Wild luxury: Brazil's boutique hotel craze heads to the country, blending nature with the high life.

Imagine wandering through the middle of the woods sipping champagne from a glass, not water from a thermos. Instead of sleeping in a tent, you can choose your pad from a string of small chalets. Each one is ultra-chic, in a small, quiet refuge only 60 kilometers from Sao Paulo but an eternity away from the madness of one of the world's biggest cities.

On 300,000 square meters of woodlands, the Unique Garden Hotel & Spa opened for business this year to lure upscale guests willing to pay up to US$700 a night to stay in one of the 25 chalets. Boutique hotels, marked by their decorative architecture and personalized reception, are not new to Latin America; they can be found in most urban markets. But setting up such a development in the countryside is new in the region.

The Unique Garden Hotel & Spa has long been the dream of Victor Siaulys, owner of the larger Unique hotel in Sao Paulo, also considered a vanguard property for the industry (and known as the "watermelon" due to its odd shape). Guests at the hotel in Sao Paulo and at the $20 million development in the hills include top models and actors. The investment meant the renovation of an old mansion into a modern but natural property. "It's a little world created for people looking to get away from it all. The most important thing is well-being," says Maria Tereza Fittipaldi, head of the hotel's public relations. To deliver on its promise of absolute tranquility, no guests under the age of 18 are allowed. Dogs are welcome but must stay in kennels.

The hotel blends all of the qualities of a luxury outfit with a top-notch spa, although in Brazil, the word "spa" is erroneously associated with the idea of a fat camp. Unique's employees want to reinvent the word locally or better yet, bring over the European version, which is a place for physical and mental wellbeing. Natural spring water, drawn from 300-meter wells, helps reinforce this image. "It's about bringing back the notion of sound body, sound mind," says Fittipaldi. "You come in with a polluted head, body and hair and clean it all up here."

Beyond pure air and water, the spa also provides six-handed massages (administered simultaneously by three therapists) and so-called wine therapy, which involves soothing the senses with arousing wine vapors. "It's totally cleansing. Wine therapy rejuvenates the cells," says Roberto Nogueira, the hotel's physiologist. Other activities include yoga, step aerobics and stretching.

Many guests arrive from Sao Paulo by helicopter, a 10 minute journey. Chalets vary in their degree of luxury. The Vila Mediterranea has more modest chalets while the Vila Contemporanea is home to 10 of the more modern lodgings, all designed by famed Brazilian architect Buy Ohtake, who also designed the watermelon-shaped hotel in Sao Paulo. Guests can also choose among "cold" rooms, which are made from rocks and marble, or "warm" rooms made from wood.

All smiles. Diana Cox lives in Sao Paulo and has spent two stays at the lodge with her husband on weekend packages. "I was surprised from the beginning. Everybody was smiling," Cox says. She especially liked the food. "I ate wonderfully, at both lunch and dinner," she says.

The hotel's creative cuisine is the trademark of French chef Michel Darque, who has worked in England, Belgium and Hong Kong. Running two restaurants at the hotel--Chez Victor and La Veranda--Darque's dishes add a touch of French flavor without taking away from the spa experience. If the guest requests a special dish, Darque will do so if given several days notice. "Nothing's impossible as long as you give me 72 hours notice to tell me how you would like me to make your cassoulet. We can get the kitchen ready and make it together," says Darque.

All dishes are prepared in line with the hotel's mission of providing total-body well-being in what is typically a three-day stay. Most of the kitchen's dishes are light to reflect the demands of their guests. "In the past, Brazil was marvelons. There was feijoada, caipirinha and barbeques," Darque says. "There was never any cholesterol and no diabetes. That was before we all got fat."

CARLOS ADESE * MAIRIPORA, SAO PAULO