EDITOR'S CHOICE TOP STORIES CROYDON: Arrest in French students killings Boris's under fire deputy steps down HERTS: Zim broadcasters: we will continue FEATURES Police show ‘zero tolerance’ in drink driver crackdown Helping in many different ways MAYOR NEWS Johnson's deputy dismisses sex claims TRAVEL Cries from "the wilderness" save ticket offices COMPETITIONS Tickets to the Haribo Summer Sports camp and other sports goodies. VOTE One year on, do you think the smoking ban should stay in force? Yes No GET OUR NEWS BY E-MAIL Just register

Most read Comments 1 Rangers agree Gulf Air deal 2 Win with The Visitor 3 CROYDON: Arrest in French students killings 4 Win! A Wimbledon Summer Sun Safety Pack worth £100 5 LEWISHAM: 6 Iron Maiden pick Twickenham for UK tour date 7 JD Sports Competition 8 HERTS: Zim broadcasters: we will continue 9 BARNET: Gig against gun crime 10 Boris's under fire deputy steps down Today | 7 Days 1 Update: Boy murdered in gang attack 2 £500 fee plan for fighting dogs 3 LEWISHAM: French students bound and brutally stabbed 4 MP says BNP Remembrance wreath 'dishonours war dead' 5 Laughing cop killer jailed for life 6 CROYDON: Police release description of gang who murdered teen 7 WANDSWORTH: Student wins Diana award 8 Airport protestors target Ruth Kelly's home 9 EALING: Third fuel strike planned tomorrow 10 BARNET: Headteacher tells PM to repair school’s low morale

If you are going to build a spa, you might as well build the biggest and best. Pennyhill Park Hotel has done just that, says Debra Aspinall

I CAN imagine the conversation when the owners of the splendid Pennyhill Park Hotel met with architects to plan their new spa. Space was no problem (the hotel sits in 120 acres of Surrey wood and parkland in Bagshot) so the first demand was likely to be: "Let's make it big. Let's make our spa not just the biggest hotel spa in the UK, but the biggest in Europe.

"Let's have a huge indoor pool and an equally huge heated one outside - open all year round.

"We need three or four spa pools - at least three outside - and one which runs from indoors to outdoors.

"There should be space for 20 - no, make that 30 - sunbeds around the pool and there should be half a dozen steam rooms with different aromas in each. An ice chamber, a sauna and laconium.

"We need a dozen heated relaxation beds in the thermal area and a room with comfy sleeping beds and fluffy duvets for relaxing after treatments.

"And there should be at least 20 treatment rooms so nobody ever has to wait for an appointment.

"The massive gym should rival any fitness club in the land for equipment and we'll have a full-sized studio for fitness classes.

"Let's have marble floors throughout and solid wooden doors, lockers and trims everywhere. This spa should exude elegance."

The architects did well and incorporated all of the above. And the result is stunning.

Completed in 2003 with, it seems, an unlimited budget, the sheer size of the spa is breathtaking. The reception area alone is big enough to stage a ball. There are whole rooms just for foot spas, others with massage chairs and still more with samples of products available to buy. The changing rooms are massive and superbly equipped (they even have straightening irons).

You can spend all day here and still not visit every section. I was overwhelmed and in need of a Tarraké Terra Magica Sculpting Massage to calm me down. My therapist - who had the handshake of a six-year-old girl and gave a surprisingly strong massage which had me yelping with pleasurable pain - worked her fingers on my pressure points and relieved all the tensions that had been building up at work that week.

It was almost freezing outside, but the steaming hot tubs beckoned and I spent a wonderful afternoon immersed in their warming waters while the occasional snowflake fell on my face. It was blissful.

There has been a property on this site since the early 1600s with the magnificent park created in the 1800s, and it became a hotel in 1973.

Exclusive Hotels bought the property in 1982 and have completely transformed it, expanding it from a 17-bedroom family-run business to a 123-bedroom country house hotel with the spa (built in 2003), nine hole golf course, floodlit tennis, fishing lake, shooting lodge and rugby pitch.

Many of the rooms are decked in antique furniture with four-poster beds and have underfloor heating in the en-suite bathrooms.

It is a hugely popular five-star venue for weddings and business conferences for many obvious reasons.

One of these is its reputation for fine cuisine. The hotel has two restaurants, the award-winning Latymer for fine dining and the more informal Brasserie which offers a varied a la carte menu. We visited The Brasserie and tucked into cream of brown cap mushroom soup served with duck spring rolls followed by Aylesbury duck and confit leg with red cabbage and potato gratin sovoyarde followed by sticky toffee pudding (all that steaming in the spa pools had worked up an appetite).

www.exclusivehotels.co.uk

You could win dinner, bed and breakfast for two at the five-star Pennyhill Park Hotel and full use of the spa facilities (all treatments, lunches and drinks must be paid for). For your chance to win, answer the following question and fill in the form below.

2:43pm Thursday 8th March 2007

Print

Email this