Idyllic weather and an enviable lifestyle have lured spa-goers to Southern California since 1959, when Deborah Szekely opened the Golden Door. Szekely, with husband Edmond, had already established its sister spa, Rancho La Puerta, in 1940, just across the Mexican border.

The Szekely spa recipe became the template for the all-inclusive, destination spa experience. It incorporates an enticing setting and thoughtful hospitality with abundant active (fitness) and passive (educational and spiritual) activities, pleasurable pampering (beauty and body) services and healthful (mostly vegetarian and organic) meals. This season, selected promotional rates enhance the appeal of three classic, standalone spas.

The venerable Golden Door remains a 40-room, 40-guest sanctuary, with minimalist Japanese inn ambience and a Zen philosophy that balances physical and spiritual health. In January 2008, a 4,000-square-foot fitness complex with three gyms surrounding a garden, stream and waterfalls opened. A recent promotional rate was $6,000, for a seven-night, all-inclusive week, per person.

At Rancho La Puerta, most of the 150 guests fly to San Diego and then are transported south of the border to a 35-acre, landscaped, casita-style village set amid a 3,000-acre ranch in Tecate, Mexico.

North of San Diego in Vista, Cal-a-Vie is a Provencal-style, 200-acre, hillside village where 30 guests mingle on hiking trails, by rose gardens and in tile-roofed buildings decorated with French country antiques. What's new? An Olympic-length pool and a new reception center, l'Orangerie.

At both Cal-a-Vie and Rancho La Puerta, second guests sometimes get a 50% rate reduction.

First resorts

Resort spas abound in and around San Diego and up the coastal corridor to Los Angeles. Area airports, including Los Angeles, Burbank and Orange County, provide convenient access. Many resorts adjust the Szekely model by limiting the number of activities, food options and package plans. Most charge for services on an a la carte basis.

La Costa Resort and Spa was my first spa experience, back in the 1980s. The occasion introduced me to trim-and-fit seniors and life-changing habits: morning walks, spa cuisine and fun fitness, such as dancing in "A Chorus Line," holding a top hat and cane. Now, the 610-room, 400-acre, family-friendly resort (kids stay free) offers infant care, an 18-hole golf course and a camp. There's a poolside spa cafe at the recently constructed 42-room spa facility. La Costa offers discounts for "Spa Under the Stars" services during the horse-racing season, from July through September.

Among dozens of Southern California spa stays I've logged, eight took place in January, including a revisit to Loews Coronado Bay Resort & Spa. This 438-room, pet-friendly hotel juts out on the bay facing San Diego. Its private Sea Spa terrace offers treatments in cabanas and shiatsu-style, Watsu massages in a tented, heated-to-body-temperature Watsu pool. (Guests walk or take a golf cart to the ocean.)

The Spa at the Del, at Hotel del Coronado, opened in January 2008 in the 788-room, San Diego landmark hotel (made famous in the 1959 movie "Some Like It Hot"). It's small in scale, but it opens out to a pool located just footsteps from the sandy beach.

Farther north, Hotel Grand del Mar is a palatial, Mediterranean-influenced golf and spa resort with a sumptuous spa adjacent to a huge pool. The resort's naturalist guides guests on hikes through the pristine Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve.

On other recent California sojourns, I stayed at several other spas. The Four Seasons Aviara in Carlsbad is a spacious, 373-room resort with a spa lounge within a solarium and the most romantic of all couples suites. There's a room for couples treatments, a living room with marble fireplace and a shower for two plus a private pool and patio. The Four Seasons Aviara's Spa Splendour Package includes accommodations plus two treatments for $615.

There's butler service in the 75 suites at the 400-room St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point as well as an 18-hole golf course and tram transportation to the beach and private restaurant. Its on-site Spa Gaucin is a 30,000-square-foot, 27-treatment-room retreat. The Wellness Duo deal includes a 60-minute personal training session and massage for $245.

The 12-room spa wasn't yet opened when I was last at the 395-room Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, also in Dana Point. But all the other Ritz-Carlton spas are great, and this one sits on a 150-foot bluff overlooking the Pacific and has a path down to the beach.

Montage Laguna Beach is a favorite. It's an 250-room, arts-and-crafts-inspired hotel just 2.5 miles south of Laguna Beach. The property sits atop a cliff with views of the Pacific Ocean; ramps take guests from the hotel down to the water. VIP suites boast terraces, and the locker room extends outdoors to a pergola-covered Jacuzzi.

Urban escapes

Spas are a part of daily life at the best hotels in Los Angeles. In January, I went to four. The newest, at Montage Beverly Hills, opened on the city's golden triangle in November. Spa Montage is located on a lower level of this deluxe, 201-room retreat, where chaises face a heated, coed mineral pool and a two-story, mosaic backdrop.

In Santa Monica, where the entire Exhale Spa moved to enhanced facilities at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows on April 1, spa guests get discounts on hotel services. For the second year, guests have access to the hotel's exclusive, umbrella-shaded Miramar Beach Club.

Spa Le Merigot, a six-room spa in the 175-room Le Merigot, a JW Marriott property in Santa Monica, opens to a pool; one of its gates leads to the beach. Guests who book a specialty facial get 50% off a Swedish massage.

The Hollywood Hills can be seen from the pool deck and rooms at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. The hotel's Luxe Spa is next door; inside, the movie set lounge has a whiter-than-white, private double settee.

New spas keep coming on the scene in Southern California. The Resort at Pelican Hill, in Newport Beach, opened in November. It features 204 ultrachic and oversize accommodations and an Italian Renaissance-inspired spa.

Come June, the Terranea Resort is set to open on the Palos Verdes peninsula. Its U-shaped spa will surround a pool facing the ocean, and it will feature a VIP couples suite, a garden with fire pits and an outdoor yoga terrace.