It’s a little awkward stepping naked into a mud bath with your mother. As an attendant held my towel, I tried not to pay attention to my body and sat down carefully at the edge of a tub filled with dark brown glop. My mother, whose tub was directly next to mine, smiled up eagerly. More comfortable with nudity than I am, she had already slipped in. Her attendant was slapping handfuls of mud onto her belly, legs, chest, and arms, submerging her entire body except for her head. “Feels good!” she said, looking as happy as a pig in, well, sulphuric smelling mud, therapeutic peat moss, and volcanic ash. “What are you waiting for?”

I adjusted my shower cap, took a deep breath, and lowered myself in.

We were in Calistoga, Calif., on a family vacation. While my father had opted only for a massage, my mother and I had decided to take full advantage of the treatments available at our hotel, the Calistoga Spa Hot Springs. This meant a mud bath, a mineral bath, a whirlpool treatment, and a blanket wrap – a combination nearly guaranteed to wipe me out for the rest of the day.

I do yoga and occasionally take long showers, but I’m really not that good at pampering myself. Luckily, once you’re naked in a mud bath, you really have no choice – first, because you can’t get out without help, and second, because why would you ever want to? Instead, I leaned my head back and let my body relax as my attendant covered me entirely in mud. As my body temperature rose, I could feel my muscles start to loosen – a feeling that only intensified when she helped me out of the bath and into an orange-scented whirlpool and gave me a cup of mineral water to sip, flavored with orange slices. By the time I’d gone through a mineral bath and blanket wrap, I was having difficulty walking. I staggered back to our room and passed out into a blissful mid-afternoon nap, making sure to wake up in time for my massage. (Calistoga Spa Hot Springs, 1006 Washington St., 707-942-6269, www.calistogaspa.com.)

Located at the northern end of Napa Valley, about 75 miles north of San Francisco, Calistoga is hardly a new destination: Native Americans knew about the area’s geothermal waters, which are rich in calcium and magnesium, long before anyone was offering full-body massages. But Calistoga earned its nationwide reputation as a spa town in the 1860s, when entrepreneur, alcoholic, bigamist, and ex-Mormon Samuel Brannan (also California’s first millionaire) bought 3,000 acres of nearby land and became the proprietor of Calistoga Hot Springs. Legend has it that the name Calistoga is a mixture of Saratoga and California, coined when Brannan slurred the two names together while drunk. In addition to Calistoga Hot Springs, other popular spa spots in town are the Mount View Hotel and Spa (1457 Lincoln Ave., 800-816-6877, www.mountainviewhotel.com, www.mountainviewspa.com) and the Lincoln Avenue Spa (1339 Lincoln Ave., 707-942-5296, www.lincolnavenuespa.com), a day spa offering mud treatments ranging from “wine mud” to “mint mud.”

Today, Lincoln Street is Calistoga’s main drag, packed with boutiques, spas, and restaurants. For the athletic, the Calistoga Bike Shop (Calistoga Bike Shop, 1318 Lincoln Ave., 707-942-9687, www.calistogabikeshop.com) offers rentals. Silverado Trail, which runs parallel to Highway 29, has a bike lane and beautiful views – and the bike shop offers special winery touring models. For shoppers, the town offers plenty of places to spend money, including the Calistoga Depot: a row of shops all housed in train cars at the old Calistoga station. For special occasions, there are hot air balloon and helicopter rides. The California Old Faithful Geyser wows visitors with eruptions approximately once every 40 minutes, and hiking trails wind through the nearby scenery (1299 Tubbs Lane, 707-942-6463, www.oldfaithfulgeyser.com).

And of course, if spa treatments aren’t satisfactorily self-indulgent, Calistoga happens to be in the middle of California’s wine country – which, if you’re coming from San Francisco, you have no choice but to pass through. I was lucky enough to get to ride along with George Stone, a professional chauffeur and guide who takes guests on personalized tours through the wine country in his private Mercedes. Mr. Stone explained the history of the valley and dropped me off at five separate wineries for tours and tastings, breaking up the day – thankfully – with a catered outdoor picnic lunch (Mercedes Wine Tours of Napa Valley, 3265 Von Uhlit Ranch Road, Napa, 707-253-2029, www.napavalleychauffers.com, georgenvc@aol.com; $70 an hour, plus 20% gratuity, five-hour minimum).

“I’m less expensive than a DUI and hopefully more fun,” Mr. Stone said as I watched vineyards and mountains from behind tinted windows. I guess you could skip the spa treatments and drive your own car through wine country, I thought to myself, muscles limp from a combination of mud baths, massage, and wine – but really, why?