, says the retired teacher
from Raleigh, N.C.
“I haven’t seen anything that
would make me think that hotels
are trying to gain my business —
yet,” she says.
Hotels know they can’t just
offer a glitzy weekend package
and expect travelers such as
Bello to overlook bad service.
We’re about to find out if all the
effort was worth it.Elliott is a consumer advocate,
journalist and co-founder of the
advocacy group Travelers United.
Email him at [email protected].The Lafayette
Hotel in San
Diego’s trendy
North Park
district wants
you, and it isn’t
afraid to appeal to
your sense of
nostalgia. It is one
of many new
hotel projects
vying for your
booking this summer.
Pay no heed to the swimming
pool designed by Olympic
medalist and Tarzan actor
Johnny Weissmuller. And ignore
the pictures of the hotel’s
founder hobnobbing with
Hollywood stars such as Ava
Gardner and Bob Hope.
On a recent afternoon, the
hotel’s general manager, Dieter
Hissin, led me downstairs, past
the hotel’s signature attractions,
and into an aging ballroom.
“This is where they filmed the
scene in the movie ‘Top Gun,’ ”
he explains. “You know, where
Tom Cruise sings ‘You’ve Lost
That Loving Feeling’ to Kelly
McGillis.”
The Lafayette, which is in the
middle of a top-to-bottom
renovation, is restoring the bar
just in time for the release of a
“Top Gun” sequel in May. Hissin
says the timing is right to bring
’80s-loving tourists back to the
Lafayette.
He’s not the only hotel general
manager wondering how to get
travelers back.
“Hotels are getting creative,”
says Jennifer Dohm, a
spokesperson for Hotels.com. As
resorts look to the summer
travel season, they are adding
new room experiences,
introducing promotional rates
and waiving fees.
There’s a reason for the
creativity: The past two years
have been difficult for hotels,
with many travelers opting for
staycations and vacation rentals
over more traditional
accommodations. Hotels that
cater to corporate travelers have
suffered the most and are
looking to 2022 as a way to fast-
track their recovery.
“For hotels, marketing
promotions are a tried-and-true
way of attracting guests,” says
Amanda Belarmino, an assistant
professor at the University of
Nevada at Las Vegas. “Many
hotels used the closures as an
opportunity to renovate their
properties, and many of these
properties are seeing benefits
from these changes.”
The folks in marketing know
they can’t turn you into a guest
without first getting your
attention. If a new look,
attraction or amenity will do it,
then they’re willing to try.
The Fairmont Century Plaza
in Los Angeles last year unveiled
recent renovations, which cost
$2.5 billion. Everything at the
Fairmont, except maybe the
modernist facade, is new. It cut
the number of rooms roughly in
half, to 400, added a new spa,
and opened Lumière Brasserie, a
French restaurant. The hotel’s
owners hope to turn it into the
hottest property in L.A. as the
pandemic wanes, and they’re
looking at this summer as an
opportunity to recapture its
glory days. That’s a tall order,
but a few billion dollars
definitely puts the Fairmont in
contention.H otels employ creativity
to attract summer guests
The
Navigator
CHRISTOPHER
ELLIOTTIn the end, good
customer service is
the bottom line for
hotels, whatever
novelties they offer
returning travelers.