Caudalie Vinotherapy Spa, Hotel Marqués De Riscal
Marques de Riscal is one of Rioja’s oldest and most celebrated wine producers. Don’t expect it to look like any hotel you have stayed in before though – designed by Guggenheim architect Frank O Gehry, the outside is pure theatre; high-octane, titanium-fuelled billows of walls and windows. Inside, there’s continuity with their origins, at least in the spa, as the rich nutrients of the vineyards are transformed into Chardonnay Scrubs and Merlot Wraps. The wonderful Caudalie ‘wine therapy’ concept began in Bordeaux at Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, and the same team will be working its magic here.
The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo
Book in for an evening treatment, as the spa is high up over Tokyo and you’ll get a perfect view of one of the world’s most beguiling night-time displays. The Mandarin Oriental has long perfected the art of Concept Spas – combining the best of what they do, with the best of where they are. For Japan, that means turning the two elements of forest and water – the hot springs and mountains that provide solace to over-worked salarymen – into private treatment rooms filled with running water, jasmine flowers, scented candles, smooth slate, teak walls, understated luxury. You get looked after by ‘wellness experts’, who treat not just the overworked body, but restore a sense of spiritual balance after the madness of the city.
Chi Spa, Shangri-La Beijing
The treatment suites of the Shanri-La’s Chi Spas are among the most spacious in the world, offering a ‘spa within a spa’ concept that provides each guest with their own changing, bathing and relaxation space. First launched in Bangkok in 2004, and now resident in Beijing, where all treatments fuse ancient healing traditions and rituals from China and the Himalayas. In our language, this means you tell them what you need, and they get to work on transporting you there – creating your own personal Chi Journey using Himalayan Stone Therapy, Chinese herbal wraps and massages, water therapy and good old fashioned steams and saunas.
