High points of a Thai spa

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  Pool at sunset, Six Senses Destination Spa, Phuket

  © Six Senses

What Thailand doesn’t know about spas would probably fit on the back of a face towel. But there is one place where you can go a step further and truly immerse yourself in a complete wellness programme, hopefully emerging fixed, stretched and nourished – if you allow yourself to succumb to the process, that is.

For years, the Thai spa on everyone’s lips was Chiva Som and this is still one of the best in the world, but Six Senses Destination Spa is now giving it a run for its massage oil. My visit to the spa, set on the small island of Yaka Nai - a 10-minute speedboat ride from Phuket - couldn’t have come at a better time.

Emotionally and physically burnt out, I needed some TLC and the spa delivered. During my four well-intentioned days, I was nurtured, contemplative, exercised, well fed, alert, healthy and as happy as I could be expected to be. I keep telling myself that when I get time, I will try and resurrect that healthy regime of eating the right food at the right time and of yoga, meditation and correct breathing to help deal with stress. One day.

The stay for all guests starts with a detailed hour’s consultation, during which a therapist analyses your emotional and physical state and discusses what you want to achieve from the time there. A wellness programme is developed for you to follow, highlighting the available classes that will help you along the journey, as well as the treatments themselves.

Even beyond the physical buildings of the spa and the professional treatments, the resort promotes the feeling of wellbeing and cocoons you in what Six Senses calls its ‘intelligent luxury’ style, with a beautiful natural environment, healthy and tasty cuisine and impeccably designed villas with thoughtful touches such as a yoga suit to slop around in and healthy cookies in the fridge to provide a little treat. The villas have also been designed to Feng Shui principles, which means no corners for the negative energy to hide away in.

Nature, nurture

Large areas of the resort are devoted to the edible garden concept, so you are surrounded by lush shrubs of plants and herbs, which in theory, you could stop and pick and see used in your lunch, or a treatment. The provision of a little bike (complete with cute wooden initialised ‘number plate’) means it’s a joy to cycle your way around the resort feeling the breeze in your hair and getting a bit of exercise at the same time. Or, you can call your villa host who will whiz by in a golf buggy to ferry you between sessions and dining.

The cost of the stay includes two daily treatments expertly-administered in four different spas – Chinese, Indonesian, Thai and Indian - the full-board plan of tasty fishetarian and spa cuisine, the range of wellness activities and classes and a butler, or ‘villa host’. What you won’t get is alcohol, meat, nightlife, or a TV. But who needs TV when you’ve got nature; forget Big Brother, I sat at the chunky desk looking through the giant window at the soothingly lit pool and garden and watched as a teeny tiny gecko caught bugs collecting round the light and stuck himself like a fridge magnet onto the window before me, innocently showing off his underbelly.

Although there is plenty of free time to chill in the villa, swim in your pool or the sea, this is quite a prescriptive way of life - there’s no point bringing someone who likes to party their way through a holiday (or maybe there is, if they can be persuaded they need a detox that is). Your only alcohol is going to be the organic wines and champagne available at dinner/after 6pm. The yoga suit (comfortable trousers and a top) looked like overkill to me at first, but I soon started popping it on everyday because it’s just plain easier. You feel a little bit like a cult member, but it’s nice not to have to think about what to wear every morning.

The fishetarian spa cuisine – so that’s just fish and ingredients grown from the resort’s biological gardens – may not be to everyone’s liking. Butter is a dirty word, but all types of breads, except for the starchy white stuff, are still available, served at dinner with a hunk of garlic to rub in. Water is served at room temperature – better for your system than drinking iced drinks - and there’s not a plastic-bottled Perrier or Evian in sight, but crystal water is on offer, said to absorb more of the rock’s minerals.

A must to try is the amazing raw cuisine, available at The Point with stunning views over Phang Nga Bay. Raw food avoids the use of animal products and uses ingredients high in nutrients and minerals yet the maximum cooking temperature is 42 degrees to enable all the enzymes and vitamins to be preserved, something which not achievable at higher temperatures. The tastes are sensational in this innovative culinary method – and for something more manageable you can try at home, there are cooking classes for Thai dishes in the Cooking Cave.

Get with the programme

My programme included one such cooking class, stretching classes at sunrise in a hilltop pavilion, a close-knit seminar session with a neuro-linguistic programming expert and aquarobics – all designed at various stages to boost digestion and circulation, relieve tiredness and help deal with the emotional stress of a break-up. The treatments prescribed for me included a Chi Nei Tsang massage - not often found on a spa menu, given its intense massage of internal organs to shift the digestive system up a notch – a Thai massage, acupressure and detox massages.

This combination of daily exercise, stretching classes, plenty of water, quality of treatments, early nights and fresh spa cuisine left me feeling wonderful. Melida Weber, the resort’s resident manager, says: “People come here because they know there is something they want to put right in their life and we can help them as much as they want us to.” How right she was.

By April Hutchinson

Locations: Phuket, Thailand