Spa/Wellness Retreat suggestions?

[JelliedFeels]

Has anyone visited a great retreat that they’d recommend?

I’ve had a shitter of a year. My Ddad passed away and then (D)H left me out of the blue all while I’ve been trying to finish the last year of my postgraduate degree. I’ll be graduating in June without either of them there and so I want to treat myself to a wellness retreat.

I’d like to stick with either Italy or Portugal - Italy for the food or Portugal for the dolphins (I LOVE dolphins). The trouble is, the retreats I’ve found so far are very retreaty, they’re miles away from anything and seem to be focussed on detoxing as opposed to spoiling and I’m definitely after the latter.

I want to over indulge in good food and wine, have some spa treatments, maybe take some yoga classes, go on lovely walks/hikes, go exploring and generally just switch my brain off from everything.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Bump post-royal wedding thread madness

We stayed at the Hyatt ziva in Cancun the spa is beautiful, beaches both sides, excellent service, truly spoiled, luxury alacarte restaurants included, as well as a great gym and fitness classes from aqua cycle, paddle boarding to tennis lessons. we were able to hire a car and go into downtown Cancun, although the hotel zone is walkable. We also drove to Tulum, Vallodolid, Chichen Itza (historical and cultural sites/areas) and explor (jungle zip lines, cave swimming, rafting etc) if you're into history and more active past times, you can also swim in natural cenotes. If you don't drive abroad I think you can do most via organised excursion, but you wouldn't have to leave resort of you didn't want to.

Sorry didn't see you wanted short haul

What about a lovely 5 star hotel with spa close to a coastal town that is likely to offer boat trips for dolphins, rather than a dedicated spa resort?

Wow Fash, the Hyatt Ziva looks absolutely perfect. Unfortunately my budget won’t stretch that far this time but I’ll definitely keep it in mind for next year. Maybe I can hold my divorce party there!

Barbara that makes sense. I guess then I would avoid the detoxy, liquid only retreat type places I keep finding. My perfect day would be a hike, boat trip to see the dolphins, more food than I can fit in my stomach and then a relaxing float in a jacuzzi before sitting on my balcony with a good book.

I suppose if I could find a good hotel with spa facilities I could book the hikes and boat trips separately. This has widened my search though so now I need twice the help!

I am looking for this kind of thing. I have had a recommendation for the Malvern Spa Hotel - thought I would walk the Malverns and then bliss out there. The hotel looks lovely buy now idea about the food, also it looks as if it's on an industrial estate though that wouldn't bother me because it's cheaper than the really posh ones

But no idea, not buy now idea. I have GOT to find out how to turn off autocorrect.

Martinhal in the Algarve?

What about Madeira?

Good quality hotels, organised walks of the Llevadas. I've seen dolphins in the canaries so there might dolphins there too. Nice climate too.

annandale that hotel looks fabulous. Bubble massages? Yes please! I may stick that on my list for a winter escape as it’s not too far from where I’m based.

Martinhal looks wonderful but there does seem to be a lot of reviews by families with kids, that might put be on a bit of a downer. I’d like to stay clear of happy families and loved up couples just to make sure I don’t interrupt their holiday to remind them of the divorce rate don’t want to spread my bitterness.

Madeira is a great idea. I think I’ll stick with there and try find a suitable hotel as there seems to be a lot of organised hikes and boat trips thank you Barbara.

Another option would be to do a mini tour of Italy, visiting various cities then stopping at a spa hotel somewhere like Lake Como. Putting myself in a pasta and pizza coma sounds like a great way to escape

Ooh mini tour of Italy is a fab idea. Can I recommend leaning heavily on the food side, so starting or finishing in Bologna?

OP divorce party sounds fun, it's where we got married. We're going to Cascais in Portugal in September not too much of a family vibe and some nice spa hotels although we're air BnB this time (blew the budget in Mexico in January...)

31 years ago the Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio in Florence was heaven, and there was a bakery round the corner on the Mercato Delle Pulci that brought out freshly baked pizza at 11am every morning [helpful] [up to date]

If you Google yoga retreats, most have spa facilities or at least visiting masseuse etc and the yoga is optional (obvs).

I went on a lovely one in Ibiza years ago. And there is one in Italy. Not on pc so can't search for the links I'm afraid.

I've been to the Malvern for a four day break, it was nice but it's not in a great area. Though near a shopping area so there's that.
Food etc was fine but would not have wanted to stay longer as menu was a bit limited for a longer stay.
The spa was great and I did a yoga class too, but fitting everything in is hard, you need to book your treatments well in advance.

It's one of the better ones I've been to though.
Bishopstrow House in Wilts is nice too.

Join up to Secret Escapes for some good deals but do look out for them being min 2ppl.

Mmmmmm Bologna spag Bol and Florence’s freshly baked pizza mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!

I’ve always wanted to do an Italy tour and then return to the places I enjoyed most for longer stays. The ex H always said he’d like to do it too so I never did it alone and although I suggested it most years he always found 1000s of excuses why we couldn’t go. It would be nice to finally do it.

Although at the same time it’d be nice to arrive at the destination and not worry about repacking/catching transport and just relaxing for the week.

First world problems I know but it’s a tricky one!

I had a look at the yogaretreats website and they do have some great looking options in Portugal and Italy. They do all seem to promote healthiness though so I’m not sure they’d take kindly to my eating until I fall asleep and loading up on the bottles of wine. Bloody healthy people I need a chunky person’s retreat!

Ischia. The thermal spas are AMAZING. The food is AMAZING. And it's pretty reasonably priced. I stayed in a normal hotel and just had a couple of days here: www.giardiniposeidonterme.com/en/homepage but there are also spa hotels like this one: www.hotelparcosmeraldo.com/en?gclid=Cj0KCQjwuYTYBRDsARIsAJnrUXAFiT_L25Mpx0asL1I5KD7XsScE0gBCHuE3HbU9jyg0fdvug0zi80AaAntyEALw_wcB

You can also do boat trips to Pompeii for the day, lots of great walks and some nice beaches (some of which also have warm water from the geothermal springs). I recommend the sfogliatelli too.

Coooor [Sid James noise] that there hotel parco smeraldo looks a bit of all right.

HOLY MOLY! Look at that

Well that’s settled it, I’m off to Italy! I’ll start in Lake Como and work my way down to end my trip in Ischia melting away in a thermal spring.

I think I’ll enjoy it all the more without the ex complaining about heat/transport/food/blah blah blah.

Thanks so much everyone

See you in the hot tub Jellied

see you there, annandale. I’ll bring the pizza down from Florence!

Have a lovely stay at the Malvern!

It's in Germany rather than Italy/Portugal but check out the vabali chain. Beautiful, luxurious (better than many high end hotels) and gorgeous food and wine.

@JelliedFeels Martinhal not the place for you then! I mentioned it because it's on the cliffs and is truly tranquil but completely appreciate why you'd rather not go there.

What about Gleneagles up in Scotland?

great thread