With criteria that includes services, cleanliness, staff interaction and fitness facilities, Mobil Travel Guides offers up what it feels are currently the best of the best spas in North America. It uses a checklist of over 450 criteria to come to their final decision on a spa.

Only two of those spas listed this year made the upper eschelon 5-star rating. The Spa Montage at the Montage Resort in Laguna Beach, CA was one, and it maintained its rating from last year. The second was the Mandarin Oriental New York Spa, which improved on its 4-star rating from last year.

The majority of the listed spas are based in resorts or luxury hotels, and of the four and five-star rated spas, sixteen are located in California. Twelve more are located in Florida. Only three of the top-rated spas are in Canada.

Las Vegas has the most four and five-star spas, with five (Canyon Ranch SpaClub at The Venetian; Spa Bellagio at The Bellagio; The Spa at Wynn Las Vegas; Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas; and The Spa at Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas). Miami is next with four (La Maison de Beaute, South Beach; The Spa at Setai, Miami Beach; The Spa Mandarin Oriental Miami; Willow Stream Spa).

Los Angeles only has two (Beverly Hills Hotel Spa by La Prarie; Four Seasons Spa at Beverly Hills), as does Honolulu (Spa Suites at Kahala Hotel & Resort; Spa Halekulani) Orlando (Canyon Ranch SpaClub at Gaylord Palms; Spa at Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes) and New York City (The Peninsula Spa; and the aforementioned Mandarin spa).

Looking at it from a hotel/resort viewpoint, Four Seasons has the most quality spas with six, followed closely by Ritz-Carlton with eight. Given that these two resort chains are known for their high quality of service to begin with, I'm not surprised by this.

You can read the full list of top-rated spas, as decided by Mobil Travel Guides at the company's website. The list also goes on to mention their picks for 3-star rated facilities, as well.