THE SCARLET HOTEL AND SPA MAWGAN PORTH, CORNWALL
I was rather excited about the spa at The Scarlet Hotel, the adult-only eco-hotel at Mawgan Porth that is very high on style. As you walk into the hotel, the therapy begins: the décor is tasteful and minimalist and the art quite beautiful. Light streams in through glass walls that look out onto pounding seas and an infinity pool. Aware of the importance of a spa in a high-end adult-only hotel where there are no children to disrupt your personal pamper time, there has been no scrimping on space at The Scarlet: the spa takes up much of the lower ground floor. It boasts an enormous relaxation room that looks out onto the natural pool, just beyond which are The Scarlet’s famous cliff-top hot tubs. In these you can sit in warm bubbles sipping Champagne while the waves pound the shore below and the coastal wind blasts and reinvigorates your head. Such is the popularity of the experience you have to book the tubs. I proceeded to one of the lantern-lit tented massage rooms to receive the Voya Environmental Defence Facial. This facial majors on seaweed, appropriate for a hotel that’s right on the coast, but also highly beneficial for the skin. My masseuse was Charmaine who extended the detoxifying massage to my back and neck, and I emerged an hour and a half later in happy delirium. I was shown to the softly lit deep relaxation room, which has large canvas pods hanging from the ceiling – perfect for curling up in. After some cocooning there I wafted into the meditation room where I lent back on one of the many giant cushions, closed my eyes and listened to (a recording of) Deepak Chopra gently setting my mind straight on life, death and the futility of anxiety.
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MANOR | Late Winter 2016
I left The Scarlet a new woman, revived in mind and body, and clutching the bag of seaweed that Charmaine had wrapped up for me to lay on my face for the next couple of days and continue the skin-nutritious therapy. Range of treatments offered: 10/10 Degree of specialism: 8/10 Environment: 10/10 Product range used: Voya Spa extras: Hammam for scrubs and wraps on a heated table, Rhassoul for mineral mud sessions, rest room, meditation room, hot tubs, indoor pool, outdoor pool filtered by reeds scarlethotel.co.uk