This week I was fortunate to attend the first ever Brazilian Spa Congress, held alongside the Medical Travel Conference in Sao Paulo. Brazilian Spa Association president Gustavo Albanesi, owner and founder of the Buddha Spa chain, organized the conference along with his staff, to provide inspiration and education for the growing Brazilian spa market. One of the planned activities in which I was fortunate to participate was a pre-conference tour of some of the day spas in Sao Paulo.

We had a comfortable tour bus for the day, and I marveled at how the driver negotiated some of the narrow streets in turns in this bustling city of 22 million. Sao Paulo is spread over a large area, and while there is a downtown, there are also a number of business and shopping district sprinkled throughout the area. The first stop on our tour was to the central campus of a local university, Anhembi Morumbi. The university has six campuses with 15k students, but this particular location was notable for having just unveiled, two weeks ago, a cutting-edge spa/beauty lab for the students in their beauty culture classes. The four-year bachelor’s degree program curriculum offers courses not just in esthetics and other beauty therapies, but in nutrition and psychology, especially as how they relate to beauty culture. The physical facility of the spa school was very impressive and was better-equipped than many actual spas, including sauna, steam, experience showers, chromatherapy cabins, an outdoor zen garden, and semi-private consultation areas, as well as a full salon and a pool for aqua therapies such as watsu. Once the course is completed, the students sit for a licensing exam, although the country has no regulatory body to insure that practicing technicians are, in fact, licensed or certified in their particular modalities. However, the better spas hire licensed therapists.

After a delicious buffet lunch on the covered terraces of a classic Brazilian restaurant, the group visited Hara Spa, on Europa Avenue in the city’s high-rent district. Hara is the largest day spa in Sao Paulo, with 40 treatment rooms spread over two stories surrounding an outdoor courtyard with treatment cabanas, decorative pools and a refreshment bar. In a design trend we were to encounter at subsequent stops during the afternoon, the spa was decorated in a pan-Asian theme which included elements from Indian, Thai, and other Asian traditions, with a dose of Christianity thrown in for good measure. One fun design feature was that the cabana rooms had treatment tables positioned over glass portions of the floor, allowing a client in the prone position to watch the koi swimming below.

Our next stop was at one of the Buddha Spa locations, opposite the famous Ibirapuera Park. This spa has a lovely, open feel, with an upstairs café overlooking an outdoor garden. The treatments on the menu include massages, facials, and body treatments, all of which include elements of Lymph Drainage, Acupuncture, Shiatsu & Ayurveda, and the spa also offers pilates and single or double ofuro tub rooms. We then visited Orris Spa, in a converted house high on a hillside. This spa had extensive hydrotherapy options, in addition to the typical menu items, and offered Germaine de Cappucini skincare, our first glimpse of a European brand. The spa owner had created a spa bungalow out behind the house, with space for relaxation and treatments with the breezes gently blowing the curtained dividers, and a tree growing through the middle of it. You could truly relax and imagine you were anywhere but a busy city.

The last stop of the day was Kalmma Spa, which had the widest array of services of any of the spas we visited. In addition to facials, massage & body treatments, they also offered some medical esthetic treatments, yoga & pilates, a full hair salon, and a small locker room. The décor here was less overtly Asian, mostly confined to decorative art. Visiting these spas was really helpful in understanding the Brazilian spa market, which is still developing. For those of us from Europe and North America, the tour brought back memories of where our own spa markets were 10 years ago; just beginning to branch out into more creative services and environments. I’ll write more on the congress and the challenges facing the Brazilian spa industry later this week.