Tel: 212-661-210-549

Islam may be Morocco's official faith, but its unofficial religion is surely bathing—and if cleanliness is next to godliness, then Moroccans are the most spiritually robust people around. Or so it's easy to believe at the luminous spa at Marrakech's Dar JL hotel. Hidden behind magnificent Moorish carved-wood doors, the spa has only two rooms. The main treatment area, tiled in lovely shades of celadon and sea foam, is where the short list of spa services (including an argan-oil facial and a wondrously thorough, stimulatingly aggressive deep-tissue massage that will leave you blissfully disoriented) are administered. Behind another set of those dramatic Moorish doors is the private hammam. This breathtakingly austere space is outfitted from floor to vaulted ceiling with large panels of cool, gray-veined white marble, and its dramatic simplicity—like the main treatment room, the hammam is lit only by sunlight, which filters in through small windows cut near the top of the walls—recalls a cathedral. Here, you'll lie supine on the warm, water-slicked floor for half an hour while being slathered with black soap, scrubbed, and rinsed—before being flipped over and cleansed anew while the space fills with steam so thick that everything seems to blur before your eyes.