Zen Meets Grapefruit Cocktails

If you like your relaxation straight up, check out Solage Calistoga.

With its minimalist decor, Solage Calistoga, Napa Valley’s newest spa resort, creates a soothing, almost meditative experience that is 100 percent schmaltz free. The colors of the surrounding hills, the warm mineral pools that will turn your tense muscles to butter, the fresh and delicious creations from the kitchen and bar, even a comfortable cruiser bike for each guest—life is simple at Solage, simple yet ultracreamy.

The Rooms

The furnishings in each studio cottage are the antidote to fussy B&Bs and hotels with gold-leaf everything. Form and function exert equal influence. Windows and floor-to-ceiling glass doors bring the outdoors inside. The high ceilings provide airiness and drama. Bauhaus-inspired Heath ceramic jars and vases add subtle, graceful detail. Bed linens, soft throws, and down comforters make an inviting nest of your bed, and even the bath products in the shower are extra-yummy, containing Japanese honeysuckle, grape seed oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil. If Solage would get some decent pillows, you could move in permanently: The feather pillows are soft and fluffy, but so insubstantial that we woke up with neck-aches; the firmer ones available upon request are better but still lacking in oomph.

The Restaurant

From the very groovy lounge singer cooing over the sound system, to the copies of The New York Times arrayed throughout the bar area each morning, Solage’s Solbar restaurant is urban sophistication in a natural setting.
At dinner, a hot-and-cold endive salad could easily be one of the best things put on a plate in the first decade of the 21st century. The grilled red Belgian endive and raw curly endive play off each other beautifully, and the dressing of premium-quality olive oil, vinegar, and salt is good enough to drink. The ruby red grapefruit bits added a sweet essence of the season, and the perfectly ripe avocado introduces surprising creaminess. Entrées of striped bass served with an oyster “stew” and beef short ribs with a thyme-and-garlic risotto are both deeply satisfying and flavorful. A grapefruit sorbet and a date-and-almond torte would make a dessert lover of the staunchest South Beach dieter. As might be expected in a restaurant so emblematic of the Wine Country good life, the wine list is short but expertly chosen.
Breakfast is a healthy wallop of such modified classics as spiced apple buckwheat pancakes, chilaquiles with a zesty tomato sauce (and half the usual grease and cheese), and house-made granola with fresh dried apricots and almonds served with farmstead yogurt.

The Scene

Hang out with a cocktail by the fire-and-water fountain, play bocce, or go for a dip in the 130-foot-long, 88-degree pool.

The Treatments

Massages and facials come in every flavor. The Mudslide is a mud bath without the big goopy bathtub full of mud. Instead, you’re led to your own heated room to slather up your body—or both yours and your partner’s—with a jar of volcanic ash mixed with essential oils in the aroma of your choice. As light as a soufflé, this mud dries on your skin as you lounge and listen to the latest pop music from all over the world. Next is a soak in Calistoga mineral waters, followed by relaxation in a “sound chair,” which allows you to feel the vibrations of whatever music you choose as you drift. After a treatment, you climb into one of the warm mineral-water pools and just soak, or sidle up to an ultrastrong jet to work out any remaining kinks.

Bonus

Enjoy free fitness activities ranging from Pilates to a sweet bike-and-hike jaunt that will have you peddling up the valley on your cruiser bike and then hiking a mellow trail with views of the valley and vineyards.

Surprise

Unlike its sister resort, Auberge du Soleil, Solage is family friendly. Just don’t forget to throw your child’s bike in the car when you head up to Calistoga; the cruisers are for adults only, and biking (especially in your spa robe) is the most entertaining way to get around the resort. A kids’ swimming pool is warm even in cool months and has its own hot tub. A family yoga class is an imaginative play experience for kids and parents. Guided visualization and yoga poses that imitate trees, mountains, animals, and sprouting seeds are perfect for kids four and up. And what’s not to like about the minipractitioners learning how to give a good massage as they “rake and plant a garden” on the backs of their parents? On Saturday evenings, Kids Night Out offers a kids’ meal, games, coloring, and a movie from 6 to 9 p.m. while parents have an evening together. Parents reserving a spot should have in mind what they would like their child to eat. The resort offers simple main courses, such as pizza or a sandwich, but feel free to request vegetables and fruit.

The Neighborhood

Downtown Calistoga is a quick bike ride away from Solage. Laid-back Wappo Bar and Bistro has an eclectic menu and food to die for, whether Middle Eastern, Mexican, or Thai, to name a few possibilities. Slightly more formal but still casual, Brannan’s Grill serves well-executed American classics and interesting, well-chosen wines. Executive chef Dominic Orsini also cooks up Italian small plates at the neighboring BarVino at the Mount View Hotel. Meanwhile, if you bike in any direction, you’ll hit a winery.

Solage Calistoga, 755 Silverado Trail, Calistoga, (866) 942-7444, www.solagecalistoga.com, rooms from $325; Wappo, 1226 Washington St., Calistoga, (707) 942-4712, www.wappobar.com; Brannan’s Grill, 1374 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga, (707) 942-2233, www.brannansgrill.com; BarVino, 1457 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga, (707) 942-9900, www.mountviewhotel.com/barvino.asp.