Around the World in a Spa: Bourdeaux, Biarritz, Bangkok
First, a big THANK YOU to all who gave spa tips this week. For our finale, we’re finishing with the above titled cities as well as one in Rioja, which almost all come from a business school friend of mine who lives in London. We believe she’s a Fun or Smart Freedom — Kate holds steadfast to the belief than no Organic Freedom has ever willingly gotten an MBA.
It’s funny but Funs for some reason often don’t test as Funs. We know of another Fun who tested as an Organic Freedom and she is NOT an Organic Freedom — she even admitted that she didn’t identify with the results. Anyway, we’ve found that Funs are often foodies and enviously cosmopolitan in an approachable way and my London source is no exception to this rule:
Les Sources de CaudalieMy favourite destination spas are: Caudalie in Bordeaux, Caudalie in the Hotel Marqués de Riscal in the Rioja region of Spain, and the Guerlain Imperial Spa at the Hotel Du Palais in Biarritz.
Caudalie Bordeaux is located right among the vineyards of Château Smith Haut Lafitte in Bordeaux with gorgeous landscape of vineyards and forests. Great for long walks either among vines or woods. The hotel where the spa is located has 3 wonderful restaurants (one fine dining with Michelin star, one bistro and another country cooking casual place, all incredibly atmospheric, warm and fun with super delicious food.)
The spa treatments themselves all use natural hot spring water from the source and some type of grapes products — skins, mashed seeds, etc. One of my favourites is the wine soak where you sit in a oak barrel filled with red wine/hot spring water and other good stuff but it just feels like you are sitting in an oak tub of warm red wine. Afterward, you get an exfoliation and a long massage. Heaven! Of course, of course, there is plenty of good wine to go with everything since you are in a vineyard!! It’s the perfect for a girls’ weekend getaway — which is what i did with a few other girlfriends — but I’m sure it would be a perfect romantic getaway too.
Caudalie Marqués de RiscalTransport the above setting to a Spanish/Rioja vineyard and you’ve got Caudalie Marqués de Riscal. The little village where the vineyard is located is super cute and the hotel is super modern, designed by Frank Gehry! Great food, great wine — one of my favourite riojas — what’s not to like??
The Guerlain Imperial Spa at the Hotel Du Palais in Biarritz is huge with 3000 sq meters, 5 floors. [Clearly, my friend has gone native in London as I’ve no idea how many square feet this is. How could the Brits saddle us with their measuring system and then leaves us all alone on a limb with our medieval measuring system??] In door and out door pools overlooking the ocean. The view!! The facials and massages are some of the best I’ve had anywhere, really professional and attentive service. The hotel itself is grand, royal and steeped in history. It’s the epicentre of Biarritz. Go in the off season — say October — when the weather is still nice but the tourists are nearly all gone and Biarritz is peaceful, romantic, even a bit melancholy. And the ocean and the view is stunning! Perfect for a romantic getaway!!! Oh and October is truffle season and this is truffle country so expect some delicious food — not in Biarritz itself although it does have good fish restaurants right in the old harbour — but in the surrounding countryside!! [Sidenote is that October is one of my favorite times to be in Paris so this looks like a nice long fall vacation]
Hotel Du Palais
Okay, okay, Bangkok should have been first in our westward journey but I had to open up with the Bourdeaux spa. Our in the know LA friend — who also is a world traveller ten times over and yes I’ve been envious of her life since I met her — suggests Sukhothai Hotel in Bangkok.
[Sidenote: Semaine is French for week. We had to use a different word for week because someone has trademarked its use with the word spa in front of it.]