Red Magazine Spa Guide - Thermas de Carratraca, Spain

May 2009

Spa Special: Rewind, reboot, relax by Lisa Johnson 

Thermas de Carratraca, Andulusia, Spain by Niki Browes.

If your idea of a detox is foregoing the evening’s glass of wine, you may need some encouragement. And that is what you get at this 43-room boutique retreat, set in a remote thermal spa town in the Andalusian hills.

The four-night Energy Booster includes a medical consultation, nine hydrotherapy sessions in natural mineral springs, a hot-stone massage and an orchid facial. Plus calorie-controlled meals (think lots of fish and vegetables), with herbal teas and water. Fortunately, the food is tasty, if rather small of portion, and the Roman baths-style spa is fabulous, combining sulphur-rich water with an intriguing history (Lord Byron was a regular).
After each hydrotherapy session, I floated back to my room, more zoned out and sylphlike by the day. Even better, by my last day, I still hadn’t missed my usual glass of Chardonnay.

BEST THING: The ‘thermal nebulisation’, in which you breathe in sulphurous steam. Like valium in a bottle.

WORST THING: the sound of local kids zooming up and down the street on motorbykes.

DETAILS: From £780 per person with Wellbeing Escapes (0845 602 6202; wellbeingescapes.co.uk), based on two sharing and including return flights to Malaga and transfers.