Spas We Love: Ragdale Hall Health Hydro and Thermal Spa
TLC is what Ragdale Hall Health Hydro does, par excellence. There is something extraordinarily restorative about a couple of days being cosseted. You slip into a kinder and infinitely peaceful planet, where all the visitors wear white robes and slippers… and the inhabitants are very, very friendly, and just want to look after you. Whoever does the staff training at this privately owned sanctuary, now celebrating its 40th anniversary, deserves an Oscar. (It has incidentally won a multitude of awards including ‘Best Spa for Affordable Luxury’ in 2011.) From the moment you are greeted at reception, you’re lapped in friendliness and efficiency – and that wonderful feeling that ‘everything will be sorted’. It is unalloyed balm for busy brains and tired bodies.
Beauty Bible hadn’t been to Ragdale Hall for several years and in that time they have added the Thermal Spa, which is quite simply blissful. It’s a big area with five pools, including a huge swimming pool inside and a gloriously warm, inside/outside waterfall pool with hot jets, plus 11 different ‘heat facilities’ (i.e. hot rooms) – some dry heat, some humid.
In fact, when Sarah wins the lottery what she really, really wants is a Volcanic Salt Bath (you don't get wet except for ‘glowing’ with the humid temperature, which reaches a comfortable 40-42 degrees. The bonus is that it is silent except for the comforting gurgling clunk of the salt.
The accent is full-throttle pampering so you can have every beauty treatment your heart desires, plus a range of holistic body treatments. Beauty Bible indulged in a hot stone face and body treatment with the amazing Felicia, a therapist from Lithuania who is quite simply a miracle worker. She has developed her own programme, based on acupressure on the acupuncture points: fascinatingly, she discovered that the (very) ancient Chinese used stones rather than needles on specific points and energy lines on the body.
The food is delicious and – forget the old notion of health farms as places of penance and punishment – there is masses! What else? Well, free actitivies include a Mind Gym, exercise classes, water exercise sessions, Aquagym, relaxation classes, daily group activity and country walks, evening talks and demonstrations and daytime workshops. And if you are into retail therapy, there’s a fab boutique, a beauty shop with brands galore (including Ragdale’s beauty steal range for M&S), plus a gift shop with lots of objects of desire, and a Hair Studio.
Or… you can simply chill. Although there are some 200 guests (with an extraordinary staff ratio of over 2:1), it never feels crowded. There are nooks and crannies galore to squirrel yourself away in and curl up with a book – feet on sofas are positively encouraged. Incidentally, although there are many more men than women, our Beauty Bible male tester (Sarah’s husband) felt perfectly at home.
We really do think Ragdale Hall has something for pretty well everyone: from detoxing gym bunnies or brides to be, to mother and daughter or girlfriends on a treat. As one visitor said: ‘arriving at Ragdale is like getting a hug from an old friend.’
Ragdale Hall Health Hydro & Thermal Spa, Ragdale Village, Nr. Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire LE14 3PB/01664-434831 www.ragdalehall.co.uk
