A plethora of upscale spas have opened recently in Ireland—a place of increasing prosperity and great natural beauty—but of them all, Sámas, at the Park Hotel Kenmare, is undoubtedly the most impressive. The setting is spectacular, overlooking the Bay of Kenmare, with the Kerry mountains as a backdrop, and surrounded by woods. The hotel itself, a Victorian furnished in the grand Edwardian country house style (solid rather than stunning), dates from 1897 and oozes comfort, with fat sofas, plump cushions, antique furniture, open fires and an award-winning restaurant. The name of its sleek new spa (constructed in part with limestone quarried on the property) is Gaelic for "indulgence of the senses," and it lives up to the title. Facilities include separate male and female thermal suites, each with a sauna, steam room and tropical-mist shower, as well as an outdoor infinity pool with massage jets that work on stomach, hips and thighs. Some seventy treatments are offered, including the Sámas Mystical Four Hand Experience, the Irish Sea Salt and Oil Scrub and the Perfect 19th, designed to alleviate golfers' back and foot pain. The outdoors will lure many guests for yoga, tai chi and meditation in the garden or for horseback riding, tennis and fishing, but the idle can lounge in the spa's glass-walled relaxation room and watch the ever-changing skies. Double rooms from $570. Spa treatments from $170. 011-353-64-41200; parkkenmare.com.
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