Great Spas

Hotel Monastero Santa Rosa, Amalfi Coast

There are people who are just not that into spas. Then there’s me. The Amalfi Coast is not a traditional spa destination - oh, the five-star hotels have staff who can give you a massage or a pedicure, and they set aside a few tastefully decorated rooms with the usual aromatherapy and doof-doof music. Quite nice. But recently this has been taken to a whole new level. There's been a new addition to the Coast -- destined to be one of the great spas of the world.

The new Hotel Monastero Santa Rosa, perched in a converted covent high on the cliffs above the fishing village of Conca dei Marini, has an American lady owner who understands these things. Nearly half the hotel space is devoted to an exquisite spa, with water treatments of all kinds, a tepidarium in the nuns’ old wine cellar, a Rasul, talented international staff, and a view to die for. Non-hotel guests can take advantage of this with half or full day sessions, and I can highly recommend it. 

That's the Santa Rosa spa right ahead...

Here’s how my spa day looked: the Santa Rosa shuttle collected me from Amalfi mid-morning and ferried me to the sparking hotel on the cliff (opened last season, 2011). There I was greeted by the lovely spa manager Francesa and given a tour of the facilities. The info form asked which of five genres of music I’d like with my treatments. I spent the next hour and a half luxuriating in the wet areas: foot spa with pomegranate crystals; sauna, ice bath, steam room, emotion shower, whirlpool, and the lovely relaxing tepidarium. Many original features of the historic building remain, including the original walls and vaulted ceilings, and the fit-out is a beautiful blend of traditional fittings and hidden technology.

Then followed a foot treatment (bliss!), body scrub, massage and facial, by a wonderfully expert professional (an English staff member who has worked in New Zealand and the Bahamas). Relaxed to the max, I sat on the outdoor terrace in my spa bathrobe, gazing at the stunning view across the infinity-edge swimming pool and the Tyrrhenian Sea, while being served a light spa lunch chosen earlier from the menu: vegetable ‘lasagne’, fish, fresh squeezed orange juice.

Spa lunch.

Then it was time for a manicure AND a pedicure, sipping herbal tea, more time in the wet areas. Rather blissed out by this stage, I wandered from the spa. Reluctant to leave the view, I lingered on the bar terrance to enjoy a coffee, before taking the shuttle back to town as evening began to fall and the pink glow of an Amalfi Coast sunset warmed the horizon.

I’ll admit to indulging in some great spas around the world. Memorable experiences include the divine spas at the Evason Hideways Six Senses Resorts in Koh Samui & Hua Hin in Thailand (where the spa is set in huts in a lily pond) and Zighy Bay in Oman; the spectacular Lalu at Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan; the big spas that the US does so luxuriantly such as the Spa Palazzo at the Boca Raton Resort in Florida and the enormous complex of the Revive Spa at the J W Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix, Arizona; spas in Hawaii, Florida, Bangkok, the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile, the Hunter Valley in Australia, Istanbul, Toronto, Alpe di Siusi in the Italian Dolomites...a memorable two days in a bathrobe at Ste. Anne's Spa in the countryside in Ontario...and the small but unique Waldheim Alpine Spa at Cradle Mountain in the Tasmanian wilderness, where floor-length windows look out over the National Park and only a wombat or two might disturb your serenity. 

And now there’s the Santa Rosa. What’s not to like?

Spa locations I have known and loved....

Koh Samui, Thailand

Cradle Mountain, Tasmania

Alpe di Siusi, Italian Dolomites

Hua Hin, Thailand

Ste. Anne's Spa, rural Ontario, Canada

The Lalu, Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan

Zighy Bay, Oman

The Blue Lagoon

Health, the fun way.

Don't let anyone put you off a visit to Iceland's Blue Lagoon with the story that it's just the outfall from a geothermal power station. OK,  so strictly speaking they would be correct about that, but the Blue Lagoon is so much more.

Steam, water, lava. A winning combination.

The Blue Lagoon

The lagoon is a man-made lagoon which is fed by the water output of the nearby geothermal power plant Svartsengi and is renewed every 2 days. Superheated water is vented from the ground near a lava flow and used to run turbines that generate electricity. After going through the turbines, the steam and hot water passes through a heat exchanger to provide heat for a municipal water heating system. Then the water is fed into the lagoon for recreational and medicinal users to bathe in. In 1976 a pool formed at the site from the waste water of the geothermal power plant that had just been built there. In 1981 people started bathing in it after the discovery of its healing powers for psoriasis. In 1992 the Blue Lagoon company was established and the bathing facility was opened for the public.(from Wikipedia)

The power station next door. Not seen from the Blue Lagoon!

Come on in, the water's fine...

The waters of the Blue Lagoon are also blissfully soothing, as is the soft fine silica sand that lines the bottom of the pool. Time passes unnoticed when you're lazing around in the metre-or-so deep water, moving gently to find the next warm spot -- the temperature varies a little depending upon where you loll.

Everyone chillin' out.

You can also indulge in an unusual experience: an in-water massage. While you recline - or even sleep - on a floating rubber mat, covered in a towel soaked in the warm water, the masseuse will give your feet, limbs, back and neck a soothing massage. Without even leaving the lovely pool.

A steamy day in mid-summer (Iceland-style)

The waters of the Blue Lagoon have been know to assist sufferers of psoriasis, and there's a nearby Clinic which treats the condition.

Icelanders will tell you that you'll never meet any locals at the Blue Lagoon, that it's a tourist-ripoff, and that there are dozens of other hot pools around Reykjavik to enjoy. But the lovely architecture of the centre, the professional service, the spa, the restaurants, the VIP Suite...you get what you pay for.

The facilities, including the LAVA restaurant (with a dramatic natural rock wall), the clinic and the spa were designed by Iceland architect Sigríður Sigþórsdóttir and the VA Arkiteks team.

Even the buildings are soothing.

And for a touch of luxury, the VIP Suite!

If the waters of the Blue Lagoon affect you as they do most people - with a lovely sense of well-being and general soothed-ness - you can also take home products developed from the silica and minerals in the waters. I recommend the Silica Foot & Leg Lotion with Menthol...mmmm...Blue Lagoon....