Spa Therapist
A yacht spa therapist gives massage, facials and beauty treatments to owners and charter guests, usually in a dedicated spa on yachts of 60m and above. It is a trade job first. You need proper qualifications and hotel or cruise spa experience. On smaller yachts you also work as part of the interior team.
The jobWhat fills the day
A spa therapist runs treatments on board: massage, facials, body wraps, manicures, pedicures and sometimes waxing or hair. On yachts over about 60m there is usually a spa deck with a treatment room, a steam room or sauna, and a beauty station. You keep that space at five-star standard, manage product stock, launder the spa towels and robes, and keep treatment records for every guest. Between bookings you are expected to be useful. On most yachts that means helping the interior team with service or housekeeping.
With guests aboard, your day follows their timetable. Charter guests tend to book back to back in the late afternoon after watersports, and an owner may want a massage at 23:00. You might give six treatments in a day on a busy Caribbean charter and none for a week on an Atlantic crossing. On 50-70m yachts the job is usually combined with stewarding, and you work the interior rota as a full stew. On 90m+ yachts there may be two to four therapists under a spa manager, with a proper booking schedule and fewer interior duties.
Captains and chief stews want qualified therapists with land-based experience, ideally from a five-star hotel spa, a destination spa or a cruise ship. A Level 3 qualification or a CIDESCO diploma is the baseline, and massage is the core skill. Range matters. Someone who can do deep tissue, Thai, facials and gel nails covers far more guest requests than someone who only does massage. Discretion counts as much as technique. You spend hours alone in a room with principals and their families, and what you hear stays there.
Most therapists start as a steward/spa therapist on a mid-size yacht, then move to a dedicated spa role on a larger one. After three to five years, with brand training and some time leading others, spa manager on a 90m+ yacht is the natural next step. That job adds rotas, budgets, supplier accounts and training new therapists. Some move across into interior management, using the stew skills they picked up early on. Others go rotational, which is more common at the top end, where yachts carry a full spa team.
Skills captains look for
- Swedish and deep tissue massage
- Facials and skincare
- Manicure and pedicure
- Spa hygiene and stock control
- Guest discretion
- Silver service and housekeeping
- Treatment menu planning
A day aboardCharter day, 85m motor yacht, Maldives
Open the spa, switch on the steam room, check temperatures and set out fresh linen. Look over the day's bookings with the chief stew.
Help with breakfast service on the aft deck, then strip and reset two guest cabins while the guests are out diving.
Give a sixty-minute sports massage to a guest coming back from the reef, followed by a quick consultation on her plans for later in the week.
Crew lunch in the mess and a short rest in the cabin.
Two back-to-back facials and a pedicure on the sun deck for the principal's daughters. Clean down and restock between each one.
Couples massage in the treatment room before dinner. Note oils used and preferences on each guest's file.
Dinner and an hour off while the service stews cover the evening.
Run the spa laundry, count product stock and put together an order list for the Malé provisioning run.
On call for a late massage request from the charterer, then close down the spa and log hours.
Pay by yacht sizeMonthly, before tips. Estimates. Bars share one scale.
Charter tips are shared among the whole crew and can add several thousand dollars over a busy season. Some yachts let therapists keep tips given for individual treatments, and rotational contracts at the top end give you more leave for a similar monthly rate. See the Spa, Wellness & Childcare salary guide for figures from live adverts.
Tickets and visas
Must have
- STCW Basic Safety Training
- ENG1 medical certificate
- Level 3 beauty or massage qualification (VTCT, ITEC, CIBTAC) or CIDESCO diploma
Gets you hired
- PDSD
- GUEST interior course
- Brand training (ESPA, La Prairie, Natura Bissé or similar)
- Level 4 sports massage
- Food Hygiene Level 2
Visas
- Schengen visa or EU passport
- US B1/B2 visa
Where it leadsA typical career path
Questions crew ask
Do I need yacht experience to get a spa therapist job?
No, but you do need land-based spa experience. Most first hires come from five-star hotels, destination spas or cruise ships with at least two years behind them. Your first yacht job is often a combined steward/spa therapist role on a mid-size yacht.
Will I have to do stew work as well?
On yachts under about 80m, almost always. You will do service, housekeeping and laundry around your treatments. On 90m+ yachts with a full spa team the role is more specialised, though helping the interior when it is busy is still expected.
Which qualifications do captains look for?
A CIDESCO diploma or a Level 3 qualification from VTCT, ITEC or CIBTAC is the standard. Massage carries the most weight, and facials, nails and brand training make you more useful. STCW and an ENG1 are needed before you can join any yacht.
Where are the spa therapist jobs based?
Most hiring happens in Antibes, Palma and Monaco ahead of the Mediterranean season, and in Fort Lauderdale before the Caribbean winter. The larger yachts with dedicated spas also cruise the Maldives, the Red Sea and the South Pacific.