Arbor Spa

Arbor Spa operates within the Hotel Brookmere in Saratoga Springs, a town whose entire identity rests on water.

Saratoga’s springs are naturally carbonated — water percolating through limestone picks up dissolved carbon dioxide under pressure and emerges effervescent and heavily mineralised. That geology made the town the most fashionable American spa resort of the nineteenth century, drawing the same crowd that built the racetrack in 1863, now the oldest organised sporting venue of any kind in the United States.

The town retains an unusual density of Victorian architecture along Broadway and Union Avenue, and Saratoga Spa State Park — a National Historic Landmark — holds the mineral bath houses, the Performing Arts Center and several of the springs still running from public fountains.

Hotel spas here work in that context. A thermal circuit before or after a day at the track or the springs fits the town’s rhythm, which has always been about taking the waters in some form.

Racing season runs six weeks from mid-July and books the town solid. Outside it, Saratoga is considerably quieter and easier. Appointments book in advance.