Arizona
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The Republic
- Three Arizona spas were listed in Oprah Daily’s 2025 Hotel O-Wards.
- The list includes spas with exceptional treatments, services and practitioners.
Three of Arizona’s most luxurious destination spa resorts received praise from Oprah Winfrey.
Her website Oprah Daily recently honored 53 destination spas worldwide in the 2025 Hotel O-Wards. Now in its second year, Oprah’s Hotel O-Wards recognize spa resorts whose treatments, services and practitioners are “best-in-class.”
The 17 honorees in the U.S. and Canada include three from Arizona: Sanctuary Camelback Mountain, Mii amo and Castle Hot Springs.
The three resorts are no stranger to recognition among Arizona’s most celebrated travel experiences, with Oprah Daily praising each of them for high quality and distinctive services.
Here’s a look at each of the Arizona honorees and why they were selected.
Sanctuary Camelback Mountain, Scottsdale
Scottsdale has more than 50 resort and day spas, according to Experience Scottsdale, the city’s convention and visitors bureau. Sanctuary Camelback Mountain stood out among them in the Hotel O-Wards survey because of the size of its spa − 12,000 square feet − and the diversity of its treatment menu.
Standout offerings include a restorative meditation experience called Nidra sound voyage, which is claimed to equal three hours of sleep, and a form of underwater shiatsu massage known as watsu therapy.
Mii amo, Sedona
The accolades for this wellness spa within Enchantment Resort in Sedona’s Boynton Canyon − a vortex believed to have healing energy − have piled up since a $40 million renovation was finished in 2023, including from USA TODAY readers who named it the nation’s best spa in 2024.
Oprah Daily cited the renovation for elevating its offerings, including 23 casitas, 26 treatment rooms, a two-story fitness studio and a new restaurant, Hummingbird.
All-inclusive getaways at Mii amo can last from three to 10 nights, with treatments including past-life regression with a hypnotherapist and aura photography, both cited by Oprah Daily as highlights.
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Castle Hot Springs, Bradshaw Mountains
One of Arizona’s oldest resorts, the 1,100-acre Castle Hot Springs in the Bradshaw Mountains north of Phoenix offers wellness retreats that include bathing in the resort’s mineral-rich hot springs.
A multimillion-dollar renovation brought the resort back to life in 2019 after a fire shuttered it in the mid-1970s; its second life has seen widespread critical acclaim, including Travel + Leisure declaring it Arizona’s best resort in three of the last four years.
Oprah Daily praised the water-centric programming, including watsu therapy in the hot springs, paddleboard yoga and − in contrast with the average 106-degree temperatures of the springs − a newly introduced cold plunge pool with temperatures ranging from 43 to 46 degrees.
Michael Salerno is an award-winning journalist who’s covered travel and tourism since 2014. His work as The Arizona Republic’s consumer travel reporter aims to help readers navigate the stresses of traveling and get the best value for their money on their vacations. He can be reached at Michael.Salerno@gannett.com.
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