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Luxxe Magazine
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08 March 2008
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Little Spa by La Prairie
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What makes a good spa? If you’re single and under 30, then there’s a lot to be said for some deluxe pampering, a spectacular location and a sprinkling of nightlife. If, however, you’re older, with partner or children attached, you’ll know that there’s a lot more to a great spa than treatments and extracurricular nocturnal activity.
Inevitably, on arrival at the spa, you’ll survey your partner and/or children and ask yourself: ‘How the hell am I going to get them to leave me in peace for the week?’ the answer is probably a series of bribes – connubial or otherwise where partners are concerned, complemented by expensive kids’ clubs – or at least one day’s grace of kids’ clubs, before your children refuse to participate on the second morning. Whereupon you cancel your spa treatments and spend the rest of the holiday in a fury of self-pity, while the children have a great time poolside and your partner spends the days listening to his iPod.
If this is striking any chords, then I have the answer. Its expensive and it’s not close by, but people in the know say it is spa/holiday heaven. If you’re looking for a holiday that works on all levels (spa-ing being optimum), then the La Prairie spa on Grand Cayman is the answer.
The hotel that houses the spa is the Ritz-Carlton. There’s a Nick Bollettieri tennis camp and 18-hole golf course for him; a brilliant Jacques Cousteau-inspired ‘ambassadors of the environment’ kids club for them (my children took part in activities as varied as kayaking and making underwater movies off the reef). There’s a fabulous safe beach too.
But enough about them. Walk into the spa’s crystalline entry hall – an enormous glass, steel and quartzite installation, complete with running water and a misting of La P Silver Rain perfume – and you are literally in another world. This is space-age spa meets Swiss technology (no faux Asian or Caribbean vibe here).
The Ritz-Carlton spent over £5 million on this spa, and it shows. In the Silver Haven, you can enjoy champagne & strawberries in your own lounging space before and after your treatments. The treatments themselves are spectacular, ranging from microdermabrasion facials to hot-stone therapy. Try the Silver Rain Experience, where you can be exfoliated with crushed coriander and massaged by warmed jasmine oil as a soft, warm rain falls throughout the room. This is as close as you can get to sensual overload without, well, you know. In fact it may be better.
Five nights at the Ritz-Carlton with Club-level accommodation, return flights with British Airways and transfers, from £2,899 per person. Facial or massage from $170/£87.
(0845 450 5732; www.clevelandspaselection.co.uk)
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