BEST OF NEW YORK



Oasis Day Spa: The lava stone massage.

Beauty
Best Massage
Oasis Day Spa
108 East 16th Street and 1 Park Avenue, near 32nd Street
212-254-0840

If you're getting a lava-stone massage at Oasis, prepare to clear your calendar for the rest of the day. Or week, perhaps. The massage therapists manipulate a series of smooth, warm stones — moving them around on your body — to slowly work muscles into a happily gelatinous state of total relaxation ($110 an hour).

Tui-Na
222 Lafayette Street
212-941-6038

GREAT DEAL: If you can't get naked in front of other people, don't bother with Tui-Na. If, however, you can deal with lying nude in a darkened basement room with an equally nude stranger (of either gender) on the table next to you, you'll get a true massage bargain here — once the energetic Tui-Na masseuses start working on your muscles, you'll lose any anxiety about where you are, anyway. And at $40 an hour, it's pretty easy to let go.



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Photograph courtesy of Oasis Day Spa.