A juniper ranch that learned to slow down
Fourteen years, three buildings and one idea: give people a whole afternoon back. Solace Sands is still family run, still on Juniper Mesa Road.
How itstarted
Marisol Vega grew up in Cottonwood, twenty minutes down the valley, and spent ten years doing facials in Scottsdale hotels where every guest was scheduled to the minute. In 2011 she and her brother Dario bought eleven acres of scrub on Juniper Mesa Road with a collapsing barn, a horse trough and a view of Thunder Mountain that neither of them could talk themselves out of.
The first year was four treatment rooms and a card table. Guests kept doing something the Scottsdale spas never allowed: they stayed. They sat in the garden after their massage, drank another iced tea, and went home at dusk instead of noon. So the second year the treatment rooms stayed the same, and everything around them got bigger. A mineral pool. A shaded deck. A lounge with heated stone benches and no clock.
That is still the whole business model. We book fewer guests per hour than a spa our size normally would, we include the water with every real treatment, and we would rather you linger than turn the room.
2160 Juniper Mesa Road
Eleven acres of juniper, one bathhouse, one garden cafe and a great deal of shade.
What we hold to
Four ruleswe do not bend
They cost us bookings on busy Saturdays. We keep them anyway, because they are the reason people drive down from Flagstaff.
Unhurried by design
We book fewer guests per hour than most spas our size. That means your therapist is not watching a clock, and there is always somewhere quiet to sit afterwards.
Ingredients with an address
Red clay from the Verde Valley, mesquite honey from Camp Verde, jojoba grown south of Tucson. June blends the body butters in small batches every Monday.
Water first
Every treatment of 50 minutes or longer includes the hydrotherapy circuit. Warm muscles take deeper work, and the soak is half of why guests sleep so well.
Nobody gets sold to
We do not work on commission. If a product will not help you, your esthetician will say so and write something simpler on your card instead.
Fourteen years,five changes
- 2011
A juniper ranch changes hands
Marisol Vega and her brother Dario bought eleven acres of scrub and one collapsing barn on Juniper Mesa Road, with four treatment rooms and a card table for a front desk.
- 2014
The first mineral pool
A magnesium soaking pool goes in where the horse trough stood, shaded by a sail and open to Thunder Mountain. Guests start staying for the whole afternoon.
- 2018
Creekside Bathhouse opens
Eli Navarro, fresh from thermal bathing in Budapest and Baden-Baden, designs the five-station circuit: warm pool, cedar sauna, eucalyptus steam, cold plunge, heated stone lounge.
- 2021
Oak Creek Studio
Lashes, brows, nails and bridal makeup move to their own light-filled studio at Bell Rock Plaza, ten minutes south of the spa house.
- 2024
The garden cafe and Mesa Suite
A shaded terrace kitchen and a private couples suite with a copper soaking tub complete the campus. Memberships launch the same spring.
Solace Sands by the numbers
- 14Years on Juniper Mesa RoadOpened in 2011
- 22Licensed therapists and estheticiansArizona licensed, every one
- 1,146Verified guest reviewsAveraging 4.9 of 5
- 18Guests per circuit windowSo the bathhouse stays quiet
We do not sell relaxation. We sell an afternoon where nobody can reach you and the water is already warm.
Our team
The handsbehind the quiet
Licensed therapists and estheticians with an average of eleven years at the table. Tap a portrait to meet them.
Meet every therapist
Licenses,training and care
Every practitioner at Solace Sands is Arizona licensed and insured. Tell us about health conditions, medications or pregnancy when you book and we will adapt the treatment.
Arizona licensed
Every therapist and esthetician holds a current Arizona license, verified annually.
Autoclave sterilization
Medical grade sterilization for all metal tools, opened from sealed pouches at your chair.
Oncology esthetics trained
Two estheticians certified to work safely with guests in or after cancer treatment.
Readers' pick, six years
Sedona Red Rock News readers' choice for day spa, 2020 through 2025 (sample award).
Step-free access
Spa house, treatment rooms and mineral pool are step free, with a pool lift and accessible showers.
Leaping Bunny back bar
Cruelty free products throughout, with refill stations for retail bottles.
Spa treatments support relaxation and comfort. They are not medical care and do not diagnose or treat any condition. Please speak with your doctor about heat, cold and massage if you are managing a health condition or are pregnant.
Come seethe place
Book a treatment, or just call and ask us anything. Our front desk picks up from 8 am, seven days a week.
Gift cards never expire · Free cancellation up to 24 hours