I’ll let you in to a secret – I’ve never done the whole ‘spa thing’ before. Yes I’ve had a facial (as regaled here) and I’ve pottered around Bath Spa for a Hen Party weekend. But the ‘wander round in your robe all day, being put to sleep by a masseuse and wallow around in a pool/sauna/steam room’ experience? No. I’ve only dreamt that day would come. Well it did. A few weekends ago, in the heart of West London with my lovely ladies, Lily and Amelia. And surprise, surprise – it was positively dreamy.
The location for our overnight retox was the K West Hotel and Spa (nothing to do with Kim and Kayne); where robe wearing is encouraged and there’s a light whiff of Aromatherapy Associates that scents the halls. It’s cool, calm, collected and feels like a little slice of getaway from the city despite being a five minute walk from Westfields White City (but more on that later). During our 24-hour stay there were a lot of firsts: my first massage, my first experience of a snow room and the first time I’ve ever been woken up by Lily singing in my ear. The latter perhaps being the least relaxing of the three.
I’ll address the massage first. We all opted for the Ultimate Aromatherapy Experience*: a 55 minute head-to-toe massage using an Aromatherapy Associates oil of our choice. I plumped for the Support Lavender and Peppermint, of course. Nothing too exotic or hard-hitting, just a good rub down at whatever intensity we fancied. Given it was my first time my masseuse and I (a burly guy with huge hands and a soft touch – I’m currently trying to bully my boyfriend into taking up massage as a hobby but he’s set on home brewing, dammit) decided on a medium level of firmness and it was glorious. I would give you a blow by blow account but I sort of slipped in and out of real life awareness while trying my best not to slobber on the towel. That’s the best I can muster up. I do remember however that the final scalp massage moves were particularly heavenly. Note to self: more massages, more often.Â
When my hour was up I shuffled into the ‘relaxation room’ they escort you to post-treatment; home of the comfiest loungers in the world, I snuggled up for another snooze until I was woken up by Lily and Amelia’s entrance. After comparing notes we decided to brave bikini wearing and check out the spa where we were greeted with a sauna, steam room, sanarium, hydrotherapy pool and snow room. Yep, you read that right. Snow room, a room that does exactly what it says on the tin. The idea being that you heat yourself up then take a trip to the snow room to cool off. We did make a trip to the snow room, but after two minutes of squealing and putting snow down each others swimwear we decided it wasn’t for us. The hydrotherapy pool was right up our street though and we chilled there for a good few hours before we retired to our rooms.
Dinner followed – I can highly recommend the Fig and Parma Ham starter – and then we made a sneaky late-night trip to Westfield. It was so darn close and the proximity to our favourite Boots in the whole of London drew us in. In a zombie-like state after the afternoon’s activities and a glass of wine at dinner, some interesting purchases were made. I’m sure they’ll crop up round these parts soon.
You know what? I could get used to this Spa stuff.
*PR Sample
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