(Kate Pocock/QMI Agency)

The Spa Experience

Stressed out on the job? Why not stop this craziness right now and decide to indulge with spa treatments instead?

In today's spa-licious world, you can enjoy treats from chocolate to peppermint, from wine to maple sugar or lemon, and all through your pores rather than your tummy.

The bonus? You won't gain an ounce. And you'll leave refreshed and renewed without a care in the world. Here are just some of the delightful ways to indulge both near and far:

CALLING CHOCOHOLICS

The cocoa bean's botanical name means "food of the gods." Apparently, when Aztec Emperor Montezuma greeted the Spanish conquerors, he met them with a peace offering of chocaltl (cocoa mixed with spices, vanilla and honey) in a goblet of pure gold.

Today, forget the goblet. We can be slathered, dipped and frothed in this delectable elixir at The Spa at Hotel Hershey in Hershey, Pa. Chocoholics love their Whipped Cocoa Bath (like sitting in a cup of frothy hot chocolate), Chocolate Fondue Wrap or Sweet Feet pedicures.

"Oh my goodness, after the chocolate bath, I seriously smelled like a chocolate bar for an entire day," said one delighted client. If you like peppermint -- so good with chocolate -- add a Peppermint Salt Scrub.

WINING, NOT DINING

If it's wine that tempts, head to Niagara-on-the-Lake, where the Spa at White Oaks Conference Resort also makes good with local produce. Their Nectar of Niagara Wrap mixes wine (white not red or you might be too!), grape pulp and warm honey to be poured over the entire body. After being wrapped in warm linens to marinate, then unwrapped to step into a frothy tub, you're treated to a wine-and-honey mask followed by a hot shower.

"It's a head-to-toe experience, and our most popular treatment," says spa director Patricia Jones. "People leave feeling restored and rejuvenated." Sante.

JAVA JIVE

You might need an extra jolt or two to make it to 2007. So why not fortify yourself with coffee scrubs and wraps at Sandals and Beaches Resorts in the Caribbean (Turks & Caicos, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Bahamas, Antigua)? Try an invigorating Java Jive Scrub (also available to non-resort guests) using natural roasted beans from the famous Blue Mountains of Jamaica.

Or enjoy a Wake Up and Smell the Coffee Wrap with green beans. While lying on the heated table in the Red Lane Spa at Turks & Caicos, I "drank in" the coffee from my head to my toes. The smell was divine. After, lather up with moisturizing milky lotion, and take a dip in the sea.

The Madrona del Mar spa at B.C. Galiano Inn uses chocolate, blueberries, avocado and butter creme in its treatments. (Kate Pocock/QMI Agency)

"We have the world's biggest hydrotherapy tub right here," says spa director Karen Sprung. "So why not use it?" Amen.

SUGAR, SUGAR

You can't have Christmas without sweet sappy stuff. So where better to sugar up than near a Quebec forest where maple trees produce sap? Sweeten up with a Maple Body Scrub in the new spa at the largest log cabin in the world, Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello, (between Ottawa and Montreal). Then wrap yourself in a warm fuzzy blanket by the fire while the rest of the family is off snow shoeing, curling, ice skating or dog sledding just outside.

For more outdoor fun and sweet stuff, head to Stowe, Vt., one of the continent's ski meccas. Bunk in at Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa on the region's highest peak. At this colonial-style hostelry, counteract the elements with a Vermont Maple Body Sugar Polish using syrup, honey and apricot kernels, followed by a Maple Body Butter Massage. The butter melts into the skin as it moisturizes. Yum.

SEAWEED POWER

His and hers massage at Spa Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello in Quebec. (Kate Pocock/QMI Agency)

If you do party hearty, try the spa for instant recovery. It works! On a recent mother-and-daughter visit to Ireland's Delphi Mountain Resort & Spa near Galway (now under renovations until 2008), a notice offered fresh seaweed. I called and sure enough, a pink-cheeked girl delivered a bucket of leafy, steaming, seaweed for our bath. The smelly tentacles provided an invigorating, if interesting, soak.

Luckily, you don't have to go across the Atlantic for seaweed power. At the Madrona del Mar Spa at the Galiano Inn on Galiano Island in seaweed-rich B.C., they dish out healing doses of seaweed -- as well as blueberries, blackberry port wine and chocolate butter creme. Their three-hour Gulf Island Seaweed Experience includes deep steam, scrub with sea salt, seaweed wrap, and massage with seaweed avocado lotion.

SPA FIRST AID

And forget tomato juice or whiskey in milk or whatever grandpa recommended to cure bright nights of holiday cheer. Travel instead to Grafton, Ont., to Ste. Anne's Country Inn and Spa for a soak in the outdoor hot tub and their Santa-sent Festive Flare Stone Wrap.

Just like a Christmas present, you'll be wrapped in orange essence, cinnamon and locally grown healing herbs such as Echinacea and St. John's Wort. You're smoothed with goat's milk lotion that soothes, hydrates and moisturizes. And after a scalp-to-toes massage with warm smooth stones and a cup of hot cinnamon-scented apple cider, you'll be ready to tackle anything the elves throw at you.

Guests at St. Anne's soak in the outdoor hot tub. (Kate Pocock/QMI Agency)

GOLD DUSTING

Finally, if you want a wild New Year's night, head to the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. At Spa Bellagio, start with a tart burst of cranberry -- either cranberry-scented Hydrobath and Massage, Cranberry Sugar Polish or their Cranberry and Lemon Scrub that leaves skin moisturized and smelling like dessert. Then take it up a notch with their Egyptian Gold Body Treatment. After gels, oils and lotions, your skin is treated to a dusting of real gold for shimmering luminescence. Only in Vegas! Yes, you can wear gold without visiting one mall.

TOOT-TOOT-TOOTSIE

Just in case you're still shopping, however, here's an early Christmas gift -- two spa-tested recipes for tired feet and sore muscles that should have you dancing by the time Santa arrives. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

DESERT CITRUS SALT GLOW

Arizona has developed a reputation as a spa-destination. (Kate Pocock/QMI Agency)

Combine 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil with 2 tablespoons of sea salt and citrus juice from lemon, lime, grapefruit or orange. Apply to the feet in a circular motion. Rinse in warm water, pat dry. From Spa Avania at Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona, where you'll also find hour-long Foot Rituals with hot stones.

WHIPPED COCOA BATH

Add 1/8 cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder and 1/3 cup instant non-fat dry milk to tub while filling with water. Add Hershey's Whipped Cocoa Bath product or unscented bubble bath. Turn on jets and relax. The Spa at The Hotel Hershey intensifies the experience with cocoa-scented candles.

BOTTOM LINE

After a sleigh ride through the Vermont countryside, guests at Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa can indulge in a sweet and soothing Maple Body Butter Massage. (Kate Pocock/QMI Agency)

WHERE TO STAY

- The Spa at The Hotel Hershey, 1-877-772-9988 or chocolatespa.com.

- The (Spa) at White Oaks Resort, 1-800-263-5766 or whiteoaksresort.com.

- Red Lane Spas, Beaches Resorts and Sandals, 1-800-545-8283 or sandals.com.

- Spa Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello, Montebello, Que., 1-800-441-1414 or fairmont.com/montebello.

- Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa at Stowe, Vt., 1-800-253-2232 or stoweflake.com.

- Madrona del Mar Spa, Galiano Inn. Galiano Island, B.C., 1-877-530-3939 or galianoinn.com

- Ste. Anne's Country Inn and Spa, 905-349-2493 or spavillage.ca.

- Spa Bellagio, Bellagio Hotel and Casino, 702-693-7111 or bellagio.com.

- Spa Avania, Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa at Gainey Ranch, 1-800-233-1234 or scottsdale.hyatt.com.