Spa Resorts & Wellness Retreats in the Berkshires
Canyon Ranch opened in Lenox in 1989, Kripalu has been in Stockbridge since 1983, and Miraval took over the former Cranwell estate in 2020, putting three destination wellness resorts within five miles of each other. A fourth is planned: Elm Court, a Vanderbilt-era estate being redeveloped as a 74-room hotel with a 15,000-square-foot spa, expected around 2030. The Gilded Age left the Berkshires large estates on big acreage, which suits residential wellness programs. Below the three big names, two inns offer a pool or a sauna at much lower rates.
5 Properties
The Porches Inn at MASS MoCA
North Adams · Inn
Forty-seven rooms in a row of restored Victorian row houses at 231 River Street, directly across the street from MASS MoCA, each house painted a different color. There is a four-season outdoor pool, an outdoor hot tub, a Finnish-style sauna and a fitness center, and breakfast is included in the daily amenity fee. The interiors mix eclectic decor with the original Victorian details, and dogs are welcome.
Canyon Ranch Lenox
Lenox · Resort / Wellness
An all-inclusive wellness resort in a Victorian mansion on 120 acres in Lenox. Fitness classes, spa treatments, nutrition consultations and an on-site medical team are part of the program, and rates cover meals, classes and most activities. It suits travelers who want a structured wellness program more than a hotel with a spa.
Miraval Berkshires
Lenox · Resort / Wellness
Miraval's Berkshires resort, on the 380-acre former Cranwell estate in Lenox, built around the 1894 Wyndhurst Mansion, home of the 1894 Restaurant. Rates cover meals, snacks and non-alcoholic drinks, a daily schedule of wellness classes and activities, and use of the Life in Balance Spa's facilities, and the resort is gratuity-free. Guests must be 18 or older. It is owned by Hyatt.
Brook Farm Inn
Lenox · Inn / B&B
A 15-room inn in an 1882 house on a side street in Lenox, known for its library of poetry, history and literature and for the poets it has hosted for readings, including Galway Kinnell and Philip Levine. Most rooms have a fireplace, and there is a heated outdoor pool in spring and summer. Tanglewood is a short drive.
Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
Stockbridge · Retreat Center
A nonprofit yoga and health retreat on more than 100 acres above Lake Mahkeenac in Stockbridge, which describes itself as the largest retreat center in North America. Rooms range from dormitory to private, and meals are included in the rate. Workshops, retreats and teacher trainings run year-round in yoga, meditation, Ayurveda and health.
How to Choose
Canyon Ranch Lenox
For the clinical approach
A Victorian mansion on 120 acres with a medical team, nutritionists and fitness staff on site. All-inclusive rates cover meals, classes and most activities. It suits guests who want assessments and a plan to take home; guests who want to be left alone may find it too structured.
Miraval Berkshires
For intention over instruction
The former Cranwell Resort on 380 acres, now run on the Miraval model: spa, mindfulness, equine work and outdoor programs, all-inclusive, anchored by the 1894 Wyndhurst Mansion. It is less structured than Canyon Ranch and has the largest grounds of the three. Guests must be 18 or older.
Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
For the curriculum, at a third of the price
A nonprofit yoga and health retreat on more than 100 acres above Lake Mahkeenac, which describes itself as the largest retreat center in North America. Year-round workshops and teacher trainings cover yoga, meditation and Ayurveda. Rates include all meals and program access, rooms run from dormitory to private, and the lodging is plain by design.
The Porches Inn at MASS MoCA
For a sauna without a program
A row of Victorian row houses across from MASS MoCA with a four-season outdoor pool, an outdoor hot tub and a Finnish sauna, plus massages on request. There is no treatment menu or curriculum; the facilities are covered by the daily amenity fee, along with breakfast.
Brook Farm Inn
For a massage in a Victorian inn
Fifteen rooms in an 1882 house on a side street in Lenox, most with fireplaces, with a heated pool in spring and summer and a poetry library that hosts readings. It is in this directory's lowest price tier and suits a Tanglewood weekend more than a wellness program.
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Browse Now →What Makes It
- •The three destination resorts are all-inclusive and priced accordingly, but they are not interchangeable: Canyon Ranch is clinical, Miraval is intention-led, Kripalu is a yoga curriculum. Picking on price alone is how people end up in the wrong one.
- •Kripalu costs much less than its two neighbors. Rates include all meals and the full program schedule, with rooms from dormitory to private, and the lodging is simple.
- •For a sauna or a pool without a program, The Porches Inn in North Adams has a four-season outdoor pool, an outdoor hot tub and a Finnish sauna, and Brook Farm Inn in Lenox has a heated pool in spring and summer. Both cost a fraction of the destination resorts.
- •Lenox and Stockbridge are five minutes apart and hold four of these five. North Adams, home to The Porches Inn, is 45 minutes north, near MASS MoCA.
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