Info about Day Spas
The Joys of a Health Spa Retreat
There is a place that comes close to paradise - a tranquil haven a million miles from reality, where you arrive feeling frazzled and depart having refreshed and rejuvenated your mind, body and soul.
Having been pampered, pummelled and perfumed at various spas, I must declare that escaping to a spa, health farm, retreat, hydro -or whatever other fancy name the resort may call itself - is one of life's luxuries. And if we are to disperse some of that pent-up tension from which we are suffering, living as we do in this fast-track world, a spa break looks increasingly like becoming a necessity rather than an indulgence. Even a day's visit will leave you feeling relaxed, revitalised and ready to face life's challenges. But the benefits go further still: while unwinding in one of these heavenly oases, you can't help but start to rethink your lifestyle. And if your visit inspires you to take just one step towards looking and feeling better, be it by eating less sugar or giving up smoking, it will have been worth every penny.
Forget the conventional, austere health-farm image, in which white-coated types doused you in ice-cold water and denied you any real food.
Over the past few years spas have undergone a total revamp, shifting their emphasis from administering boarding-school-style punishment to pampering and de-stressing their clients and, at a few select resorts, offering spiritual enlightenment, too. Luxury body-wraps have replaced Spartan, slimming treatments, while calorie-counting regimes have been swapped for Michelin-star-rated cuisine. Some spas, like Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland, take their beauty treatments a step further by offering a range of anti-ageing procedures.
You can even holiday in the ultimate dream location while enjoying the benefits of a spa. Most resorts offer every activity under the sun, including golf, tennis, archery, squash, mountain biking and, at the beach resorts, such water sports as windsurfing, catamaran sailing and scuba diving - ideal for entertaining your other half while you lie cocooned in a blissful, marine-algae wrap.