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Brief Guide to Health Spas |
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You’re tired. Life has become so busy. All the secret places in your head that you used to retreat to when you needed a quiet, calm space to park your thoughts have been taken over by children, jobs, partners, friends, – so much noise, stress and well, stuff, and most of it isn’t even yours! You need a break, to hide away and find those peaceful places within you that used to offer such sanctuary.
A health spa break sounds perfect – “health spa” conjures up an image of escape, renewal, fitness and cleansing. An opportunity to clear away the clutter that has crowded out your sense of self and well-being. People seek out time at a health spa for many reasons – to relax, switch off, detox, weight management, pampering, fitness, rejuvenation, healing. | |||||||||||||||
| Where to Find a Health Spa | |||||||||||||||
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It can be daunting when deciding where to go, adding to the stress you are trying to alleviate. How to find a spa that isn’t intimidating, or force-feeds tofu and wheat-germ juice to its guests, or has them running bare-breasted over swamplands - or one that makes an aggressive assault on the fitness levels of your credit card.
Health spas have endured a mixed reputation; they have often been portrayed comically as lofty, exclusive establishments where anything less than an already perfect body and oversized bank balance would be greeted with distain. Today, it is a huge and ever growing industry that has flung its doors wide open to all comers. The priority is to make every customer feel special and at ease, regardless of the baggage they bring. A good place to start your search would be to visit www.healthspas.co.uk as it highlights a range of health spas in the UK. www.facials.co.uk will direct you to health spas where the emphasis is more on beauty regimes than fitness. Life style sections of newspapers and magazines, especially magazines for women or interior type magazines often have features on health spas with special offers. Many major hotels have health spas attached to them and offer weekend or midweek breaks. | |||||||||||||||
| What to Expect | |||||||||||||||
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All health spas promise to pamper you and wave you off relaxed, refreshed and rejuvenated. There is a sense of equality at these places as everyone, it seems, abandons their day wear for white fluffy towelling bathrobes and drifts through the options available in a gentle haze of soothing smells, sounds – usually trickling water – and calmness. There are no mobile phones, no laptops, no loud noises, and generally, no loud people. Everyone talks in hushed tones and moves slowly through their day. There should be an over-riding air of tranquillity, despite the fact the treatments are rigorously timetabled and executed to the minute. Health spas that make it to the top of consumer lists are very well run and have invested heavily in customer service. In this way they can exude an air of calm, angelic ambience whilst running a very efficient business.
Each health spa is different, but on the whole you can expect to find an indoor swimming pool, a steam room, a sauna, quiet places to lounge around and read or sleep and a restaurant and/or bar to sample and sip food and drink, not all of which has to be wholesome. A glass of wine should surely never be denied at the end of an intense pampering workout! There will be treatments to try – massages, scrubs, wraps and a whole host of passive activities to detox and detangle you from whatever it might be that ails you – all that is generally required is to rest and relax. | |||||||||||||||
| Urban or Rural? | |||||||||||||||
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A health spa in a rural location makes it easy to feel you have escaped. There will be the added luxury of space, and lush countryside suggesting a greater sense of freedom and abandonment. In addition to the usual beauty and relaxation treatments, rural health spas, such as the Cowshed at Babington House, can offer outdoor activities – swimming, tennis, football, croquet and cycling, putting a greater emphasis on fitness. The Cowshed can also provide treatments in a yurt (Mongolian tent), in the grounds and the Serenity Spa at Seaham Hall in County Durham boasts an outdoor hot tub.
The advantage of an urban health spa is the accessibility and opportunity for a ‘quick-fix’ – it is amazing how removed one can feel from city life when cocooned in the calmness of a health spa like the Balmoral in Edinburgh where guests can enjoy Brazilian toe therapy, or the Sanctuary in central London that can offer Shirodhra – warm oil poured over your forehead and allowed to dribble through your hair, followed by Marma point massage on your face, neck and upper chest. Some health spas straddle the two, such as the Sequoia health spa at The Grove, Hertfordshire, nestling in 300 acres of woodland – in the middle of Watford. Day-trippers can follow a running route through the grounds then swim in the indoor saline filled ‘Vitality Pool’ followed by a Balinese massage. | |||||||||||||||
| Or Overseas? | |||||||||||||||
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The Blue Lagoon, in Iceland offers the real deal – a reviving waterfall to follow half an hour of languishing in the geothermal seawater spa or steam bath in a larva cave or white silica mud bath. Most health spas try to simulate what nature provides here.
The Bunyan Tree Spa in Phuket has won accolades for its high level of service, but frankly any kind of therapy administered on the balmy palm tree-lined sands of gently lapping seashores will win anyone’s vote for the ultimate in pampering. | |||||||||||||||
| An Hour, Day, Weekend or Longer? | |||||||||||||||
| Most health spas are flexible and offer a variety of packages, particularly if the spa is attached to a hotel. It is possible to choose an individual treatment, a package of treatments, a half-day, an evening, two-day or longer sojourn. The Bath House at the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath, a 2 day break to include use of their spa facilities, dinner bed and breakfast for around £290 per person. | |||||||||||||||
| What Treatments can a Health Spa Offer? | |||||||||||||||
Only a few years ago a sweat in a sauna, gasping for breath in a steam room, a cardiac inducing plunge-pool, massage, facial and maybe having your eyebrows plucked was considered an exotic treat. Today the expectation is considerably more diverse. The following are various treatments, not healthy lunch options:
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| Price? | |||||||||||||||
Many UK health spas will charge a fee of around £60- £100+ for a day or evening use of spa facilities – pool, sauna and fluffy towels etc. In addition to that, any treatments will be charged separately. The pricing structure varies enormously but is generally linked to the time each treatment takes. As a rough guide:-
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| Comments, copyright and linking | |||||||||||||||
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