Post-pandemic – and even mid-pandemic – something happened to the UK’s spa hotels. And by “something”, I mean they all became impossible to book and stomach-churningly expensive. Perhaps it was a result of us all being confined to the country for great swathes of time; perhaps it was because, with so many big celebrations stored up during lockdowns, it was inevitable there’d be a backlog of hen dos, birthday bashes and anniversaries to celebrate with a slice of pampering.
Whatever the reason, when a group of friends and I attempted to book a spa day and overnight stay at a nice-enough-but-not-mega-fancy place an hour outside of London for a 40th birthday last year, the response was astonishing. We were advised that they were “booked solid for the next eight months” and that the cheapest package would set us back over £350 per person. I mean, I love a spa as much as the next person – possibly more – but £350? To sit around in a selection of warm rooms for the day? Had the world gone mad?
Needless to say, the idea was swiftly aborted once we discovered that many spa hotels were advertising similar wait times and prices. For the kind of money they were demanding, we could have booked a week-long package holiday in the Algarve.
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It made me wonder: whatever happened to the humble day spa? To the establishments where you weren’t required to stump up for the facilities, bed and breakfast, lunch, dinner plus extra if you wanted a treatment? Where you could treat yourself without needing to file for bankruptcy directly afterwards?
There are two outdoor pools
(The Spa at Breedon Priory)
Enter The Spa at Breedon Priory, a (fairly) new kid on the block that lets you book a full or half day at their tranquil idyll in Melbourne, Derbyshire. Open since summer 2022 and already named the Best Boutique Spa at the Professional Beauty Awards 2023, it’s only a 90-minute train from London St Pancras to East Midlands Parkway, from where the spa is a 15-minute taxi ride away.
This rural retreat is, to my mind, the ideal size for a day of relaxation. I like having options – one sauna, hot tub and steam room doesn’t quite cut it – and yet if a spa is too sprawling and labyrinthine, I end up with FOMO that I haven’t experienced every inch of the facilities. It’s quite off-putting to feel stressed at the…
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