LATEST AND GREATEST

All the latest and greatest developments in the World of Spas, with editor Jo Foley

Life, Liberty & Wellness!

Keeping fit, healthy and slim has never been easier on board with more and more ships offering pampering, wellness and fitness programmes. The latest is a virtual personal trainer kiosk on Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas, installed by New Balance, which helps guests create a customised holiday fitness plan, as well as a take-home exercise regime.

For those who want extra exercise as well as an adrenalin rush, this is married to on-shore Vitality programmes which include a Jungle Bike Adventure in Cozumel (Mexico), Jungle River Tubing in Montego Bay (Jamaica) and a kayak, snorkel and beach experience in George Town (Grand Cayman). Serious calorie burners. Other on board offerings include tai chi, acupuncture and meditation as well as mini-makeovers and lessons on improving your eating habits!

SAIL & SPA

Cruise and spa with DFDS Seaways, who are offering mini-breaks of three, five and six nights to spa destinations in The Hague, Bergen and Copenhagen, staying at spa hotels within these cities. For instance, the Kurhaus Hotel in The Hague offers a range of thermal and hydro treatments including plunge and herbal baths, Dead Sea floats, massage and reflexology. Spend two nights at sea and one ashore being pampered from �256.

Berlin Beauty

The new Day Spa at the iconic Adlon Hotel in Berlin is offering a host of treatments based on the elements of earth, fire, water and air. Each guest has a consultation on arrival to determine which treatment is best before being taken to one of this elegant day spa’s 13 treatment rooms. There is also a Watsu pool, sauna, steam room, yoga and meditation room as well as a Jacuzzi. Just what you need after a hard day’s sightseeing.

Estepona, Too

The same company – Kempinski – has just opened a new Med Spa at their revamped Hotel Bahia in Estepona. Here, under the auspices of the resort’s own homeopathic doctor, the spa offers holistic treatments, complementary medicine and lifestyle counselling alongside the beauty and body treatments. All the beauty treatments incorporate Eminence organic skincare products, hand-made in Hungary using ingredients like sour cherry, pomegranate, carrot, paprika and rose. Sounds as good to eat as to pop on to your skin!

MINI ME

How to keep the kids happy while you’re having an indulgent massage? Take them to the new kid’s spa at the Conrad Hotel in the Maldives, which has just opened an ice-cream spa offering a range of treatments from scrubs to manicures using products which smell as if they have just left the ice cream van. Designed to look like an old-fashioned ice-cream parlour, it offers a Super Sundae Supreme body scrub and massage alongside a chocolate and vanilla velvet massage or a Marvellous Magical Minicure with an added Face Art session.

Editor’s Letter

Just when we women thought it was safe to retreat to a spa where we could be cosseted and pampered away from it all, what happens? The chaps suddenly realise what great places they are in which to refresh and relax and begin to invade with their own treatments and therapies.

It all began with spas attached to golf courses which offered arm and shoulder massages, followed by all-over golfer’s recovery massage. Before you could say the 19th Hole, they were piling in after a round or two. Soon they were looking for therapies to soften sunburnt skin and ease aching muscles and, before you could say Tiger Woods, spas were offering a range of men’s treatments.

This quickly spread to resort and city spas, the latter being particularly popular with business travellers who were offered jet lag recovery treatments, alongside a host of express facials, manicures and head-and-shoulder treatments – and almost every man’s dream, a good old-fashioned barber shop wet-shave.

Now we women are almost outnumbered in city spas. The Plateau, a great spa at Hong Kong’s Grand Hyatt, caters to 50 per cent male clients, and the men’s market is growing. And it’s not just the pampering that men are booking, they are looking to beautify, too, with waxings, facials and cosmetic-style treatments like fillers, collagen and botox.

They are also opting for serious wellness and fitness programmes. I recently returned from a detox retreat in Italy where a good 30 per cent of clients were men, while London now boasts four men-only day spas.

Where once men used to scoff at us for enjoying an aromatherapy massage or facial scrub, now they can’t get enough of it themselves. It hasn’t taken them long to realise just how beneficial taking care of yourself can be – or how enjoyable. And soon the kids will be in on the act – see story left!