Pamper yourself, but don’t get lost

FOR a day at Las Vegas’ newest spa, bring your platinum credit card and maybe a hand-held GPS device. At 50,000 square feet, the Qua Baths & Spa at Caesars Palace -- with its sprawling Roman-inspired pools and 51 treatment rooms -- is so large that even casino workers get lost among the Vichy showers, herbal steam rooms and tea lounges.

“We’re not claiming it’s the region’s largest spa,” spa director Jennifer Lynn says. (That honor apparently lies with rival Canyon Ranch.) “But Qua is certainly the most opulent.”

The name “Qua” is the Italian word for “here.” It is also a reference to “aqua,” as in water, which is as copious as Qua’s floor space. Since it opened Nov. 14 celebrities such as Jeremy Piven, Whoopi Goldberg and Larry David have been seen padding around Qua’s towering fountains. A 55-degree Arctic Ice room lets guests cool down using ice chips. A tuxedoed master barber hovers in the Men’s Only Zone, offering old-school haircuts and straight-razor shaves, while a tea sommelier flits around suggesting the right brew for this manicure or that body wrap.

Even the job titles at Qua have that whiff of over-the-top decadence. Don’t call that masseuse a masseuse. “We call them artisans,” Lynn says.

Qua Baths & Spa, Caesars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas, NV 89109; (866) 782-0655, www.harrahs.com/qua/.Open 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Day use of spa and gym $35; 50-minute Swedish massage $140; lifting and firming facial $180.

-- Leslie Gornstein