Travel

5 splurge-worthy experiences for ultimate relaxation

22 July, 2024 . 0

From cruise ships to island retreats and even aqua therapy, discover five places where it’s best to splash out to chill out.

I’m sunning myself in a porthole somewhere in the Tasman Sea, with nothing to see but blue skies and rolling waves, complete with cotton candy-like white crests, before me.

It’s warm and cosy and lulling me to sleep.

I could honestly lie here all day.

Did I mention I’m also in a sauna, inside the Redemption Spa onboard Virgin Voyages’ Resilient Lady?

Now, that’s a room with a view!

Make no mistake — there are plenty of things to see and do on the adults-only cruise ship, which launched into Australian waters last year.

It boasts everything from ‘Rockstar’ quarters complete with electric guitars to jam with, specialty restaurants including an ultra-cool Test Kitchen with lab-style experimental food, an old-school video game arcade, karaoke rooms and even the first tattoo studio at sea.

But for this voyager, it is all about finding some zen after escaping the chaos of my family life.

After all, a luxury floating spa at sea has surely got to tick the box when it comes to finding some ultimate ‘me time’.

Redemption Spa, Virgin Voyages’ Resilient Lady

Unlike most cruise ship spas, typically located on the top decks, the Redemption Spa is in the heart of the ship, on Deck 5.

This places it almost at sea level, so when you look out the aforementioned portholes you are literally close to the water action, further adding to the sense of tranquillity.

It includes a thermal suite of amenities, from a salt room and steam room to hot and cold plunge pools and even a mud room.

There is also a host of rejuvenating treatments available to entice you, including a quartz bed massage, which uses the purported healing powers of quartz to ease your muscles while you lie on a bed of amber crystals.

The spa itself is a slick space. Inspired by an underwater cave, it has serious wow factor, with brass and marble features throughout.

There are also marble hammam benches, modelled after benches in traditional Turkish bathhouses, beneath a row of portholes.

Apart from being a great place to simply soak up the feel-good vibes, the marble benches act to regulate your body temperature, cooling your body down in between the different hot spa rooms.

The spa’s wellness team recommends spending about 15 minutes in each room, starting with the sauna and salt rooms, interspersed with a dip in the plunge pools, before finishing off with the steam and mud rooms.

After my initial stint in the roomy sauna, where, aside from human-sized portholes there are also cedar benches to sit and lie on, I head to the salt room.

Walking into the pink-and-white marbled space, I’m confronted by a woman who is taking diaphragmatic breathing to the next level.

Intent on finding my own zen, I try not to giggle and instead zone out her heavy breathing.

This mid-temperature room is filled with vapourised Himalayan pink salt crystals, which are purportedly good for your skin, sinuses, high stress levels and insomnia.

After some deep breathing, I head to the steam room — where the steam works its magic, helping to open up my pores — before opting to get dirty in the mud room.

Grabbing my cup of Moroccan clay (a little goes a long way), I slather the smooth mud on from top to toe like a full-bodied mud mask.

I’m told it’s nourishing and moisturising for my skin (I find it’s also slightly exfoliating).

After it dries I discover another reason why they recommend leaving this step to last — aside from its tightening and exfoliating properties, it’s also messy to wash off.

Once I’ve rinsed myself clean, I head back to the sauna for a few final moments of peace in my favourite porthole.

While the scenery has not changed, I have.

Unusual for me, my mind is clear and I’m in a totally relaxed state.

Yes, booking a thermal spa while on board a cruise is an extreme way to find some zen, but I can’t think of a better way to get a big dose of wellness with some ‘vitamin sea’.”

Spa qualia, Hamilton Island, Qld

Deeply relax with a marine-inspired facial at this luxe spa in the Whitsundays.

Fittingly, qualia is a Latin word for a collection of deeper sensory experiences, and that is exactly what you can expect from the 75-minute brightening facial. Marine plants seaweed and spirulina are used in a warm face mask, which is painted on to the skin.

The marine ingredients are said to help oxygenate the skin and restore and increase radiance, all while adding a natural glow.

While the mask is left to infuse, you also enjoy a relaxing arm, hand and scalp massage for further indulgence.

Southern Spa, Kangaroo Island, SA

Despite its dramatic setting, it’s impossible not to feel a sense of calm wash over you at Southern Ocean Lodge’s tranquil Southern Spa.

The luxury lodge, featuring 23 secluded suites, is nestled into the curve of Kangaroo Island’s limestone cliffs, while the spa is set among coastal bushland and accessed via a glass-walled aerobridge.

Here you can choose from a host of heavenly experiences, including the three-hour alkeme Dreaming package for a complete face and body treatment.

It features a body wrap, massage, facial, hair mask and decadent hand and foot treatments, using nourishing native essential oils, cleansing earth ochres and purifying sea salts.

Saltuary, Sydney, NSW

Feel a dreamy sense of weightlessness and tranquillity with float therapy.

At Saltuary you don’t just float in a darkened pod; you have a spacious ‘room’ for the ultimate in serenity.

Switch off and feel your worries melt away as you float like a cork thanks to the high mineral content in the mix of body-temperature water and 100 per cent natural magnesium salt.

Relax into a meditative state, with benefits said to include improved sleep quality, stress management and pain relief — plus a hit of feel-good endorphins, too.

Ayana Spa, Jimbaran, Bali

A two-hour aquatonic therapy session at Asia’s largest thalassotherapy facility should be popped on any spa lover’s bucket list.

Expect beautiful views and a blissful time as you make your way through a series of 12 hydromassage stations in the aquatonic pool at a resort perched on a cliff above the Indian Ocean.

The pool, which contains 700 million litres of warmed ocean water, features more than 60 individual jet streams, microbubbles and geysers that work on different parts of your body to caress, pummel and massage your joints and muscles for an all-over treatment.

More travel inspiration:

Written by Laeta Crawford.

*Laeta Crawford was a guest of Virgin Voyages.