Welcome to the third iteration of Vogue’s global spa guide, a compendium of the 100 best spas in the world, compiled based on first-person reviews and careful editing. This year, we’ve renewed our focus on establishments that have established a reputation for exceptional care of body and mind, though there is a great variety in the list. Whatever you are seeking when it comes to wellness, there is something here for you.
Why go here?
I’ll be the first to admit that a spa in the Caribbean is not a hard sell. And Viceroy’s St Lucia resort, Sugar Beach, is home to a spa that’s probably the easiest sell of them all. The Rainforest Spa is a collectsion of luxury treehouses (treatment rooms) joined by a wooden walkway. Even the entrance is enveloping—a winding, sheltered, dark wooden path that smells like intense relaxation and essential oils. It’s just a quick seven-minute walk (or two-minute drive) from the resort’s halcyon white beach to your awaiting treatment, which, if you arrive a little early, can be preceded by a pitstop in the meditation and reflection platform, but more on this later.
What’s the vibe?
Sugar Beach (home of the Rainforest Spa) is a lush, flower-strewn hotel, spanning 130 butler-serviced rooms set over 100 acres. Each room is slightly different, but all boast a private plunge pool and four-poster beds that feel like a crisp, cool cloud. It’s the peak of opulence, placed right by the azure Caribbean sea. A magnet for celebrities (a certain ex-One Direction-er was there at the same time as me), the resort is one of one in the area.
The spa is really more of an Eden-esque sanctuary, teeming with life and the smell of dense, glorious wood. To visit the spa, though, is to feel like you’re in on a secret. Rarely will you see another guest, though each treehouse is busily engaged in one of the massages, facials and body wraps on offer. You might run into a soon-to-be friend in the meditation area—a suspended, open platform with a thatched roof. Here, there are herbal teas, crystal therapy, PEMF seats and heated, massaging eye masks on offer. Even if you never venture beyond the meditation space, you’ll leave feeling renewed. “The design of the spa makes it feel like you’re nestled among the leafy canopy,” Julie De Brito, the director of spa and wellness at Sugar Beach, a Viceroy Resort, tells me. “And the design of the treehouse is drawn from the Arawak huts of the ancient Carib Indians, thoughtfully reimagined to reflect both the island’s heritage and a sense of understated luxury.” She’s bang on—you feel at once swallowed by nature and also within a finger’s reach of anything you could possibly want. Wander up a set of stone steps, and you’ll happen upon the spa’s temazcal-inspired steam dome—a stone-shaped steam room that, again, feels like it was carved from the surroundings rather than plonked on top.
The history?
The Rainforest Spa opened at the end of 2010, when the resort became Viceroy Sugar Beach, transforming from the former hotel, Jalousie Plantation. Then, in 2021, during a refurbishment, the spa was expanded to open additional treatment rooms. In late 2025, the spa partnered with skin-care brand Augustinus Bader, offering a range of facials using the patented TFC8 products and protocols.
What should you try?
An Augustinus Bader facial is a glorious thing, no matter where you are in the world. So, I would make sure to book in for a radiance-reviving face rub with one of the spa’s talented therapists. At the very least, it’ll rid your skin of the suncream-encrusted top layer, revealing smoother, brighter skin beneath. A friend I made in the meditation area said that she books in two wrap treatments every visit and that she comes multiple times a year. She said it was like slipping out of the puffy, swollen self you were and into the drained, lighter version you are on holiday. Consider me sold. De Brito recommends the popular Coconut Bliss ritual—a treatment that starts with a coconut and spice scrub, followed by a muscle-kneading massage. One of my favorite parts of the spa (being St Lucian, myself) was the inclusion of local and heritage brands and ingredients from the island.
What else do you need to know?
There are beautiful resorts with spas that rest on their laurels. This is not one of them. Rather than submit yourself to a satisfactory rub down, this is a cut above. Visit for the location, the amenities, as well as the spa. For relaxation-minded travelers, the spa, steam room, meditation space, sauna and ice bath are enough to make this a destination that leaves you feeling so much better than when you arrived. Pina colada consumption permitted.
Who can go?
The Rainforest Spa is open to guests of Sugar Beach, a Viceroy Resort, as well as external guests.
Booking details for The Rainforest Spa at Sugar Beach
Address: Val Des Pitons Forbidden Beach La Baie de Silence, Soufrière, St. Lucia
Read more from Vogue’s Global Spa Guide.