To tell you the truth, I'm a little squeamish about most spas. I go for the surrounding scenery and to spend time with stressed out friends, but rather dread the experience of entering into those massage and hydrotherapy rooms that look like clinics, all white and antiseptic. I don't know how I'm supposed to relax in a treatment room that resembles a gynecologist's office. My spa phobia became most acute after a nightmarish experience of watching my best friend running naked and screaming down the hallway of a spa after being poisoned by aromatherapy oils she was wildly allergic to. She survived, but we don't speak of it.

Still, I'd have no trouble at all going into one of these underwater treatment rooms at the new Per Aquum Spa on the island of Huvafen Fushi in the Maldives. These rooms are actually built below the Indian Ocean, so what you look out at isn't a mere fish tank made to give you the impression of being surrounded by the sea. You're thirty feet below, looking at whatever sea life happens to wander by the windows. The Huvafen Fushi Spa Menu includes full day and half day programs, as well as spa partner treatments and treatments designed especially for men. I could go for everything on the menu (minus the aromatherapy), but especially the Japanese Silk Booster Facial With Eye Zone Therapy.

As for accommodations, it looks like pure luxury at the Huvafen Fushi resort, which offers bungalows on the beach, lagoon, or ocean. I just love the idea of rolling out of bed and into the warm sea.