QUEEN [OR KING] FOR A DAY.

• Author: BRONIKOWSKI, LYNN

STRESSED-OUT? HUNGOVER? DAY SPAS ARE THE LATEST RAGE FOR WHAT AILS YOU.

Karel Starek laughs as he recalls the incredible scene -- a businessman standing on a ladder raising his cell phone to the heavens, desperately trying to pick up a signal.

It happened last year at Gold Lake Resort and Spa -- 8,600 feet above sea level and nestled in the mountains of Ward, 20 miles northwest of Boulder. Business people, among others, come here to unwind, restore, build teams and de-stress.

It's a "No phones, please" kind of place.

"Some people can't even be without a phone for one day," said Starek. Five years ago, he and his wife, Alice Starek, invested $5 million to buy and restore the resort. "We just want people to come here and relax because this is a busy world, and people don't have time to sit down and contemplate anymore."

Gold Lake is one of a bevy of spas that have sprung up across Colorado, catering to today's business community either as one-day escapes, or multiday brainstorming or team-building getaways. The Denver area alone boasts a score or more of day spas. Some started as hair salons or tanning parlors; some began in the body-wrap biz or as weight-loss clinics before declaring themselves spas. You could call it convergence.

Nationally, the spa boom is immense, growing from 30 day spas nationwide in 1989 to 860 by 1998. In 1999, the day spa count nearly doubled, leaping to an astounding 1,600, according to New York-based Spa-finders, the leading reservations service for hundreds of spas and health resorts worldwide.

"And those numbers are conservative," said Stephanie Matolyak, director of business development for Spa-finders. "The day-spa boom started in the '90s, following the fitness boom of the '80s. The growth of the day-spa industry is attributed to the baby boomers who used to do high-impact aerobics and now need to slow down."

Helen Martin, a Littleton bank officer, is among the targeted baby boom generation.

"We think we can go into a day spa and come out looking like we're 20 years old again," said Martin. "We like to think it's that way, anyway."

Technology, too, plays a role in the day-spa splurge because "it speeded us up," said Matolyak.

"People used to go to a spa to lose weight and work out," she added. "Now they're going to slow down. I like to think of day spas as the Howard Johnson's, or the rest stops, along the information highway."

That's the thinking behind Gold Lake, where hot pools overlooking a mountain lake...