Travel Blog – Mr & Mrs Smith Boutique & Luxury Hotels

It can be tough sometimes, working for boutique travel experts, whose daily tasks include jetting around the world, seeking out glamour-soaked hotels in wow-factor destinations. No really, it can. Especially when said work involves testing out our luxurious hotels’ facilities, just to check they are still as top-notch as ever – the spa for instance, and the muscle-soothing, bliss-inducing hands of its therapists.

I was lucky enough to be charged with such a responsibility, one rain-lashed night in October. My mission: to visit the fabulous Baglioni Hotel, scope out the spa and succumb to an ‘Exotic Ritual’ massage. Never one to say nay to some kneading, I left Smith HQ in high spirits. Sadly, the District line was not in my favour. 30 minutes later, I was dampened in both body and mood – still awaiting my tube, and surrounded by steaming commuters smelling of wet dog and doom.

By the time I arrived at Baglioni Hotel in Kensington, having been stabbed with various brollies, nearly exterminated by several shiny silver cars and soaked by the elements, my mission had become less of a treat and more of a necessity – I was in sore need of some knot-relieving. I slunk into the opulent marble lobby, looking like something the cat had dragged out (of the hotel’s glimmering fountain, by the glittering bar).

The Italian glitz was a little too much for my sodden self, so I made a beeline for the spa. Renata, my masseuse, welcomed me warmly, magicking a drink, a bathrobe, and some slippers seemingly from thin air.

I was under strict instructions to meet Renata in the treatment room, but while in the changing rooms, I spied some naked Aussie girls happily chattering away in the showers. Keen to remove the London grime, I sneakily snuck in. Just as I was in mid-soak, Renata’s face appeared before the steamed-up glass door: ‘You don’t need a shower, your bath is waiting.’

Donning my robe, I followed Renata into a small, womb-like cave of cosiness and calm – a chocolate-brown room, with bamboo on the walls, tea-lights scattered in semi circles on the floor, alongside smooth grey and brown pebbles and expensive-looking lotions. The room’s two star players caught my eye immediately: the promised white, egg-shaped bath, steaming and fragrant with essential oils and Dead Sea salts, and the massage bed, ripe with promise (and towels).

What followed were possibly the most pleasurable two hours of my life thus far (just don’t tell my Mr Smith). Trying to describe a massage is an occasion designed for the expression, ‘You really had to be there’, but just to give you an idea…

I soaked in the bath like a contented concubine for 15 minutes, before drying off for my massage, during which Renata expertly untied my muscular cat’s cradle, giving particular love to my neck and shoulders. Employing a mixture of techniques including stroking, rubbing, pummelling and jabbing, Renata’s fingers (which seemed to have transformed into rotating metal rods) smoothed in various Elemis unguents as I lay back, slack-jawed with pleasure, serenaded by the squawks of seagulls and the lapping of waves (I normally hate those soundtracks, but this one actually was relaxing, although all the watery sounds made me need the toilet).

Having fully exorcised my body of tension, it was time for my facial. Renata settled upon a rose theme for my treatment, using rose oils, rose cleanser, rose exfoliator and a rose mask. Aaah, just thinking about it now makes some of my aches, pain and strain disappear. The only thing that would have topped off the experience? A night in the Royal Suite. Greedy, moi?

Should you be emitting clicking noises every time you turn your head, or be feeling grumpy, or in need of some special pampering, or think, ‘Forget Christmas shopping, I want to treat myself’ – look no further than the Baglioni’s Elemis spa. And, in the name of research, we’ll be sharing some of our other pamper-perfect spa hotels with you soon…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Activities, London, Spa, United Kingdom, Worth getting out of bed for, spa hotels. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.