Rich citizens successfully maintained their health, vigour and beauty with help of water since the times of Ancient Greece. Asclepius practiced his method of the water cure in the Roman
therms, the Slavs went to the baths heated with a chimneyless stove, and the women of ancient Scandinavia gave birth in saunas.
Today major SPA centres combine a lot of centuries-old water treatment traditions.
The most famous of them become a Mecca for tourists - connoisseurs of steam baths, massages, wrappings and healthy baths. A SPA resort can be assessed not by the number of its visitors (some resorts are designed only for a limited client turnover) but by the number of the loyal, regular customers. Here’s a rating of health centres which are proud to say that every second or third client comes back, again and again.
Beauty by Givenchy
Residence & Spa at One & Only Royal Mirage
Dubai, UAE
One of the best SPA resorts in the world – a beauty and health clinic managed by the House of Givenchy located on the territory of One & Only Royal Mirage Hotel. It has 12 treatment rooms, a de luxe room for VIP guests, a bar serving freshly squeezed juices and an "Aqua Zone" with Jacuzzis, swimming pools (with and without waves), steam baths and saunas.
The resort’s pride is massage: there are nine different kinds of massage available, from traditional to medicinal, of any complexity. The SPA’s motto is: if you felt any kind of pain during your massage, the masseur isn’t qualified enough to work here. Indeed, even the toughest kinds of massage for stretching your body which becomes supple and flexible give a real pleasure.
In addition to massage the SPA centre offers a huge variety of facial treatments, wrappings, aromatic therapeutic baths and wine baths.
The pleasure epicentre is located on the ground floor: the Oriental Hammam with two Jacuzzis, two steam baths and two massage parlours. Here the traditional massage is made on a heated marble table. Masseurs steadily and meticulously work on every part of your body from toes to head and ensure that you will get a renewed skin.
Residence & Spa at One&Only Royal Mirage
Basic water treatments (pool, sauna) are included in the accommodation price, massages cost between Є 180–300. A whole day in the Oriental Hammam including massage costs Є480.
www.oneandonlyresorts.com
What’s a SPA?
Why SPA resorts are called like that? Spa is the name of the Belgian town where one of the first water cure resorts was built. It’s located in the Ardennes surrounded by the woods and numerous rivers. Even Pliny the Elder who lived in Ist century AD mentioned the 200 springs of Spa, and in
16th century the resort became famous throughout Europe. Charles II , Peter I and other royalties used to come to the healing waters of Spa every year.
Today Spa still remains a world-famous resort, while bottled water from its springs is on sale in the biggest European shops. A new advanced centre Thermes de Spa capable of serving 35 thousand visitors per year was opened not long ago. It has two large heated swimming pools, Turkish baths, Jacuzzis, mud baths, relaxation areas and a lot of other things pleasant for body and mind.
www.spa-info.be
Health from the sea
Aldemar Royal Mare Thalasso
The island of Crete, Greece
The Aldemar Royal hotel complex is located right on the sea, 2 km far from Hersonnisos. It’s a birthplace of the modern Greek thalassotherapy. The SPA salon combines a classic French thalassotherapy with Oriental treatments.
The European cures include a hydrotherapy (sea water baths, hydromassage, aquatonic pool) and mud wrappings that give the deficient vitamins to the skin and make it healthy and silky.
If European-style procedures give the total relaxation, the Oriental treatments (ajurveda, aromatherapy, oriental massages) aim to make you stronger, mobilize your inner resources and energy.
The hotel has a beauty parlour (on basis of seawater and water-plants preparations by the French Thal’ion Cosmetics) and a restaurant in the best Mediterranean traditions, which also offers diet food. The fitness programme is aqua-oriented too: aerobics, aquafit, various open water sports.
There is only a sole age limit rule: clients under 16 are not welcome to the SPA to keep
the atmosphere quiet and relaxing.
Aldemar Royal Mare Thalasso
The centre offers various health-improvement programmes for one, three or five
days. Depending on the number of treatments, a day’s thalassotherapy course costs between Є250 - 890. The beauty parlour services including a face peeling and various masks cost between Є120 - 250.
www.aldemarthalasso-spa.com
The American dream
Enchantment Resort Mii Amo Spa
Sedona, Arizona
The Enchantment hotel surrounded by the ridge of red mountains was built in the middle of Boynton canyon. It is located 110 miles to the north of Phoenix, in the heart of the Arizona mountains.
The pride of Mii Amo Spa are natural cosmetic treatment products. Body scrubs,
cosmetic masks and wrappings are made right in front of the client’s eyes. For example, corn grains are mixed with coarse salt in a blender. Then aloe vera is added as the base and the scrub is ready. The triumphal discovery which brought worldwide fame to Mii Amo Spa was milk-and-honey baths (the milk is also natural, delivered from the nearby farm). Honey is dissolved in the hot milk, the mix is cooled down to the tolerant temperature and we get one of the most
amazing relaxing attractions.
The SPA centre also offers various massages, sauna, Turkish bath and outdoor swimming pool with a staggering view of the red cliffs.
Enchantment Resort Mii Amo Spa
You can order a day-long health programme at the SPA, for example: sauna, massage, a wrapping and a milk bath. A "healthy day" would cost between $400–1,360 depending on the chosen treatment.
www.enchantmentresort.com
What’s a thalassotherapy?
Very long ago people noticed that they feel much better on the sea: a sick one gets healthy; a tired one restores his strength. Those who spend their vacations on the sea get rejuvenated and increase their vitality. Why so? The science of thalassotherapy is trying to find the answer to this question by studying the effects of the sea air and water on the human organism. The results of the research
are used to create the special treatments, cosmetics and medicines capable of replacing the real contact with the sea, at least at the biological level.
Julia Sharapova
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