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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not understand the attraction of a spa day?

89 replies

Shufflebumnessie · 25/05/2018 21:36

Help me understand....

A friend has organised a get-together that will be taking place at a spa that she is a member of. As such, she can take 4 guests in for a discounted day rate. We'll each be paying £60 for what I can see is the privilege of sitting by a nice pool with optional use of the sauna & hot-tub.
The price doesn't include any treatments (these can be booked on the day but looking at the price list I can't justify their prices!). Lunch will be extra and even the robes cost extra to hire.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone but it just seems an excessive cost for a few hours of chatting and lounging around a pool.

AIBU to feel like this? I've never done anything like this before so perhaps I'm overlooking something. Please enlighten me!!

OP posts:
ImogenTubbs · 26/05/2018 06:41

I like a nice spa, but £60 just to use the pool, steam room and sauna??? That's extortionate!

bruffin · 26/05/2018 06:41

I pay £99 for 2 on loyalty scheme ( just gone up to £119) at well known spa
We get a small breakfast in arrival, lovely hot and cold buffet lunch, free classes etc. Treatments can be expensive but i often go for elemis where the facial is free with 2 products totally £50
Had a lovely spa day last week no treatments but paid for the thallisotherapy pool , we go as a group about every 6 months.

bruffin · 26/05/2018 06:43

And forgot we get robes and a free pair of fitflops

flumpybear · 26/05/2018 06:47

I LOVE spa days - for me it's alone time/stress wind down time. I'm a full time working mum with two children and a really busy job and home life, I just love spa days to just take time to stop and also I love saunas and steam rooms and lazing around Wink
HOWEVER that does sound pretty pricey! I usually pay around 79 for a day with a lovey lunch, four courses, plus free tea and coffee afterwards and free towels and robes plus half a dozen different types of steam rooms and a few sauna rooms too

annandale · 26/05/2018 06:48

In theory I like a spa day - I love massages, facials, swimming, female friends and time spent doing not a lot - but having had a hen do at a spa years ago where I couldn't afford anything except just to sit there and it seemed to be frowned on to actually swim, as opposed to immerse while chatting, with a bunch of people I hardly knew, it became an exercise in yawning with my mouth closed.

But you don't have a lot of choice and at least you know the people you're going with. If you can stretch to at least a file and paint or something, it does break up the time.

araiwa · 26/05/2018 06:55

To me a spa day includes treatments, food, relaxation etc- quite nice

£60 to sit by a pool seems weird

FindoGask · 26/05/2018 07:02

Same. I don't understand why sitting by a swimming pool in a dressing gown all day is supposed to be relaxing.

FindoGask · 26/05/2018 07:04

(I know there's usually treatments and stuff too but to be honest if I wanted a facial, I would just book a facial)

araiwa · 26/05/2018 07:06

I mean for £60 you could probably get an easyjet and sit on a beach for a day

SweetCheeks1980 · 26/05/2018 07:09

I don't even know what you do at a spa!

Mercurial123 · 26/05/2018 07:09

Sounds awful sixty quid could buy a very nice meal and lots of wine. It's my idea of hell.

LadyRochfordsHoickedGusset · 26/05/2018 07:11

Yanbu
Yanbu
Yanbu

I think it's one of those things that women feel they "should" like, like watching Mamma Mia on repeat. Or reading really badly written erotica with the hive mind.

No. Just no.

MustBeThursday · 26/05/2018 07:12

I've never done a spa day and the idea has never really appealed. I don't like sitting round in swimwear. I don't like saunas. I also spend almost my entire days being touched and prodded by the DCs (inc very clingy baby) so no way would I pay for someone else to touch me to do a massage.

£60 seems really expensive to me but I have no frame of reference...

Mercurial123 · 26/05/2018 07:14

Agree with LadyRochford as a woman you are expected to like these things. I have friends who don't get why I hate massages, never been to a spa day, don't have manicures etc. We're all different give me food or a good book and I'm happy.

Raven88 · 26/05/2018 07:18

Me and my mum are the same, some members of our family have tried to plan one but it's my mums idea if hell and if I'm around a pool I want to swim laps and exercise not lounge. Our idea of a fun day going for a stroll around the part and stopping for a coffee.

Raven88 · 26/05/2018 07:18

Park*

ArchchancellorsHat · 26/05/2018 07:19

It sounds hellish even for free. No chance I'd be handing over sixty quid for it.

ChevalierTialys · 26/05/2018 07:21

If you're paying £60 just for use of the pool then that's a pretty rubbish deal tbh. Usually you would get 2 treatments (or one if its a long massage), lunch with one free drink, robes, slippers and use of all facilities.

I love a spa day but I wouldn't be paying £60 just to use their pool.

starkid · 26/05/2018 07:27

That doesn't sound like a good deal

PlumsGalore · 26/05/2018 07:30

I find this thread reassuring. I thought I was the only person on MN who had never been to one or could see it as an answer to any problem in life. We all see "book a spa day" plastered on MN at every opportunity.

I'm with you (and lots of others seemingly) OP, can't see the appeal.

Hideandgo · 26/05/2018 07:30

Spa days are fab. No children, great chat. You come out squeaky clean and smelling nice then sit and relax over lunch. But yes, no children.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 26/05/2018 07:37

They're not for everyone. I have been once and I didn't really enjoy myself at all, apart from having a good giggle in the water aerobics and nearly being banned from the pool.

It was a group of us who went for a joint 30th birthday - but I found the place very depressing, to be honest. I wouldn't willingly choose to go again.

Sunshineface123 · 26/05/2018 07:44

I love spas and I'd say for a really nice one in the SE that wasn't a bad price at all. Take a book and enjoy a day of peace!

KittenBeast · 26/05/2018 07:45

I hate them, done it once, was fucking awful, never again.

CharltonLido73 · 26/05/2018 07:48

My sixth form tutor group once gave me a gift of a spa day for two. A lovely gesture, but I traded it in for a riverboat trip with lunch along the Thames and back: more my thing.