It’s Mother’s Day this Sunday – and if you grew up in home anything like ours, that means you’ve a lifetime of hot dinners, wiped noses and financial/emotional/spiritual advice to pay back to your mum…

A spa hotel break somewhere sunny ticks all the boxes for an ace mother’s day gift. With sunbathing and spa-pampering opportunities aplenty, plus the lure of an exotic locale only a short-haul flight away, it’s certainly a change from drizzly old Blighty.

» Continue reading “Mother Nurture: Sunshine Spa Breaks for Mother’s Day”

Colourful, crowded Marrakech is a sensory overload – no wonder returning to a riad (a traditional Moroccan home with a courtyard garden) after a day at the souks feels like finding a little corner of heaven.

For total relaxation, stay at a riad with a hammam. We’ve enthused about using public hammams in Marrakech before, but if you want to swap this noisy, sociable experience for something more soothing, these guest-only steam rooms are a blissful way to de-stress. We’ve chosen five of our favourites below, all at affordable prices… » Continue reading “Riads with Hammams in Marrakech”

Think “spa retreat” and you’re likely to conjure up images of country manors, towelling robes and lying about with cucumber slices on your eyelids. But what if you find the princess treatment a snooze?

If you want more of a wake-up then a wind-down this January, try out bathing rituals at a historic spa city like Istanbul, Budapest, Marrakech or Reykjavik. From bath houses to thermal pools, spa culture here is not so much a pampering treat but part of local life… » Continue reading “Alternative City Spa Breaks: Wake up this January at Bath Houses and Thermal Pools”