QC NY Spa Governors Island
The QC NY is a brand new destination spa that opened on NYC's Governors Island in March 2022, and I was lucky enough to check it out! The QC Group - which operates 13 spas in Italy and France - created their first US outpost at the renovated army barracks on Governors Island, called QC NY.
Governors Island is a short, 10-minute ferry ride from lower Manhattan, and the spa is located just a few minutes from the dock. The spa is brand new and features multiple levels of treatment rooms, wet and dry saunas and 20 chill spaces, each with its own theme and scent. After checking in and getting a locker - don't forget to bring a bathing suit!!! - you can explore all the rooms at your leisure. Here, I'm heating up in one of the dry saunas. This one is called the "Mountain Stube" and is made entirely of pinewood and looks like a German cuckoo clocktower. The other saunas have Central Park and NYC Skyline themes and overlook the grounds, swimming pool and cityscape. Check out the view of the city!
View from QC NY Spa
Acqua Level
QC NY Spa Foot bath
Cedar Sauna
A few of the chill out spaces at QC Spa
The lower level of the Spa has all of the 'wet rooms' - including this fancy foot bath made out of marble with a cold water rock pond surrounding individual units that operate with the push of a button. The adjacent 'hydro district' has a mist/shower experience where spray jets atomize water into a foggy haze. The good news is that for every room, the QC Spa has a plaque describing the treatment room, points out features and benefits and recommends how long you should spend there. Some of the other water features include a Turkish Hamman style room with high heat and high humidity and twinkling lights in the ceiling, a Scotch Room with balsam scents and REALLY fantastic Vichy showers - check out how cool this is!
Vichy Shower
This room has four slabs of marble with a pipe suspended overhead. You lie on the table, face up and face down is cool too, and then you're sprayed with these tiny jets of water that alternate from cool to very warm water. The moody blue lights enhance the experience - which I thought was the most fun, most surprising and most enjoyable of the treatment rooms.
Vichy Shower
Dry Sauna
My favorite dry sauna was the Cedar Sauna which was really excellently designed in new cedarwood, without any nails exposed, with some antique botanical prints on the wall and atmospheric rainstorm music piped in. Not excessively hot, you can hang out on the wide benches of the cedar sauna and soak in the multi-sensory experience. This was definitely one of the nicest (and newest) spa rooms I've ever seen.
Chill Spaces
When you're not steaming or sweating, the QC NY has 20 different themed rooms for you to hang out and relax in. Pictured here, clockwise from top left, is the infrared room - where you lay on a cushy mattress under an infrared lamp, or chill before your massage in their waiting room, to the Cocoon room that had these egg chairs hanging from the ceiling, to the Insta-worthy "Upside Down Room" where you lay on large pillows in a space that has been turned upside down, complete with an upsidedown clock and a chessboard on the ceiling. Other rooms include a fireplace room, complete with rocking chairs, a club lounge with jazz music and an aromatherapy room (scents are BIG here!)
How, when and how much?
QC NY is really easy to access as part of the package price is a ferry ticket that you schedule ahead of time. It's about 10 minutes from the South Street Seaport to Governors Island, and there are tons of walking trails, fancy food carts and other attractions on the island.
You can buy a timed pass for the spa (4 hours or the entire day) and you can add on a message if you'd like. I went for the massage and it was really terrific. Admission and all the wellness experiences are around $100 for the day and adding a massage doubles the price. But, dollar for dollar, I thought this was a ridiculously good value for NYC as it's a little adventure getting there and you can spend all day, at your own pace, just hanging out. Bring a friend!
I was able to go mid-week in the first month of the spa's opening, so I realize I had a very low-key and exclusive experience. When the outdoor pools open this summer, I imagine it will be packed on the weekend...so plan accordingly...and don't forget your bathing suit!