Spa-ing is so relaxing (From Swindon Advertiser)

Spa-ing is so relaxing

8:54am Tuesday 4th November 2008 in

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YOU know you’re stressed and in need of some serious help when you’re lounging in a bath on a Saturday fretting about what you should wear/bring to the spa later that day.

So my visit to The Retreat was clearly a much needed, well… retreat.

It has to be said, normally when one thinks of a luxury spa, one thinks of driving out into the country in a vintage soft-top Bentley and sauntering up the gravelled drive of some stately pile which has been converted into a state-of-the-art luxury pampering palace.

So it’s a little bit unusual to turn off a typical Swindon street into a typical Swindon trading estate and pull up in front of building that looks as though it could just as easily be selling staples or nuts and bolts for your car.

But don’t be put off. As I hoped for the rest of the day, when I was too chilled out to put any make-up back on or fix my hair, appearances aren’t everything.

For from the minute you step inside The Retreat, real life, and all its worries, woes and vexations, disappears.

The welcome is friendly, relaxed and informal. The message is clear: you’re here to be pampered.

After filling in a form (how much do you smoke: too much; how stressed are you: too much; how relaxed are you: not very, etc), we were loaded up with slippers, gowns, towels and so on and told we could head straight to the relaxation room and await the call for our treatments, or go and enjoy the steam room and whirlpool bath.

It was entirely our choice in which order we wished to be pampered - and that to start with was a refreshing relief.

So it was straight into the steam room, followed by a jaunt in the whirlpool bath and then a gentle saunter upstairs to suck on some oranges, sip some water and await our massages.

I opted for an Arabian scrub. one of The Retreat’s selections of “aroma soul ritual scrubs”.

Bring on a low-lit room with a heated massage table, some drifty music and Middle Eastern fragrances.

It cost £50 for 45 minutes and I would have asked more questions and known more about it if it hadn’t turned me into a half-asleep, dribbling relaxed thing incapable of stringing a sentence together. Enough said - it did its job.

It began with an all-over body scrub, followed by a quick rinse-off in the shower. Truly top to toe relaxation.

My only possible criticism is that a slip mat in the shower would be a jolly good idea given that I was covered in oil and my legs had gone to jelly. It took some concentration to stay upright.

After the shower, the whole experience was repeated, this time with delicious, moisturising oils.

By this time, I was already in Never Never Land, and so the next treatment - a Lushly Legs massage of my legs and feet - was a great excuse to lie back and endure more pampering.

Based on a Polynesian ritual, it is designed to revive tire legs. They also offer hand and feet treatments and you can combine them with a manicure/pedicure.

It was divine; a combination of an exfoliating, hydrating and tension-relieving massage.

If you’ve just got off a long-haul flight or have a job where you stand up for hours, this is ideal. It costs £35.

So after all that, it was a shock to step outside again and find myself in the middle of Swindon.

The Retreat is high-quality, relaxing and on your doorstep. Treat yourself - I’ve been sleeping like a baby ever since I went.

- GILL HARRIS