Whether you want to spend a week losing five kilos or just be pampered for a few hours, winter is easily the best time to take yourself off to a spa. Not only do prices tend to be lower than in the high season of summer, but we also want to saunter into the New Year looking our fittest and feeling our best. Plus, you have the broadest range of destinations to choose from. Into the snowy mountains of southern Germany for a detox eased by the pleasure of waking up each morning to the sight of a snow-covered forest and icy lake, perhaps? Or to the pleasant warmth of India for Ayurvedic treatments and expert diagnosis from a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine? How about to London or Istanbul, cities at their most alluring in chillier weather, where you can split your time between sightseeing and spa’ing? Take your pick.
1. Royal Palm, Mauritius
With such frequent flights to Mauritius from the UAE, it’s easy to start sampling the five-star resorts that line its beaches. As key founders of tourism on the island, however, Beachcomber had the pick of locations and, naturally, bagged the best. The Royal Palm has plenty to offer: a lovely beachside setting on the quiet, sheltered, coral-ringed north-west coast, good road connections to the rest of the island and a certain air about it. Recently reopened after a thorough overhaul that saw 84 rooms become 69 – plus a Royal Suite with private pool and hamman, the hotel remains old school in the best sense: formal, with marvellous staff, many who have worked there for years, and much emphasis laid on peace, quiet and excellent food. The spa couldn’t be more relaxing. After the formality of the hotel, it’s a surprise to walk into this little world, with 18 treatment cabins situated around a series of cascading pools and surrounded by lush vegetation. Therapists deliver expert Swedish massages with quiet yet confident professionalism. Unusually, though, there are several expert reflexologists among the staff. Not everyone would consider spending Dh478 on having a half-inch of each sole methodically pressed, but we spa addicts think there is nothing better. Yoga and meditation are also on the menu. And with the seductively tranquillising sound of wavelets slapping the sand – one that permeates the whole resort – it may be only at check-out that you finally realise you haven’t left the hotel since checking in.
• Rooms from US$605 (Dh2,124) per night, including breakfast (beachcomber-hotels.com)
2. Taj Falaknuma Palace, Hyderabad, India
Though Hyderabad is not the first place you would think of for a holiday in India, it is a star in the making, waiting for its moment to take centre stage. For the time being, one of the pleasures in wandering around its magnificent old palaces and museums is, very often, being the only foreigner. Luxury tourism in southern India is gradually being thrown into the spotlight thanks to Hyderabad’s palace hotel, opened in 2010. In restoring the cob-webby, half-ruined 19th-century Falaknuma, once home to the last Nizam of Hyderabad, who was hailed by Time magazine as the world’s richest man in 1937, the operators of this hotel have acted more as conservationists than hoteliers. Falaknuma was, and still is, beyond beautiful. And to start a day here with open-air yoga under a banyan tree by the pool, and end it with a sure-handed massage in one of the candlelit treatment rooms, followed by relaxing on the terrace, overlooking one of the great lawns while listening to the peacocks, is icing on a delicious cake.
• Rooms from $405 (Dh1,493) per night, including taxes (tajhotels.com)
3. The Peninsula Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, United States
The likelihood of brushing past Jennifer Lawrence or Bradley Cooper clad in a big white dressing gown is low at The Peninsula Beverly Hills, given the hyper-privacy of the spa. The therapists are infuriatingly loyal in their discretion and refuse to name any names, all with a teasing smile. Still, there’s a constant sense that there’s someone worth knowing in the next suite over, particularly since celebrity Australian fitness trainer James Duigan launched his Fit Like The Stars programme. The session is based on his Bodyism system, first established a decade ago, which focuses on eating real whole foods and practising his signature muscle-lengthening exercises. At The Peninsula – within walking distance of Rodeo Drive and the Westfield Century City shopping centre – a Fit Like The Stars day costs US$895 (Dh3,285) and then $75 (Dh275) for each additional person (you can add up to five people). The sessions begin with a yoga class, followed by a guided hike into the Santa Monica mountains, with a Clean & Lean lunch back at the hotel. The rest of the day includes a work out followed by a Serenity Smoothie at turndown – to promote sleep – and a copy of Duigan’s best-selling Clean & Lean diet book.
• Rooms start from $635 (Dh2,333) per night, including taxes (peninsula.com/beverlyhills)
4. Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok
It’s stepping onto the hotel’s old teak ferry for the brief trip across the Chao Phraya to its spa that makes a treatment at the Mandarin Oriental feel special from the start. The crossing is quick, so within five minutes a staffer clad in a crisp white uniform is holding out his arm to help you off the boat – and then you’re walking into a different world. The Oriental, first opened in 1876, was Thailand’s first luxury hotel. The feel of the candlelit spa, set in a group of wooden houses, with a central ornamental pond, offers a traditionally Thai atmosphere. Price-wise, though, it’s quite a bargain given the quality of the experience. Of the 15 treatment rooms, the three deluxe suites have the grandeur and privacy you’re hard put to find anywhere else – teak from floor to ceiling, marble Jacuzzi, a massive heated massage bed and a big private steam room. Yet two hours of a Thai massage, administered by tiny yet tough experts, costs just 4,500 baht (Dh466). Make sure to start your experience with the 90-minute, anti-jet-lag massage (3,900 baht [Dh403]) – it’s the perfect remedy to help shake off the effects of your journey and prepare for the fun to come.
• Rooms from $552 (Dh2,046) per night, including taxes and breakfast (mandarinoriental.com)
5. Cheval Blanc Randheli, the Maldives
The extravagant yet serene and private life at the 45-villa Cheval Blanc Randheli “Maison” starts with a pre-arrival enquiry about your shoe size. When you arrive, following a 40-minute seaplane transfer from Malé, you’ll find personalised pale grey cotton espadrille slippers in the dressing room – just one of the many sensual delights you can expect. Visitors can also look forward to moonlit and sunrise yoga, Michelin-star dinners and ocean-view picnics, and a new programme of two- to five-day Detox & Fitness Journeys, which combine an hour in the spa with an hour of coaching, followed by a sport. Whether you’re lying on a heated massage bed, mere feet from the lapping ocean, or hovering over the trays of Guerlain products in the private changing room, it’s one captivating moment after another, albeit at a price – with massage prices starting from between £145 and £265 (up to Dh1,490).
• Rooms from $1,950 (Dh7,170) per night, including taxes (chevalblanc.com)
6. Vana Malsi Estate, Dehradun, India
It’s a 90-minute flight from Delhi to Dehradun, and then about an hour’s drive to Malsi. Your journey will see you rattling along rural roads cutting through paddy fields, before being ushered into this extraordinary 21-acre retreat. The property looks out onto a dense wood of tall sal trees and has been designed by owner Veer Singh, a shy, humble-seeming heir to one of India’s pharmaceutical fortunes. Vana is to be the first in a worldwide chain of medical retreats. This new spa haven is exceptionally luxurious yet almost mystical in feel. A sustainably built, 66-room, 16-suite modernist enclave of wood and bamboo, stone and glass, the retreat features light-filled rooms, soaring open spaces, shaded gardens and serene pools. Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic doctors supervise all treatments, which include acupuncture and four-handed massages. The food is fresh, locally sourced and seasonal, and is exquisitely presented. Entertainment and activities vary greatly, from a flautist playing at sunset to a monk visiting from the Dalai Lama’s headquarters in nearby Rishikesh. While simplicity rules, Singh admits that he wants “a space where all beings could be nourished”. As you pad around by day in your organic cotton kurta-pyjamas – the library alone could absorb anyone for weeks – or lie in bed by night – basking in organic linen and listening to the occasional monkey screech – your predominant feeling is likely to be one of utter cosseting.
• Rooms from 25,000 rupees (Dh1,412) for five nights, including full board (vanaretreats.com)
7. The Berkeley, London
For a treat for girlfriends or a mother and daughter, the Girls’ Night In package at The Berkeley in Knightsbridge is a spa experience with a twist. One feels like a child checking into the suite. A hamper of goodies – cushiony sleep-in hair rollers, pale pink satin eye masks, a Diptyque candle and Benefit cosmetics – wait for you in a flowery scented room that features a calming palette of pale greys, silvers and whites. A manicure in the 7th floor Bamford spa is included and a swim in the pool is hard to resist. Afterwards, one can saunter back for an evening of room service from Koffmann – try the poached fish with herbed steamed vegetables – or the two-Michelin-starred Marcus restaurant, and then settle down for some DVDs featuring a number of chick flicks. For maximum glamour, of course, one would do all this in the hotel’s 3,250-square-foot Opus suite. Sumptuous but restrained – by André Fu, who designed Hong Kong’s Upper House – with clean lines and a 300-square-foot marble bathroom. This is arguably the most elegant suite in London, and comes with the great plus of the in-house chefs – none other than Marcus Wareing and Pierre Koffmann – at your command.
• Rooms from £390 (Dh2,101) per night; Girls' Night In from £630 (Dh3,395) for two; Opus Suite from £16,800 (Dh95,000), including taxes (the-berkeley.co.uk)
8. Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Dubai
You don’t have to venture too far from home to experience sumptuous spas. The hamman at the heart of the Talise Ottoman Spa complex, hidden behind great turquoise doors, provides what is, arguably, the best spa experience in the UAE. It’s rather more expensive than when the 379-room hotel opened. These days, an hour of giving oneself up to the decadent pleasures of being soaped, scrubbed, and generally coaxed into a state of mindless bliss, costs just over Dh750 for an hour. Money well spent, though. There can’t be a better way to restore yourself at the end of an exhausting week, before a big occasion or – well, you can supply your own excuse.
• Rooms from Dh2,016 per night, including taxes (jumeirah.com)
9. Buchinger Wilhelmi, Lake Constance, Germany
Sedate, quiet, and more of a clinic than a spa, the Buchinger Wilhelmi is one of the few places where guests can do a medically supervised fast, led by team of on-site doctors and nurses (on duty 24/7), and headed by diabetologist, Dr Stefan Drinda. Unlike most spas, the Buchinger – featuring 100 rooms in Bauhaus-style accommodation blocks – has an inspiring story behind it, and you can sense the purposefulness that drives it as soon as you set foot inside. Founder Otto Buchinger, a German naval officer who was decommissioned in 1918 due to his rheumatoid arthritis, set up the clinic to spread the word after a 21-day fast was said to have cured him. It’s Buchinger’s descendants who zealously continue the job today. But fasting here doesn’t mean total starvation. Instead, guests consume 250 calories a day in the form of broths and juices, and can also follow an 800- or a 1,200-calorie-a day diet that is vegetarian, organic and uniformly delicious.
• A three-night package starts from €870 (Dh3,385) and a 10-day fast from €2,250 (Dh8,754) including taxes (buchinger-wilhelmi.com)
10. Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at the Bosphorus, Turkey
A traditional Turkish, super-foamy hamman scrub is best had in the most glamorous spa in Istanbul. Turkey is, after all, the home of the hamman, so it ticks the buzzword boxes for tradition, locality and authenticity. It’s also insanely enjoyable. If you are really organised, you will pre-book the scrub (€155 [Dh645] for 45 minutes) for soon after your arrival. That, by the way, should really be by the Four Seasons speedboat (€480 [Dh1,995]), which whisks you from Istanbul Atatürk Airport to the hotel in 45 minutes. Regardless of whether you book the scrub for your arrival day or after a marathon Istanbul shopping and sightseeing session, it’s ideally done in conjunction with a four-hand massage (€250 [Dh1,039] per hour). The experience will leave you feeling exhilarated and squeaky clean. The super-scrupulous hygiene standards of the Four Seasons spa paired with a soaringly splendid design that brings traditional marble into play, along with twinkly lights, striped cotton wraps, coarse scrubbing mitts and black soap, make the experience memorable in all the right ways.
• Rooms start from €405 (Dh1,535) per night, including taxes (fourseasons.com/bosphorus)