Spas We Love: Soholistic at The Soho Hotel

The Soho Hotel’s Soholistic ‘spa’ isn’t a full-service destination with wet rooms and the like:  it’s just four (sound-proofed) treatment rooms off their basement gym.  But as big fans of Temple Spa (who make Skin Truffle, the highest-ever-scoring ‘miracle’ treatment in The Anti-Ageing Beauty Bible), we were keen to try this massage.  (Yes, we know this isn't a visual of a massage, but Soholistic does offer fab facials too - including the Temple Spa Soul Retreat treatment, combining foot ritual, back massage, face mask and scalp massage, which is on our wishlist next...) The Drift Away massage itself seriously didn’t disappoint.  Therapist Emma is also an acupuncturist, so she knows her pressure points – and also how to un-macramé little knots of tension in the back, and legs.  It’s genuinely a top-to-toe treatment:  the face and scalp are also massaged (although we like the fact you can request for the otherwise blissful aromatherapeutic oil NOT to be used for this bit, if you’ve got a date/appointment afterwards and don’t want to look like an oil slick).

The room's beautiful, with the hotel's signature marble bathroom/shower room (for scrub treatments), and Temple Spa's candles flickering gently.  (That's all the light there is for this massage, which helps with the relaxation factor.)  Squishy towels, a seriously comfortable massage bed and pillows:  it frankly ticks all our treatment boxes.

There are no real 'operating times' for the Spa, since it's a hotel and they're used to random requests 24 hours a day from what is often a pretty stellar hotel.  (Last time we were there, we bumped into Gerard Butler.  Cue deep swoon.)  Actually, Soho Hotel is one of our favourites in London:  we often have meetings in their Refuel restaurant, or tea in the library, and the staff could not be nicer or more helpful.

The true test of a massage’s effectiveness is whether or not we want to book ourselves in for a repeat performance – and Jo already has.

‘Nuff said.

You can find the spa menu online here.

Soholistic at The Soho Hotel, 4 Richmond Mews, London W1D 3DH/020-7559 3000 www.firmdalehotels.com