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ST DAVIDS HOTEL & SPA |
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CARDIFF, WALES
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LOCATION
Over three floors of the seven-storey St Davids Hotel, a gleaming white, ship-like construction with sweeping views of Cardiff Bay and the Bristol Channel.
DECOR
Marine-bright and elegant: white walls, blue tiles, wooden benches and floor-to-ceiling windows looking on to an unbroken expanse of water. Treatment rooms are womb-like, with flower bowls glimmering in the candlelight.
CREDO
St Davids is a hydrotherapy spa - as befits its waterfront setting. Treatments are ESPA, drawing on ancient Eastern practices such as Ayurveda to soothe mind, body and soul with plant-based products and essential oils selected to suit the individual.
FACILITIES
A beautifully designed hydropool with swan-neck fountains for shoulder massage and a sea-salt corridor snaking round to a raised Jacuzzi. There is also a 15-metre exercise pool, poolside sauna, gym and yoga studio, plus male and female changing and relaxation rooms and a large outdoor terrace.
DAY PACKAGES
The six set packages, or rituals, include the two-hour 20-minute Twilight Zone which ends with a meal at Marco Pierre White's Tides restaurant. I chose the Purifier, lasting two hours 15 minutes, which consists of an undignified hosing down with a Jet Blitz shower followed by a Detoxifying Aromatherapy Massage with lemon, cypress and eucalyptus, and an algae wrap. For a more gentle water-based massage, try the Marine Hydrotherapy Bath. The Mind & Body ritual, similar to the complete ESPA Ritual at One Spa in Edinburgh, is a good option.
SERVICE
Excellent. My therapist, Michelle, was experienced enough to go off-menu and really sort out my lower back, and sufficiently well-versed in the Ayurvedic doshas, or body types, to judge that I would prefer a mud wrap to algae. She was right: I didn't much like being slathered in green slime and wrapped in plastic.
FOOD
Day packages include a simple, healthy buffet lunch in the spa restaurant: I had grilled sole fillets. By contrast, the spa breakfast, offered only to residential guests, is a lavish spread, with everything from muesli to baked apple and banana. All options are labelled
with their health benefits: tofu with scrambled eggs, for example, is supposed to 'balance
the hormones, ward against cancer, lower cholesterol and boost the immune system'.
BEST THING
The sensation of being immersed in and surrounded by water. It seems a pity to limit yourself to a day when all the bedrooms have private teak decks overlooking the water.
WORST THING
The decor, particularly in the spa restaurant, feels cold when the sun goes in.
It is at its best in the summer when you can relax in a lounger on the terrace.
RATING
8/10
PRICE
Massages from £55; day packages from £65.
CONTACT
The St David's Hotel & Spa, Havannah Street, Cardiff (029 2045 4045; www.roccofortehotels.com)
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