Spent last week in Kenya, visiting Ngerende Island Lodge, a luxurious new lodge in the remote wilderness of the Maasai Mara national park . With just seven spacious tented cabins, the staff are able to give guests truly personalised service. There is also a delightful small spa, complete with plunge pool and two treatment beds overlooking the fast flowing Mara River.
Ngerende Island Lodge
My plans for a trip to Tenerife were cancelled due to a sudden family bereavement at the end of January. Hopefully I’ll visit the island another time to sample its natural beauty and upcoming spas.
Just in case you’re planning a holiday on Tenerife this year, here are three hotels with lovely spas to whet your appetite!
Gran Hoel Bahia del Duque Resort
Abama Resort
Hotel Botanica
2010 has got off to a quiet start, as I’ve not visited any spas since returning from Namibia in December - just been writing up my travels for Spa Wellbeing.
At the end of January I’ll be reporting from sunny Tenerife, where I plan to catch up on the latest spa news and developments on the island.
February will see me in Spain again, this time taking a look at spas on the lovely Costa Blanca - so watch this space!
In the meantime, I wish all our readers good health and happiness in 2010. Don’t forget to send feedback on your recent spa visits.
Currently in beautiful Namibia, where the weather is hot and sunny. This enchanting and sparsely populated country offers coastal, desert and mountain landscapes and vast wilderness areas, including the Etosha National Park. one of the largest and best game viewing parks in the whole of Africa.
Okonjima Villa
While the luxurious game lodges we are staying in all have refreshing outdoor pools, none has a spa. Given the beauty of the environment, the warm climate and starry skies, a relaxing treatment would be the perfect end to a day spent exploring the bush or after an exciting game drive.
Mushara Outpost
On our second evening, we travel to the new Mushara Outpost, close to the Etosha National Park where we stay in individual luxuriously appointed cabins made of wood and canvas. Each cabin has its own verandah looking out onto the arid bush landscape. Although close to a watering hole, I didn’t catch sight of any animals, though something bumped against the cabin in the middle of the night and woke me up!
After sundowners around the camp fire followed by a delicious dinner served by Mushara Outpost’s charming staff, we drive about 3 km down the road to have a drink and look over the 5-star Kempinski Mokuti Lodge - a luxurious resort hotel with Etosha’s leading (and possibly only) proper spa facilities. Kempinski’s spas are always of an excellent standard and the Mokuti didn’t disappoint - both location and design are most impressive. It was late evening when we visited and the spa was closed, so I only had a fleeting tour of the facilities and didn’t try any treatments. Set in a purpose built building amid colourful gardens, the spa offers five treatment rooms including a couples suite, showers, steam bath, Jacuzzi, relaxation area, retail shop and a gym. Wellness, beauty and holistic treatments using authentic local products are featured on the spa menu.
Spa at Kempinski, Mokuti Lodge
On our last evening, we’re staying at the Olive Grove Guest House in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital. This elegant upmarket establishment has a small outdoor pool, Jacuzzi and a small treatment room offering a range of professional beauty and spa services, including massages and facials.
Olive Grove Pool Deck
Now enjoying a short break in sunny Spain after a particularly hectic week with lots of travel related activities. I’m not visiting any spas this trip, but plan to do so when we come out again either at the end of the year or in 2010.
World Travel Market (WTM) at London’s Excel was busier than ever. For travel writers like me, WTM offers an unprecedented opportunity to meet and gather information from with representatives from national tourist offices, hotel groups, airlines, tour operators and other interesting people from around the world.
When I first attended WTM (well over a decade ago!), the event was held at Earls Court and the spa boom was just beginning. How different everything is in 2009, where spas are an integral (and profitable) part of every quality resort and five star hotel – not to mention the sensational spas at sea.
I had interesting appointments with Costa Cruises who are launching a fantastic new ship in February, as well as meetings with representatives from Switzerland, Bermuda, Malaysia, Arizona, Singapore, Tunisia, Namibia and Sri Lanka.
There were so many other people I wanted to talk to as well, but the time ran out - so apologies to Raquel, Ursula, Rachel, Lucy and Greg – I’ll catch up with you all in the next month or so!
Following WTM, I also met with Anna and her daughter Ewa, who together with Dr Elisabether Treskow formed the consortium Healing Hotels of the World. I’ll be writing more about the company and their members in Spa Wellbeing.
I also met the charming staff from the Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco, which uses the divine Aromatherapy Associates products in the Asoufou spa. This being Morocco, the spa has a traditional hammam and is definitely on my list of must see places!
We were sorry to leave Velassaru after our short but memorable stay blessed with perfect weather.
We said our farewells to the resort’s lovely staff and left the island after breakfast - travelling 30 minutes by speedboat to Kurumba to spend a day and a night on the Maldives’ first ever resort.
Kurumba is named after the coconuts that grow on island and are still used in cocktails and desserts served in the bars and restaurants. Kurumba’s a much bigger resort than Velassaru with more rooms and larger public areas including shops, lounges, a business centre and a library.
We have a fantastic villa that comes with a sumptuous four poster bed and its own walled private garden with a waterfall, hot tub and swimming pool! Our front door looks out onto a powder white beach and turquoise sea. A day and a night just isn’t long enough to enjoy all this!
Pathways link the accommodation with the public areas and restaurants and criss-cross the island’s lush gardens filled with exotic blooms and frangipani trees covered in pink and white flowers.
The Aqua Spa is a short walk from our villa and offers individually tailored treatments and spa rituals using Pevonia products. One of the therapists gives me a short tour of the facilities and treatment rooms, but can’t offer me a treatment slot as they are fully booked - such is the spa’s popularity. We settle for a swim in the ocean before dinner followed by a dip in our private pool before enjoying a luxurious deep sleep in our four poster bed.
It’s back to reality tomorrow as we head back to the UK after what has been an unforgettable few days in this lovely part of the world.
After 11 hours of flying, a three-hour stop over in fascinating Dubai and a 30-minute speed boat ride, we have arrived in Velassaru, a paradise island in the Maldives. Formerly known as Laguna Beach, the resort has been renovated, refurbished and renamed. It opened in March this year.
Beach, Velassaru
We are here for four glorious days to sample the resort, the scuba diving and of course the new over-water Aquum spa. Fringed by perfect white sand beaches and surrounded by turquoise seas - you can walk or swim around the island in less than half an hour. The weather is perfect too - blue skies, sunshine and temperatures in the low 30°s.
The warm coral seas are teeming with marine life - just walking from our water villa to the restaurants or beach, we’ve seen shoals of small fish, turtles, baby sharks, crabs, needle fish and lots more.
Flew down to Perpignan for a fleeting visit to some lesser known (to UK visitors) French spas.
What a tonic to exchange London’s rain for the blue skies and warm sunshine of south east France. After picking up our hire car, we headed west into the foothills of the Pyrenees and the tiny spa village of Molitg-les-Bains, where we were having dinner and an overnight stay at the historic Chateau de Riell. A visit to the adjoining thermal spa was planned for the following morning.
We were delayed by the rush-hour traffic in Perpignan. No sooner had we arrived at the Chateau, than instead of being shown to our rooms, we were asked to grab our swimsuits and go immediately to the spa in the nearby Grand Hotel. Apparently, our treatments had been rescheduled and the spa was staying open late specially for us.
A great privilege to have the spa entirely to ourselves - and such an interesting and historic one too with smiley helpful therapists, who despite not speaking English made us feel very special and cared for. Any tiredness from the journey was soon forgotten as we soaked first in deep marble baths in individual marble cabins then relaxed in two large warm pools - one with massage jets and thermal water and the other with bouyant white clay, in which we floated like white ghosts for about 15 minutes. After showering it was back to the marble cabins for a relaxing facial treatment before dressing and returning refreshed and invigorated to the Chateau de Riell for a spectacular dinner on a beautifully set table next to a cosy log fire. Amazing food, wine and company!
Our rooms in the Chateau are nothing short of spectacular! Accessed via a narrow winding staircase covered in an exotic zebra print carpet, they are vast and sumptuously furnished with vast comfortable beds, heavy drapes and massive shuttered windows with views over the village and down the valley towards the Canigou mountain. I just love the unique charm and character of this part of France!
Chateau de Riell, Molitg-des-Bains
I had three interesting meetings up in London this week, all relating to new spa developments, which seem to be continuing apace despite the economic slowdown.
On Monday I heard about the Parkhotel, at Igls in Austria – which reopens this autumn following an extensive refurbishment. This is a medical spa offering prescribed programmes of modern Mayr medicine – similar to Viva Mayr. White coat holidays, as medical spa stays are sometimes called, are growing in popularity as their positive effects on health and wellbeing become better known.
On Tuesday, I enjoyed a business lunch at the Caesar Hotel, courtesy of Prestige Hotels of the World. We had an interesting presentation of 20 or so consortium’s members – all individual city and resort hotels in Europe and around the world.
I was particularly interested to hear about the fantastic new spa at the Sport Hotel Hermitage and Spa at Soldeu in Andorra. This is the largest Wellness and Spa centre of its kind in Europe and is situated in the mountains at the foot of the ski slopes.
The Hotel Peralada Wine Spa and Golf is also on my ‘must review in the future’ list. Located just 30 mins by road from Girona and 90 mins from Barcelona, the spa treatments include vinotherapy with products made from local grapes.
The afternoon ended with a meeting with the Kempinski hotels. Kempinski have long been one of my favourite hotel groups, and have opened up many fascinating new properties in 2009 – including their first Safari Lodge with an Anantara Spa in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.
We’re now on the Costa Blanca. Unfortunately, the glorious sunshine on the Spanish costas last week has come to an abrupt end, replaced by grey skies, torrential rain, thunder and lightning. The accompanying power cuts have necessitated using candles occasionally - a bit miserable but dramatic at the same time.
Surfers at wet Arenal beach
I’ve had no opportunity or inclination to continue with my ‘natural thalassotherapy’ on Javea’s Arenal beach, which looked forlorn and deserted when we went for lunch yesterday. It was so wet and windy, we were almost blown into the restaurant.
Only the surfers were enjoying the windswept conditions - riding over the waves on their boards, protected from the chill by their wetsuits – a surreal scene considering last week’s heatwave.