FANCY a rooftop hot-tub, floating among the stars in a stately home, or a romantic weekend of luxurious pampering? We at the Good Spa Guide have chosen five of our favourite spas right on your doorstep.
The Vineyard Spa
Newbury, Berkshire RG20 8JU
01635 897519
Treatments: from £70 for 55 minutes. Stay: from £114.50 for a Special Seasonal Break
While the Vineyard hotel is justly famed for its wine cellar (30,000 bottles), the five bubble luxury spa is a Good Spa Guide favourite. Guest numbers are kept low and there’s no health club attached, so it feels serene and exclusive. The standard of service is excellent. At the centre is a pool with a current, which you can swim against for exercise, plus two massage jets to ease the knots in your shoulders. After your swim, you can lounge in the hot tub and gaze up through the glass roof at the sky. Or if you’re feeling energetic, try the exercise suite. Downstairs is a large steam room and hot sauna. There are four treatment rooms offering facials, massages, pedicures, manicures, professional make-up, and hot stone rituals, plus treatments for men and mums-to-be. One for romantics and wine-lovers. www.the-vineyard.co.uk
Donnington Valley Hotel and Spa
Newbury, Berkshire RG14 3AG
01635 568165
Treatments: from £65 for 55 minutes. Stay: from £111 for a Sunday Night Spa Break
This modern hotel has peaceful views over golfing fairways and rolling Berkshire Hills and the spa is a sanctuary for golfers, couples and families. The 18-metre swimming pool is a lovely light-filled space with loungers and a sun terrace for warmer weather. Thermal experiences include a steam room, sauna, aromatherapy room and monsoon shower. There is also a gym, a spacious relaxation room and six treatment rooms. You can order food and drinks poolside, or have lunch in the spa lounge with views of the surrounding parkland.
www.donningtonvalley.co.uk
Thermae Bath Spa
Bath, Somerset BA1 1SJ
01225 282171
Spa day: from £32. Treatments: From £62 for 50 mins
This stunning modern spa complex is built around Britain’s only natural hot springs. People have been ‘taking the waters’ in this spot for thousands of years. If you can bear the tourist crowds, it’s an unmissable experience, especially the thermal rooftop pool with its stunning views over the cityscape. There are two buildings: the recently renovated Cross Spring, and the stylish New Royal Bath with its indoor and rooftop pools, ‘lazy river’, vast aroma-steam room with waterfall, Alpine hay chamber and treatment rooms, including Vichy showers. You can choose a two, four-hour or whole day, and staff issue you with a wristband which acts like a key and stopwatch. Taking a food break is not counted as spa time. Great for social spa-ing. www.thermaebathspa.com
Nirvana Spa
Sindlesham, Berkshire RG41 5DJ
0118 989 7575
Treatments: from £35 for 25 mins. Evening experiences: from £55
This huge, impressive spa has six pools, each with its own theme. Lounge around the Roman pool with palm trees and frescoes and order drinks and light snacks, or float in the mineral-rich Celestial Floatation Pool. There’s also a 53-jet hydrotherapy pool, a beautiful spa garden pool warmed for all-weather swims, the Nirvana Pool by the café, and a fitness pool with a mirrored bottom. The thermal suite has a salt inhalation suite, sauna, steam room, plunge pool and ice fountain. In the crystal treatment suite you can have massages, facials, manicures and pedicures. Just remember to take your own flip-flops. www.nirvanaspa.co.uk
Stoke Park
Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire SL2 4PG
01753 717172
Treatments: from £80 for 55 mins. Day package: from £115 for a Refreshing Retreat including lunch, a 55 minute treatment and full use of spa facilities
Stoke has plenty of wow factor. The hotel is a stunning white, opulent country house set in 300 acres of parkland. The spa has an indoor heated pool, Jacuzzi, Italian marble steam rooms, a gym, a deep relaxation room and – the highlight for us – a private atrium with a five-metre tropical aquarium. If the weather is good, you can enjoy the recently added spa garden, and try the outdoor sauna. The treatment rooms are really pleasant and offer a huge range of high quality facials and massages including CACI. The scale and grandiosity of the place makes it perfect for special occasions.
www.stokepark.com
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