Last week I was able to share the most special vacation with my Mom for a little birthday getaway!! I celebrated my 41st birthday and my Mom and I snuck away for 3 nights to Austin, TX to visit the Miraval spa and resort. It was such a relaxing and luxurious treat. It has been years since only my Mom and I have done a trip together and this felt so special. Even though we live in the same town, we are often together with 3 kids running around us or with other family and don’t get to catch up just the two of us.
Back about 20 years ago, my Mom and I went with my aunt and cousin to Tucson, AZ to a spa for a few nights. Both of us have been thinking this entire time that it was Miraval in AZ, but I just realized it was Canyon Ranch, not Miraval. Anyway, we love a good spa and it’s so much fun to exercise and enjoy the healthy lifestyle; but also pamper yourself at the spa.
I wanted to break this post down into a few different sections for you and hopefully answer any questions you may have if Miraval is on your list to visit.
How to get to the Miraval Austin
We flew into the Austin airport and since we didn’t have a direct flight, we had to fly through Atlanta. Once we landed in Austin, Miraval offers a complimentary ride to the resort. Our driver was waiting for us as soon as we landed and then it was about a 25 minute ride to the resort.
Accommodations at Miraval Austin
We stayed in a Two Double Bed Dreamcatcher room which was located close to the reception desk. There are buildings scattered all over the property and probably each have their own benefits as to location. Our building was somewhat far from the dining room and spa area, but it is all still just a 6-8 minute walk away. The entire property is walkable and it takes about a day (maybe a half day) to get yourself acclimated and feeling like you know where everything is.
Our room was fairly simple yet nice and they do offer tea and a hot kettle in your room, a mini fridge, and a small seat by the window to read or work. The rooms do have a TV and wifi as well as a tiny wooden bed to encourage you to leave your cell phones behind and enjoy unplugging.
The highlight of the rooms were the most incredible and comfortable bedding that I’ve maybe EVER slept on. One of my favorite things about luxury hotels is the incredible bed linens that they usually provide, but I am telling you these are next level. They are so soft and to me the thing that stood out the most was the down comforter. The trick with a down comforter is that it can be too hot, but this one was the perfect weight and felt like a lovely cloud lying on top of you. Apparently, we are not the only ones that fell in love with the bedding because it turns out they sell the bedding package in their gift shop. Of course my Mom and I had to go inquire about the bedding and we were astounded to learn that the duvet comforter alone (does not include the duvet cover) was priced at $2,200!!!!!! Lawdy, that deterred us of course; but it does show that they use first class linens.
When you are walking all around the Miraval property you notice all the detail they put into making the place as calming and relaxing for their guests as possible. There are water features all around, fire pits and gas fires lit throughout and beautiful cactus and stone towers throughout the property. You can find healthy snacks and treats all day long at the Nest as well as smoothies and a cocktail bar in the evening.
I thought the property was very nice and I will share more about the spa below.
What to do at the Miraval Austin
Miraval is a wellness spa and offers a plethora of activities all day long. They put out a monthly calendar of events with an hourly schedule for each day of the week. The best thing to do is look through all the activities that are offered during your stay and start picking out which activities look like something you are interested in. The activities include things like hikes, yoga, stretching, meditation, bee keeping, farm tours, ropes courses, weight lifting, aqua cardio (during certain seasons), sound baths, floating meditations, cooking classes, and so many more. The list may feel a little overwhelming at first and they do recommend booking activities before you arrive, but just know things can be changed when you are there.
Our favorite way to schedule the day was to have exercise classes in the morning (we loved doing a hike each morning on our own which were very well marked) and then workout classes after. Then we enjoyed lunch and had a spa service in the afternoon. When we did our spa services, we loved doing the whole thing. We would do the hot tub, then steam room, then sauna and then shower off before heading to the relaxation room to wait for our spa treatment.
After the afternoon spa treatment, it was fun to schedule things like a cooking class, drink-making class or maybe a meditation or stretching class to enjoy in the evenings. They run classes through about 9pm, so you can book things late into the evening or just have dinner and head back to your room and relax.
There were so many classes and things to do that we did not experience during our stay, but the things we really enjoyed were the pasta making class, the floating meditation, the hikes, our drink making class and all our spa treatments.
I will note that they do not have tennis courts, pickleball courts or a golf course on property. I did see a golf course very close by on our way to the airport, so I imagine people use that course if they are golfers.
The Miraval Spa
The Spa itself was very nice and had all the amenities that we were interested in. Have I ever been to a bigger and newer spa? Yes, but this one had everything we needed plus the most incredible treatments. My Mom and I each had 4 treatments. We had one per day which was so a treat and after each one we walked out of our rooms gushing over how good they were. We did a 20 minute Neck and Head massage our first evening there, then an 80 minute Vitamin C facial which was outstanding, an 80 minute Ginger Healer massage which was a message with an amazing body scrub and then a 100min Predhana Veda treatment. This Predhana Veda treatment is designed for total body rejuvenation, mental clarity, and balancing the body’s energy. My friend, Lea, told us about this when we ran into her at the airport and she said it was such a unique experience and highly recommended it. I loved how unique it was and the way they slathered you up with warm oil and wrapped you up like a cocoon. They then pour warm oil on your forehead and down through your hair and it’s this incredibly relaxing feeling. I’m wishing I was back there as I type this!
Don’t skip the spa treatments if you make it to Miraval and make sure you enjoy the included amenities like the steam room and sauna. As a resort guest, you can enjoy the spa amenities each day regardless if you have a spa treatment scheduled or not.
What is included at the Miraval Austin
There is a lot that is included in your stay at the Miraval resort. Each day we received a $200 resort credit per person, a complimentary shuttle ride to and from the airport, all of our food, snacks and non-alcoholic beverages, and a lot of the classes throughout the day. Some of the classes did require an extra fee such as the cooking classes, floating meditation, and several others. Another thing that is included throughout the resort which was really nice not to have to think about was gratuity. Gratuity is not only included but not permitted on property. All the spa treatments have tip included and you do not tip any of your instructors. That made things very simple and nice not to worry about carrying cash around.
Where to eat at the Miraval Austin
There is one main restaurant on property that has indoor and outdoor seating. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner in this restaurant each day. Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style, but they also have a small menu that you can order from as well. For dinner, you order from the menu and the items change each night. They serve each entree with a calorie count next to it and all entrees are quite healthy. The food was really quite good and I loved that they offered a delicious soup for every meal.
I mentioned they have a little place called the Nest. That is a coffee and smoothie shop by day and then a bar in the evening. They also have grab and go food there and some delicious snacks you can pick up. All of this is included in your stay. They made the best energy balls and these avocado chocolate cookies that we loved. I came home with the recipe, so I will have to try and make them.
What to Pack for the Miraval Austin
We traveled to Miraval in mid February and managed to pack everything in a carry on bag which I was very proud of. The nice part is that you really only need workout clothes and cozy sets, but somehow I still struggled to squeeze all of that into a carry on. You need tennis shoes and a pair of sandals for walking back from the spa. Then workout clothes by day, a bathing suit, light jacket, a couple sweat sets ( I love Varley, Rhone and Spanx) for the evening, and a little Fannie pack was really convenient to be hands free. They give you a refillable water bottle, a nice tote to carry around which was helpful and then they ended up giving us a Fannie pack as well which I wore every day! I brought makeup but really only put some on for the plane flight home and then packed my toiletry bag as well.
That’s it. Its simple and so nice to just be comfortable for a few days!
You can check out my full packing list here with everything I brought.
Final Thoughts on our Stay at Miraval Austin
I truly loved my stay at Miraval. We stayed for 3 nights and I think that was the perfect amount of time to be there. You definitely could stay longer because there are so many different activities that you can try, but 3 nights felt perfect for us. It was also so fun to do this trip with my Mom because I feel like it is such a good mother/daughter trip (we saw several other mom/daughter duos on our trip) and it is not a trip that my husband would really be into. We did see men there, but they have to be the men that are into healthy eating, workouts and a little spa time. This would also make an excellent girls trip with a group or even a solo trip. You did see people here all by themselves which I thought was really cool too.
We did have hopes at one point planning this trip that we might go out and see some of Austin while we were there, but it really just didn’t work out. Once you are on property, it is nice to just totally enthrall yourself into the healthy, relaxation mode. Downtown Austin was going to be a 40 minute drive or so each way with traffic and it just didn’t feel worth it for our short trip. So now, we will just have to go back and see Austin again another time!
As for Miraval resorts, it’s now been added to my bucket list to hit all three locations – Austin, Tucson and Berkshires! Mom and I said we need to make this an annual thing, ha!!
They also had two pretty pools with hot tubs on property to sit and relax and enjoy.
