It's Valentine's Day, in case you've forgotten. And if you haven't taken advantage of all the online shopping tips I've offered over the past few weeks, you're not completely out of luck — especially if there's a day spa near you. I'm talking about giving your Valentine a spa gift certificate. In my book, that's about best gift anyone can give. In fact, I'd be perfectly happy to receive nothing but day spa gift certificates as gifts for the rest of my life. So what should you keep in mind when shopping for spa gift certificates?

First Things First
Visit the spa in person. Make sure it's a true day spa and not a hair salon, nail salon or gym with a tiny room off to the side for massage therapy. You want to give your love a truly immersive spa experience, where she or he is pampered from the moment the door opens. It also helps to check out the menu of services to make sure a spa offers a few luxurious-sounding massage and body treatment options. Of course, speak to a knowledgeable employee about what each service entails.

Massages
Relaxing spa music. Dimmed lights. An experienced massage therapist. Let the relaxation and detoxification begin. Massage has been improving lives for thousands of years. So do you choose Swedish? Deep tissue? Hot stone? Thai?

Swedish massage involves is what you might call "the basics." It's a simple, relaxing massage and the perfect gift for a first-time spa visitor. Deep tissue or sports massage involve much harder pressure and work best for people who have particular muscle issues and know that's what they're looking for. Hot stone massage uses, surprise, heated stones to knead the knots out of your muscles. And aromatherapy massage is any massage incorporating essential oils to benefit a person's health and state of mind.

Tip: You might want to avoid shiatsu, ayurveda, acupuncture, craniosacral massage and other unfamiliar treatments for first-time spa visitors. However, the good news is that no matter what service is written on the gift certificate, there's a 99.9% chance your Valentine can use the it for whatever spa service she or he would like at a given spa.

Body Treatments
Body treatments are like facials for your entire body. They can range from exfoliations incorporating fruit, salt and dry-brushing to hydrating wraps using mud and seaweed to aromatherapy wraps using hot, essential oil-soaked sheets. The goals of most body treatments include relaxation, hydration and skin smoothing.

Facials
Facials can be a touchy subject for some people because we all have some line of daily facial products we swear by, and venturing beyond that routine can result in unwelcome side effects and skin reactions. Therefore it's important to make sure a spa uses either the same skin products your Valentine already uses (only spa-strength) or uses some other extremely high-quality, all-natural facial product line.

Of course, it's also ideal to make sure your chosen spa will allow your love to redeem a facial gift certificate for a massage of she or he sees fit. So what is a facial? In a facial, a well-trained professional analyzes, pampers, treats, purifies, moisturizes and exfoliates the facial skin. Facials should also include a bit of massage.

Manicures and Pedicures
Of course, what you get depends on the establishment, but generally manicures and pedicures involve some massage, skin softening, nail treating and painting.

For help finding a spa near you, try CitySearch.com or SpaFinder.com — or the yellow pages. Happy spa hunting. And happy Valentine's Day.