BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT
FROM BIKINI BOOT CAMPS TO CANINE FACIALS, FERTILITY YOGA AND AZTEC SWEAT ROOMS, LISA JOHNSON REVEALS THE LATEST WELLBEING TRENDS AND WHY WE MIGHT ONE DAY LIVE IN A SPA
They may not have registered on our radar 10 years ago but like glamping (glamorous camping), internet dating and farmers markets, spas have become an integral part of life. Few hotels open without them and they’re not just aimed at women. Men are starting to feel as comfortable having treatments as they are drinking pinot grigio. Even children are getting in on the act. The Ice Cream Spa at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island offers juniors a menu of treatments that ranges from ‘Princess Me’ to ‘I’m a Boy’ facials for $45 (£24) and Super Sunday Supremo massages for $80 (£43). And let’s not forget man’s best friends… yes, spas are going to the dogs. At FireSky Resort & Spa in Scottsdale,
Arizona, the Jurlique spa offers a canine spa menu with ‘Thera-paw-tic’ massages and ‘Fabulous Furry Facials’ at $70 (£34).
In the beginning, spas were about water (spa stands for sanus per aquum or health through water). Today, spas are being touted as the cure to all ills – including sleep deprivation and infertility. According to US company SpaFinder.com, there is a trend for sleep programmes Stateside. And rising demand for ‘procreation vacations’. Ancient Mayan fertility rituals are on the spa menu at The Tides Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico while Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands offers fertility yoga.
In Asia and the Middle East, spas are becoming increasingly more spacious and opulent – the bigger a spa, the bigger its potential as a place to socialise and even do business. The Anantara Spa at the Kempinski Hotel, Ishtar on the Dead Sea in Jordan, for example, is a staggering 108,000 square feet.
And then there’s the surge in popularity of ‘medi-spa’ treatments such as laser-hair removal, microdermabrasion and Botox, offered alongside pampering treatments. At Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa in South Africa, you can book some sclerotherapy (used to eliminate spider veins) and then recover with a deluxe facial.
Many spas are going organic. Esencia in Mexico grows its own spa ingredients; and aromatherapy brands based on plant extracts, including ESPA, Elemis and Aromatherapy Associates, are still popular.
There has also been a reaction to globalisation, with spa goers increasingly seeking indigenous spa treatments over international brands. Ayurveda, in other words, goes down well in India at Kalari Kovilakom in Kerala, as do bush spas using ‘miracle’ marula oil in Africa at the new Azura in Mozambique, hammams or traditional Turkish baths in Istanbul at the new Four Seasons, Bosphorus; and Aztec-style temazcales or sweat lodges at Maroma on the Mayan Riviera. Eco-friendly can be a hollow term, but as global warming takes hold, spas blessed with abundant sunshine or naturally heated water (like those near volcanic lakes, geothermal springs, tropical seas) will become increasingly sought-after. All the better if they’re in Eastern Europe, like Lasko Health Spa in Slovenia, and charge Eastern European prices.
Lifestyle retreats have never been more popular. Designed to overhaul mind, body and soul by combining holistic treatments with exercise and healthy eating, these retreats take place in private accommodation or destination spas like in the first Six Senses Destination Spa on Phuket, and usually have a specific focus, such as anti-ageing, detoxing or fitness or nutrition.
And Gwyneth Paltrow may have given them up, but raw foods and macrobiotic diets are still very on trend as are yoga retreats and fast-slimming bikini boot camps which are big with celebs such as Renée Zellweger, Cindy Crawford and Cat Deeley.
If SpaFinder.com is to be believed, and developments of luxury flats in “all-healthy, invigorating environments” such as Canyon Ranch Living, are anything to go by, we’ll all soon be living in a spa, doing yoga at dawn, living on a diet of raw food, and having sleep-inducing massages at bedtime. Heaven knows when we’ll find the time to squeeze in any internet dating.
Lisa Johnson writes for Condé Nast Traveller and Red magazine
STAR SPAS
ALMYRA PAPHOS, CYPRUS
Think vegetarian food, yoga, meditation and sea. +357 26 888 700, www.almyra.com or +44 (0)1244 897 505, www.elegantresorts.co.uk
SIX SENSES DESTINATION SPA, PHUKET, THAILAND Expect customised lifestyle makeovers and views of Phang Nga Bay. Elegant Resorts, +44 (0)1244 897 505, www.elegantresorts.co.uk
CONRAD MALDIVES RANGALI ISLAND, MALDIVES Has a Spa on stilts over water and GHD ‘facials for hair’. +960 6680629, conradhotels1. hilton.com or +44 (0)1244 897 505, www.elegantresorts.co.uk
FOUR SEASONS ISTANBUL AT THE BOSPHORUS, TURKEY Has three hammams, and skincare products by Daniele de Winter. +90 212 381 4000, www.fourseasons.com
KAYA KALP – THE ROYAL SPA AT ITC MUGHAL, TAJ GANJ, AGRA, INDIA Was inspired by a Mughal emperor’s vision of a garden paradise. +91 562 2331701, www.itcwelcomegroup.in
SERENITY IN THE CITY, EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND Grooming, massages and Elemis and Aromatherapy Associates facials. +44 (0)131 226 7459, www.serenityinthecity.co.uk
DELPHI MOUNTAIN RESORT, COUNTY GALWAY, IRELAND Views of the Mweelrea and Twelve Bens mountains. Treatments use local seaweed products. +353 95 42208, www.delphimountainresort.com
SENSE AT ROSEWOOD LITTLE DIX BAY, VIRGIN GORDA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS Treatments use local honey, goats’ milk and aloe vera. Hilltop yoga and a cliff-top spa. +284 495 5555, www.littledixbay.com
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