What could be better, 1 beautiful sunny weekend in July, 2 hours of singing our way along the M40 and 3 of your best friends finally all getting a free weekend together to go on a relaxing spa break… At least we had planned on it being relaxing – the hangover the next day said otherwise!
There are so many Spa’s these days to choose from, so the idea of planning such a weekend is a daunting one. My advice to anyone planning a spa weekend would be don’t be too picky on where you want to go… just work out what it is that you want to get out of it. I am personally not a “treatment” fan. I am too ticklish for massages, laugh too easily for facials, have rubbish nails that are beyond help of ever looking remotely feminine and I hate people touching my feet! So why on earth go on a spa break I hear you say? Well, that isn’t what I chose this spa for. I like the idea of walking around in a dressing gown all day, having a dip in a heated outside pool, lounging around in the sun, sitting in a hot tub drinking champagne and talking about anything and everything and of course, eating yummy food! Once this was established, it was much easier to pick a spa.
We chose Ardencote Manor, located in a pretty town in Warwick. As soon as you walk into the spa area, you are greeted with a smile and then shown around the spa area. There is a great relaxation room with comfy sofas and a calm and tranquil atmosphere, a large pool area which is soaked by the sun all day long and a fantastic hot tub, where we spent most of our day with a glass of wine. The package we were on did include a massage. My friends were obviously not as fussy as me and couldn’t wait…I just took a deep breath and tried not to think about my forthcoming treatment! We had a delicious lunch in the leisure bar, which was quite surreal sitting there in a robe surrounded by respectively dressed customers, but we were assured it was perfectly normal.
When the time came for me to embrace the spa treatment I walked upstairs to the spa area and it did relax me somewhat. It was a lovely area with a fantastic atmosphere and, in all fairness, the massage wasn’t that bad at all! There were some hairy moments where I just felt like I was going to wriggle off the treatment bed to get away from the torture and I felt that my face might have got stuck in that wincing position, but once I got used to it was lovely and I felt extremely relaxed afterwards. Might even go for another one… one day… maybe! My friends, needless to say loved their massages!
Once we managed to drag ourselves away from the sun soaked pool area with our bottle of Rose we went and checked into our room. We were lucky enough to have been given excellent rooms, one overlooking the pool area and the other overlooking the golf course. The rooms were modern, light and spacious and of course there was a lovely bottle of chilled sparkling wine waiting for us… don’t mind if we do!! (You are probably starting to get an idea of how the hangover came about). Once we had washed the oil and chlorine out of our hair and put on a face of make-up, we made our way to The lodge Restaurant. I’d already had a sneaky peak at the menu, as you do, so knew straight away what I was going to order. The food was delicious and the service was superb. I can see why people had been raving about the food before we went.
After our dinner, we were sufficiently full – but obviously still thirsty. We went back to our rooms to finish off the bubbly and laughed the night away … how much of the night, I can’t remember but I know it was a late one and I know how well that full English breakfast went down in the morning! Yum!
All in all Ardencote is an excellent venue for those looking to just chill out with their friends all day and it is superb for those treatment loving spa goers out there as it has an extensive treatment list!! My friends and I had a brilliant weekend and the headache was so worth it!
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