A soaking bath at Cornelia.   (Photo: Elinor Carucci)

• Cornelia Day Resort

  663 Fifth Ave., eighth fl., 212-871-3050

  Detoxifying Algae Body Mask
  Once you get to the sprawling compound that is Cornelia, you don’t really need to leave for several hours—there’s a surprisingly good boutique and a tasty café. So allot a few hours to loll about, and book yourself this 90-minute treatment. It starts with a fifteen-minute soak in a large tub filled with Romanian algae, essential oils, honey, tea, and milk, followed by a gentle exfoliation and then a basting in an algae mask. To make sure the many minerals really penetrate your skin, you’re wrapped in a very, very large piece of aluminum foil and gently warmed beneath a heat lamp (not unlike a deli knish, except you emerge hydrated and refreshed). The gloriousness ends with a shower and a full-body slather of moisturizer ($245). Allow another hour to hang out in the relaxation room for tea and snacks, or walk upstairs and have a panini.

From the 2006 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine