Spa Nescens at La Rèserve Genève
Welcome to the second iteration of Vogue's global spa guide, an index of the 100 best spas in the world, built from the expertise of our global editors and trusted contributors. There is a lot to choose from in the world of wellness, and no matter how far you're planning to travel—from a subway ride to a trans-Atlantic flight—we want to make sure it's worth the journey. Whatever your path, let us be your guide.
Why go here?
The Swiss are, at this point, pretty famous for how seriously they spa. This is for a very good reason. At La Rèserve Genève—the 10-acre Swiss lakeside outpost of the privately owned La Rèserve hotel chain, which also has celebrated five-star hotels in Paris and Ramatuelle, on the St Tropez peninsula—the 20,000 square foot Spa Nescens has the run of show in the health and wellness department, making it the city's largest and undisputed address for wellbeing, without preventing you from also enjoying the finer things associated with a five-star stay. The Spa Nescens signature Better Aging program incorporates a thorough medical evaluation, including a guest's genetic, medical, dietary, and psychological profile, to inform the four- or seven-day itinerary, which incorporates three daily meals, meetings with an osteopath, exercise sessions with a trainer, and spa treatments. The idea is to live the best possible life, for as long as possible, by employing healthy food, correct movement, and an openness to medical advances and interventions (including aesthetic medicine, like chemical peels, exosome therapy, and injections of Botox or Profhilo), as desired.
Photo: Courtesy of Spa Nescens at La Réserve Genève
What's the vibe?
A world unto itself. The expansive spa is at ground level, with a sloping hillside outside some of the glassed-in workout rooms. Within you will find a health-focused restaurant, Café Lauren (open to visitors), indoor and outdoor swimming pool, hair salon, extensive gym facilities, and 17 treatment rooms, as well as large changing rooms replete with sauna and hammam. Jacques Garcia designs the interiors for all the La Rèserve properties, and upstairs at the hotel is a Peter Beard–style safari fantasy of thick velvet drapery, big-cat photography, and warm tones of wood and brass. The spa, however, is clean and cloud-like, with cut-out leather wall panels inspired by sea vegetation and elegant pearl-laden wall sconces that evince jellyfish. 'The idea,' the spa director told me, 'is that we are under the waters of Lake Geneva.' The effect is just as refreshing.
Photo: Courtesy of Spa Nescens at La Réserve Genève
The history?
The Spa Nescens program was developed by Professor Jacques Proust, a pioneer in anti-aging medicine, whose clinic (which performs a wide variety of medical and surgical treatments in addition to various detox and recovery cures) is headquartered a 20 minute drive away, in the hillside town of Genolier. The other La Rèserve properties also have Spa Nescens facilities, but Geneva's is by far the largest and most comprehensive, and its accessibility to the clinic and popular club-style membership program for local Genevans—who come to work out, recover, and relax—keeps it busy and cutting edge.
Photo: Courtesy of Spa Nescens at La Réserve Genève
What should you try?
I arrived at the spa after the Christmas holidays deeply in need of both a detox and some direction in terms of getting back on track in the exercise department. The team was more than happy to oblige, prescribing a calendar of osteopath-advised personal trainer-led workouts (incorporating movement I'd told them I enjoyed, like Pilates, and tennis) punctuated by compression boot treatments (a waist-high contraption that inflates and deflates at a rhythm dictated by your pulse, encouraging muscle relaxation, lymphatic drainage, and circulation), infrared sauna sessions, and massages. The boots are a fan favorite, one technician told me, and I was no different, though my favorite treatment was a tie between the 90-minute Ultimate Metamorphosis facial (which combines diamond dermabrasion, high-frequency ultrasound, micro current, LED therapy and oxygen diffusion) and the nearly two-hour body-reshaping treatment, which incorporates an LPG Endermologie session (a cellulite-targeting lipomassage technique incorporating a suction-and-rollers based machine) with a manual lymphatic massage and skin soothing wrap. Both will have you feeling reborn.
Photo: Courtesy of Spa Nescens at La Réserve Genève
How environmentally friendly is it?
The hotel has a 'Green committee' instated to raise awareness among employees about awareness around environmental responsibility. Food leftovers are taken to a Swiss biogas plant where they are converted into a combination of gases that can be used for electricity, heat, and fuel, and floral waste is composted. Four times a year the hotel supplies a dinner service for people in need at the Restaurant Refettorio in Geneva, and guest soaps and shampoos are recycled by the SapoCycle foundation for use by people in need.
Photo: Courtesy of Spa Nescens at La Réserve Genève
What else do we need to know?
Reward yourself for all your efforts to age better by dining at least one night of your stay at the excellent Tse Fung, one of the four restaurants at La Rèserve Geneve, and the only Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant in Switzerland.
Photo: Courtesy of Spa Nescens at La Réserve Genève
Booking details for La Rèserve Geneve
Address: Rte de Lausanne 301, 1293 Bellevue, Switzerland
Read more from Vogue's Global Spa Guide.
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