Without a floor plan it's impossible to give a meaningful response. Going on the assumption that this is an alcove tub, why don't you just drop the ceiling over the tub and leave the rest high? Having to make assumptions is what makes the possibility of the response not be meaningful.

At one time it was fashionable to lower the ceiling over the bathtub and put short doors on the vertical part so one would have a place to store suitcases and the like.

Just leave the dropped soffit over the tub if that's the only place you need it, and line it up with the edge of the tub,

Or, as suggested above, drop the entire ceiling. You may be able to gain some height. depending upon how they framed around the beam.

I dropped my entire bathroom ceiling about 5"-6" because of some ducts rather than have a soffit and nobody can tell really.

In addition to that beam it looks like you've got vent ducting in that soffit.

What your options are for the beam might depend on what's happening with the ducting. Where does the ducting exhaust? Would you have to move the exhaust on the outside of the house? Are you going to need to raise a whole run of ducting if you eliminate the soffit or do the vents go up to the regular ceiling height before hitting the ducting run?

Some of those things might be outside your budget, so you'd either need to keep a lowered ceiling over the showers or keep the whole tray ceiling.

I'm not a fan of tray ceilings either, but if it's modernized it might not be horrible. The picture that BeverlyFLADeziner posted doesn't look bad with some lighting, etc. to make it look more intentional.

Whether you want to leave the beam exposed and wrap it, depends on your style. It can work with rustic looks, Craftsman, farmhouse, and MCM (tons of Eichler houses have exposed wood beams), but it's not really a glam or sleek contemporary look.

LED strip lights make it a great design feature with the right moulding.