Although the Arabella Spa, is in the busiest part of Cape Town, you can look down on the busy dockyards and notice cars streaming into the city from the motorway, yet feel nothing but calmness
Such is the influence of the high level Arabella Spa on the 19th floor of the glass fronted The Westin Cape Town, that while the city busies itself, you can opt out. Put your body into the hands of massage therapists and beauticians, who knead you, shape and polish you into an improved version of your former self. And to achieve this, you don't have to do anything.
Lie Back
Once disrobed and clad in a sumptuously woolly bath robe, youthful therapists lead you down a quiet corridor to a series of treatment rooms. These have floor to ceiling glass panels, that could disconcert the vertiginous.
But any woozy feelings dissipate into something more pleasant but just as hazy, as you lie back on the treatment bed and have your head and face massaged with creams and potions to create a younger you. Nails are polished, feet are filed and faces are masked.
A more cosy, gently lit and lightly perfumed room was the venue for my massage, and I was oiled from head to toe and detoxified into a stupor. After just a couple of different treatments during the morning, I became completely relaxed and couldn't even muster up a swim in the motionless pool, which has an especially long arm for swimming laps.
I could only manage to sit amongst the bubbles of the 35°C jacuzzi and look out lazily over Cape Town, then drag myself between the steam room and sauna, followed by a well-deserved lie down in the warm water bed relaxation room.
Prudent Diet!
The Arabella Spa philosophy is based on a 7-pillar concept; Beauty, Harmony, Vitality, Aqua, Life Balance, Nature and Nutrition. They took care of most of these elements, but The Westin Cape Town chef left me still hungry after their 'prudent diet' - as declared in the spa information leaflet, and I wished he wouldn't be quite so prudent
This spa proved to be so enticing that my friend joined as a member right there and then, and it has proven to be his retreat from city life, without even having to leave Cape Town
Read more about Arabella Spa at The Westin, Cape Town
© Carrie Hampton 2004.
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