Opposites attract in spa land.
Opposites attract in spa land.
I’m sunbathing. In January. Nothing unusual you may think, except that I’m in England on a rooftop and it’s three degrees Celsius. How am I not catching my death? I’m immersed in natural hot spring water that’s steaming up into the crisp blue sky, past Georgian chimney pots towards white fluffy clouds and the exuberant sun. There’s only one place I could possibly be – the Thermae Bath Spa in the charming, historic city of Bath in Somerset. Bath, and other West Country sites like Stonehenge and Longleat Estate remind you how incredibly beautiful this land is. On a glorious winter morning, the low sun shines on trees casting long shadows onto green fields with white sheep and higgledypiggledy stone farmhouses. It’s the England of fairy tales and fantasy, the perfect movie set for films like Jane Austen’s Persuasion (Austen lived in Bath), full of country house hotels with four-poster beds and personal butlers. And it’s the England of good oldfashioned romance.
British Bathing
The Georgian city that visitors fall in love with today exists because of the three natural hot springs that oozed up out of the land to be worshipped, first by the Celts along with their pagan goddess of healing and fertility Sul. The Romans took over, and transferred their affections to the Roman god Minerva, building the first of the sophisticated systems of baths that can be explored following many renovations at the excellent Roman Baths Museum today. Then the Saxons, and the Georgians, right up to the legion of today’s hot water enthusiasts.
Over 1 million litres of 45-degree- Celsius hot water (cooled to 33.5 degrees Celsius for today’s use) still gush up through the earth’s fault each day, bearing over 42 minerals and trace elements. While no specific healing claims are made, the combination of sulphate, calcium and chloride in particular, plus relaxing heat, bring a host of benefits.
The ebb and flow of Bath’s popularity reflected the highs and lows of England’s and Bath’s history. Visits from Queens Elizabeth I and Anne, and King James II’s wife Mary of Modena attributing her ability to conceive an heir to the healing waters, resulted in a high. The country’s elite flocked to the spas, women wearing skirts held down with metal weights to ensure propriety. Visit the excellent Roman Baths Museum and then The Pump Room Restaurant for a glimpse of how the baths used to look, and a cup of tea in the same room Bath’s aristocracy would gather.
The bath’s fortunes reached rock bottom in the 1970s and it took the millennium to spark the projects that have breathed new life into them, including the Thermae Bath Spa.
Thermae Bath Spa
Surely the best day spa in England, the Thermae Bath Spa combines hot spring waters, history and technology, healthy spa cuisine and therapeutic treatments, four steam rooms, two pools and one wonderful morning or afternoon healing experience. Having all but missed breakfast we decided on lunch first, even though eating prespa isn’t generally recommended. Light, super tasty and beautifully presented, the warming tomato and red peppers soup, hake salad and grilled salmon were cooked to perfection, washed down with a beetroot based juice of the day. The sun-filled room looked out onto the cobbled street and original King’s Spa building.
The pièce de résistance, to which you must head first, is the rooftop pool. In the winter the sun disappears behind a nearby roof at around 2.30pm, so make sure to jump in before then. Warm water, cold air, blazing sun – it doesn’t get much better. Add a noodle, and float without a care in the world. For a change of scenery head from here to the steam room of four pods choosing between lemongrass and ginger, eucalyptus, lotus flower and frankincense, washing off in the central rain shower. I floated calmly in the basement pool before donning a robe and relaxing in the restaurant with a chilli hot chocolate before my treatment.
Natalee, my therapist, guided me through a delicious scrub, shower and mini facial with Aromatherapy Associates skincare. An emotional moment, as it came a few days after the brand’s founder Geraldine Howard’s passing away, it also seemed the perfect way to celebrate her life and legacy. Layer after layer of aromatic cleansers, masks and creams helped rehydrate my complexion, sending me to sleep before I came to for a sip of tea in the relaxation area.
Although short of time, I couldn’t help but have another soak in the rooftop pool. At 5pm the sun was setting one side, the moon was already high in the sky and the lights of the pool, combined with the bubbles and jets, made for the perfect wind down. Breathtaking, unique and warming, I couldn’t recommend it more.
The Gainsborough Bath Spa
Sleek, stylish and sexy, The Gainsborough represents ‘new Bath’. Named after artist Sir Thomas Gainsborough, it is housed in Georgian splendour, and inside the transformation into contemporary luxury is absolute. You’d never guess at its history – it used to be a hospital. There’s a mini-lobby, modern-day men’s club style lounge, and comfy, contemporary rooms (including the Bath Spa Rooms where the bath has hot, cold and thermal water taps). Don’t miss The Gainsborough Bar where the bartender will ask which flavours you like best and create a cocktail just for you.
Peer through the windows of the bar and you’ll see The Gainsborough’s Spa Village baths. A modern-day Roman haven, this is the only place other than the nextdoor Thermae and old Roman baths that the natural spring waters flow. The main pool, with nooks for bubbles and jets, is surrounded by mini rooms for plunge pools, one of which is closer to the original water’s heat at 40 degrees Celsius. There’s steam, sauna, ice room and…hot chocolate on tap! But first you will have passed through the Aroma Bar, where like the bar, according to your state of health and fragrance, the ‘bar tender’ creates a three-essential oil combination dripped onto Cornwall salt that accompanies you through your water experience, and can be dissolved in a bath later on that evening.
Finally my treatment took me into a den of treatment rooms where the Swedish massage evolved into a very personalised back, shoulders and neck massage that included trigger point work to smooth out recently added knots.
Visit Thegainboroughbathspa Website
The MacDonald Bath Spa hotel
A few minutes outside the very centre of the city, perched on a hill, this stately Georgian home of a hotel looking out over lawns, ancient cedar trees and moss-covered statues is a former family residence. Book an Imperial Suite and you’ll be welcomed by your personal butler, maybe the charming old-school Tim, who invited us to relax in the Drawing Room in front of a roaring fire with a glass of champagne and nibbles during check-in. He then showed us to our room – a suite of four-poster bed, sleek bathroom, sitting room with another open fire – for more bubbly and canapés.
Next morning, start your day with their incredible buffet breakfast, delivering a slice of their Scottish heritage via black pudding or kippers. Bookend the day with fine dining dinners at The Vellore Restaurant, a highceilinged room with a majestic air. And fill the days with plenty of relaxing fun at the spa, with its inside-outside pool, gym and spa rooms.
At their spa, there’s reiki for mind-body health, as well as massage using bamboo or hot stones, and Elemis signatures like the Exotic Lime and Ginger Salt Glow and their Pro-Collagen Quartz Lift Facial. The Ramblers’ Retreat of foot and deep-tissue back massage is ideal after a day exploring the city. I had a customised massage, my therapist expertly turning my main concerns into a therapeutic session of back, neck and shoulder work that busted hours in a plane and on a computer effectively.
The Bath Priory
To the west, a few minutes outside the city centre, The Bath Priory is a sprawling haven built on land that used to be owned by The Priory of Bath Abbey. It may have been a private residence, dorm wing and prep school in previous lives, but today its transformation into a five-star property includes owner Andrew Brownsword’s whimsical art collection. Stay in one of the 33 eclectic classic and contemporary guest rooms and suites, eat at the Michelin-starred restaurant under Chef Sam Moody, relax in the classic British drawing room with the smell of a wood fire, and tea or coffee that comes with homemade shortcake biscuits. Don’t miss the four acres of garden complete with cedars, a water and kitchen garden and an outdoor pool.
Their wonderful Garden Spa is a true sanctuary with bijou pool with steam and sauna starting relaxation pre-treatment. During winter the cosy area warms you to your core, relaxing body and mind. I had a wonderful combination of massage and facial in the next-door building under the expert hands of Chloe. She massaged away kinks in my back and hot spots in my shoulders, and sent me to that wonderful limbo between consciousness and sleep during a divine facial and head massage. The post-treatment lunch in The Pantry bathed in sunshine from the garden was the icing on the cake.
Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa
Renovating at the time of visiting Bath, this 500-acre heritage house and its 42 rooms is a one-stop-shop of luxury, offering culinary adventure at the Michelinstarred restaurant or their cookery school, outdoorsy expeditions on horseback and indoorsy healing via yoga, Pilates and spa treatments. First visit the indoor pool under a skylight, or the indoor and outdoor hydrotherapy pools, salt water plunge pool and thermal cabins (steam, sauna, Japanese salt or amethyst). There are treatments by Anne Semonin, Carita and Ila, but also unusual options like the Haslauer reflective sunlight therapy boosting vitamin D levels, dry floatation and reiki. The Mind and Body Spa Day is a no-brainer – with all day to explore the facilities, take a yoga or Pilates class, sink into an Ila Kundalini treatment then top it off with lunch at The Brasserie.
Day Spas in Bath
Neal’s Yard Remedies
Neal’s Yard, one of England’s homemade brands of wellness, offers such a wide range of therapies it would take you months to try them all. From acupuncture and kinesiology, Ayurveda and TCM, Bach Flower Therapy, homeopathy and reflexology to shiatsu, Thai and numerous other kinds of massages plus facials, they have holistic and alternative wellness covered. Treatment rooms are upstairs above the retail shop within one of Bath’s most charming lanes.
Visit Nealsyardremedies Website
Green Street House
Another popular day spa in a Georgian house, Green Street House delivers therapy via a host of skincare brands that include Elemis, Dermalogica and Ren, as well as Essie for nails and makeovers by Jane Iredale. For the ultimate facial, try the BIOTEC treatments said to re-energise skin with a combination of machine and touch, or the Oxycrystal Microdermabrasion. The Big Chill is a great combo of massage, facial, pedicure and snack over three hours – bring a friend and tune out together.
Visit Greenstreethouse Website
Things to do in and Around Bath
The Roman Baths
This museum takes you on an amazing journey through the original stone baths and rooms, some still holding piping hot thermal waters. Sadly there is no bathing here, however the audio commentary is fantastic and takes you back into a world of Romans, Saxons and Georgians. Finish with lunch, afternoon tea or dinner in The Pump Room Restaurant to the sound of a string trio or pianist.
Bath Abbey
The Abbey is a wonderful place to sit in a pew and take in the atmosphere, admire the stained-glass windows and engravings. Don’t miss their regular tour up to the roof, which takes you inside the clock face, into the bell tower and to the very top of the tower for great views over the city and rolling hills beyond.
Jane Austen Centre
Jane Austen temporarily lived in Bath in the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. Inside one of Bath’s wonderful Georgian townhouses you’ll learn what it was like in her time and what fascinated her about the city.
Stonehenge
The iconic, prehistoric and mysterious standing stones created between 3–2,000BC may have been a burial site, place of human sacrifice and healing, centre of astronomy and sun worship or a calendar? Find a tour where you can witness sunset from within the circle.
Longleat House
This Elizabethan stately home is home to the 7th Marquess of Bath. Explore the Capability Brown landscapes and mazes, libraries, Lord Bath’s murals and staterooms.
