Louis' List: Ritz Carlton South Beach

WSVN -- Sometimes it's cool to go on vacation in your own backyard. Especially when this is your backyard.

Miami Beach. There are 18,000 hotel rooms, 157 hotels, but there's only a handful I'd really recommend. The Ritz Carlton South Beach is definitely among the top.

Louis Aguirre: "OK, this is so not your mommy and daddy Ritz Carlton. Ritz Carlton's usually very traditional in design with lots of antiques. This one is definitely very South Beach with the black terrazzo floors, the stainless steel accents, the forties glam furniture. It's sexy. It's sophisticated It's hot. I love it."

The rooms are about the biggest I've found on the Beach. The beds and sheets are so comfortable I sleep like a baby.

Plus their room service rocks.

Louis Aguirre: "That's my breakfast."

Just make sure your cameraman gets his own.

Louis Aguirre: "Get out of here. Thank you."

Oh, and check out this view. Pretty spectacular way to start your day.

The pool scene is hot. With VIP cabana service, if you so desire, and the world's only tanning butler who will spray you and rub you down, complimentary of course.

Sorry, guests only, but if you just want to indulge just for the day, the spa here is a great way to go. You'll feel like you're on vacation, even if it's just for a couple of hours. Fifty different treatments that go way beyond your everyday spa experience.

But on this day, I'm checking out the newest addition to the Ritz Spa menu.

Louis Aguirre: "I'm going to go get my astro balanced. I don't know what that means, but I hear it's really good."

What it is, is a custom massage based on your zodiac sign. I know, it sounded very gimmicky to me too, but wait...

Louis Aguirre: "It's designed to bring a lot of bliss and tranquility to your life in union with the universe. Excellent, so I'm going to commune with the universe today. Yes!"

OK, so I'm a scorpio. That's a water sign, so my therapist, Jeff, who's also an astrologer, designs an 80-minute treatment to specifically target the areas of my body that are ruled by the element of water.

Louis Aguirre: "This is just the water element, a lot of long, flowing strokes."

The massage is multi-sensory, and Jeff uses the Lomi Lomi Hawaiian technique to mimic the motion of waves. Coconut oil hydrates and moisturizes my body, especially my feet, which Jeff says are ruled by pisces.

Jeff: "A lot of the water signs tend to have dry hands and feet, and you certainly have really dry feet."

Louis Aguirre: "Thank you for pointing that out, Jeff. I got dry feet."

Jeff also senses the other parts of my body that need balancing, all of it based on the stars. Then, somewhere in the middle of my pec massage, ruled by cancer by the way, something clicked. I'm not kidding! I was gone out of my body.

Louis Aguirre: "Sniff, I can't talk. I definitely feel like I'm, like I'm floating in the ocean. Wow!"

So was my astro balanced? I felt like it was, or maybe I was just really thirsty.

Jeff: "You are one with water now. How do you feel?"

Louis Aguirre: "Like water, I feel like water."

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Ritz Carlton South Beach
1433 Collins Ave.
Miami Beach, FL 33139
305-672-5858
info@carltonsouthbeach.com