For those who pale at the thought of putting on swimwear, don’t fret so –
we’re here to help. Before you bare (almost) all, what you need is a short,
sharp session of intensive training.
Obviously, we’re not talking about running up hills, or lifting anything so
hazardous as a dumbbell. No, our training takes place... in a spa. And only
the hottest, most glamorous ones, mind, where you’ll be honed, toned,
rubbed, scrubbed, wrapped and slapped into shape – for beach, barbecue or
just drinks on the terrace.
FOXHILLS
Surrey
This mellow-stoned Victorian manor in the stockbroker belt is the epitome of
traditional country-house values, but, next month, it unveils that most
contemporary of quick fixes: a £5m spa. The centre will offer superindulgent
therapies from Elemis, as well as fabulous Mama Mio treatments specifically
for pregnant women and new mums. It’s bang on trend with the latest craze,
too: “hair-cials” (facials for the hair and scalp – sounds gimmicky but,
believe me, it works).
It offers “wellness concierges” at the Technogym, a sexy natural pool and an
organic spa garden, designed by the Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist Mark
Gregory, that’s scattered with hammocks and Balinese day beds to ensure pure
snores.
Getting there: Foxhills (01932 872050, www.foxhills.co.uk)
has doubles from £140, B&B.
ALMYRA
Cyprus
For those who juggle Prada and parenting, the Almyra is this summer’s
essential accessory. It has sleek, white-on-white minimalist decor and
charming, attentive staff who don’t need tongs to handle wet children. The
only thing it lacked was a groovy spa in which to rediscover your Om
postDick & Dom.
Happily, that will be rectified next month, when it opens a soothing sanctuary
featuring the organic Just Pure range. Signature treatments include a
fragrant flower ritual, featuring rose and frangipani, and fruit frivolity,
with an almond-seed body polish, a berry buttermilk rinse and a blueberry
crème pack, guaranteed to result in one very yummy mummy.
Getting there: Mediterranean Experience (0845 277 3303, www.medexperience.co.uk)
has a week starting at £1,684, B&B, for a family of two adults and
two under12s in two rooms, including flights from Heathrow and private
transfers.
PURESCAPES
Portugal Spas are moving on from spot-squeezing and brow-tweezing.
They’re more your biceps bou-tiques these days, with stressed executives
looking to max out at tailor-made luxury boot camps.
Purescapes, run by an elite team of sport, nature and nutrition coaches, has
just set up base in a swanky villa amid the orange groves of the Monchique
mountains, in the Algarve. It offers on-demand one-on-one fitness training
and group sessions in qi gong, yoga and boxercise. Guests have nutrition
consultations; they sail, they hike, they swim. But it isn’t all hard work –
there’s time for a spot of sun-bathing and daily massages.
Getting there: with Wellbeing Escapes (0845 602 6202, www.wellbeingescapes.co.uk),
a week starts at £1,899pp, full-board, including flights from Heathrow or
Gatwick.
ICE HOUSE
Ireland
Ireland is Europe’s new spa capital, and one of its rising stars is the Ice
House. It’s a funky reworking of a 19th-century neo-Tudor pile (the
architects have built homes for Irish A-listers such as Eddie Irvine) in a
top-notch location – overlooking the salmon-rich River Moy in Mayo, the
wildest county out west. Four of its 32 rooms are gorgeous, glass-boxed spa
suites that hog those misty vistas; its Chill Spa capitalises on the
dramatic scenery, with a glass-walled relaxation room, a waterside garden
and alfresco hot tubs.
The holistic menu, based on the elements and “forces of the deep sea”,
includes massages with warm Enniscrone pebbles and wraps with sea salt and
Spirulina, a marine plant that detoxifies and nourishes. And there’s always
the Guinness...
Getting there: Ice House (00 353 96 23500, www.ice househotel.ie) has
doubles from £112, B&B. Airlines flying to Knock include Ryanair (www.ryanair.com)
and BMI Baby (www.bmibaby.co.uk).
SHA WELLNESS CLINIC
Spain
Madonna swears by her strict macrobiotic diet, which ditches dairy products in
favour of brown rice and green lentils. If you’re the kind of material girl
who’d rather sell granny than give up chocolate, you’ll need a little extra
help, and it arrives in September in the form of Europe’s first destination
spa concentrating on macrobiotic practices.
The gleaming white and very glamorous SHA Wellness Spa nestles in the
landscaped gardens of a secluded beach near Altea, a surprisingly arty
corner of the Costa Blanca that is framed by the gnarled green knuckles of
the Sierra de Bernia. Learn to control your yin, yang and maybe the
occasional hunger pang in one of the resort’s 93 luxurious suites.
Getting there: SHA (00 34 902 995335, Shawellnessclinic.com)
has a week from £1,450, full-board, including medical consultations, spa
treatments and activities. Airlines flying to Alicante include BMI Baby (www.bmibaby.com),
Jet2 (0871 226 1737, www.jet2.com) and
Ryanair (www.ryanair.com).
AZURA
Mozambique
Mozambique is the Maldives with knobs on: it’s got the same Crusoe-cliché
beaches and six-star diving, but, in the African version of paradise, you’re
not marooned in a sterile tourist enclave. Fishermen with their catch strung
out on poles, mothers with babies strapped to their backs and even the
occasional curious dolphin pass before Azura’s 14 beachfront cabanas on
Benguerra Island.
The resort’s dinky but delicious spa opens at the start of next month, intent
on keeping treats local. Therapists use tribal techniques such as wooden
massage sticks, and native potions include marula (a wonder oil: just
holding a bottle can take 10 years off you). There are several cute touches:
don’t expect a massaging power shower to wash off lotions; instead, you get
a dousing under an old-fashioned watering can.
Getting there: with Rainbow Tours (020 7226 1004, www.rainbowtours.co.uk),
a week starts at £3,234pp, full-board, including flights from Heathrow via
Johannesburg and transfers.
SIX SENSES DESTINATION SPA
Thailand
This is one of the biggies – it opened last month on a private island off
Phuket, with views over the limestone karsts that were immortalised in The
Man with the Golden Gun. The huge villas are sumptuous, with oversized
indoor and outdoor bathrooms, and there’s an edible garden you can nibble
from between meals. There are four concepts: Thai (the island has its own
massage school); Indian (focusing on energy healing and ayurveda); Chinese
(set to become the trendiest treatments over the next few years); and
Indonesian (with treatments amid waterfalls, scheduled to open at the end of
this month). The resort has a beach boot camp and a jungle gym, too, just in
case you were bored.
Getting there: Carrier (0161 491 7630, www.carrier.co.uk)
has a week from £4,325pp, full-board, including flights from Heathrow to
Phuket via Bangkok and transfers.
MANDARIN ORIENTAL RIVIERA MAYA
Mexico
A marriage of Mayan and Asian cultures, this. The spa has envi-ably sleek
Oriental architecture complemented by the kind of bone-white sands,
turquoise seas and pristine mangroves that the Yucatan peninsula still does
so well everywhere outside Cancun. The menu includes a Mexican temazcal (an
intensive steam experience that’s presided over by a shaman) and every sort
of massage, from aromatherapy to Thai.
Really, this is 10 mini spas, as each room has a changing area, indoor and
outdoor massage and relaxation spaces, and lush gardens where you’re nose to
nose with exotic birds. All you need do is choose your weapons: the terraces
are planted with medicinal herbs that are pounded for your treatment.
Getting there: with Seasons in Style (01244 202000, www.seasonsinstyle.com),
a week starts at £2,130pp, room-only, including flights from Heathrow via
Miami.
LA SOURCE
Grenada
Grenada is regarded by many as the best Caribbean island: an intoxicating
bouquet of beautiful beaches, teeming rain-forests and sensitive tourism. La
Source was not only Grenada’s, but the region’s, premier health and fitness
address until 2004, when Hurricane Ivan ripped through the resort. It
reopened earlier this year and has been collecting fans ever since. You can
pump, push, grind and groan your way through an exhaustive menu of classes
or just enjoy your daily complimentary massage. The hotel’s slogan is:
“Amazing things happen when you introduce your body to your mind.”
Getting there: with Essential Escapes (020 7284 3344, www.essentialescapes.com),
an all-inclusive week starts at £1,110pp, including flights from Gatwick and
transfers.
DOLDER GRAND
Switzerland
Spa aficionados feel about Sylvia Sepielli the way Manchester United fans do
about Ryan Giggs. She is the consistent presence behind serial award-winners
such as Parrot Cay, in the Turks and Caicos, and Pangkor Laut, in Malaysia.
The Dolder Grand, her first European project, is part of a jaw-dropping
£250m renovation of this Zurich grande dame. Norman Foster designed the
spa’s striking glass and aluminium exterior; inside, it’s
Sepielli-stardusted, with a teardrop-shaped pool offering views of the Alps,
a candlelit cupola for meditation, an Arctic room filled with fake snow, and
Japanese-style tsunaburos (tubs where you’re buried in hot pebbles). It’s
2008’s flashiest way to flush out toxins.
Getting there: doubles at the Dolder Grand (00 41 44 456 6000, www.thedoldergrand.com)
start at £420, room-only. Airlines flying to Zurich include EasyJet (www.easyjet.com),
Swiss (0845 601 0956, www.swiss.com) and
British Airways (0844 493 0787, www.ba.com).
Dictionary reading of onsen is spa, a hot spring. But judging from the pictures, something has been lost in translation; no swimming costume. By the last count, some 70 hot springs in this part of the Central Japan Alps. Spoilt for choice I daresay. Costs about £1.50 to 2.50. You pay how much?
Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan