OJAI, CALIFORNIA

You emerge from your massage cocoon, quiet and a little blissed out. A steeping cup of coconut-rose tea on a quiet terrace awaits, a burbling fountain the only sound in the morning stillness. You settle into your chair and close your eyes, momentarily lost in a sunwarmed sea of terry cloth. Red roofed haciendas and majestic oaks stand watch while a sprig of fresh lavender scents your pillow. It’s before breakfast and after yoga, and the only place you have to be is exactly where you are. Each year, the Inn dubs the holiday span “Serenity Season”, but with an almost mystic calm in the air, it feels perennially applicable. It is all the tranquil spa buzzwords extended beyond the 50-minute session and brought out into the world beside you.

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© Essential Moment: Spa Day In Ojai.