Seeking sanctuary at The Sanctuary (The Sanctuary)

Member Name: xalala

Product:	The Sanctuary
Date:	07/02/06 (489 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fabulous experience, relaxing, smells gorgeous

Disadvantages: Expensive, only in London

The Sanctuary is, in a word, fabulous. It's a ladies only spa, based in London's Covent Garden.

The spa is located on Floral Street, only a couple of minutes walk away from Covent Garden tube (on the Piccadilly line). It's easy enough to find, as there's a sticky-out sign stuck on the side of the building. There's a shop on the ground floor that sells Sanctuary branded products, and the entrance to the spa itself is at the back of the shop. If the shop isn't open when you arrive, it's not a problem as there's a bloke paid to stand in there and open the door for you to get in!

So, climbing the stairs to the main entrance and "check in" for the spa, the first thing that hits you is how warm the place is - understandable, given that you'll be spending the day wandering round in an (optional) swimming costume or bikini. Then, it's the smell. I don't know what it is that The Sanctuary use in their products that gives them such a distinctive smell, but I love it, which is just as well, as it's apparent pretty much everywhere you go inside the spa.

I arrived at around 11am on a Sunday, and the reception area was crowded. I was greeted, immediately offered a small glass (sorry, plastic) of juice, and directed to the cloakroom to leave my coat, and the back of the queue for checking in. A good job that I arrived so far in advance of my pre-booked treatments, as it took around 20 minutes to finish the formalities.

After checking in, I was shown to the changing room, and someone there explained how everything worked - my wristband acted as the key to the locker and also as an account card to charge things to during the day. Very useful to have, but could be dangerous if you get a lot of extras. My locker had a dressing gown, sorry, robe in it, along with a towel. Being a modest sort, I changed into my swimming costume, donned the robe and my flip-flops, transferred my book and appointment times into the rather posh plastic bag they give you and went into the restaurant area.

From the restaurant, staff gathered us together in groups and took us on a short tour of the facilities. The person doing my "tour" wasn't great, as she didn't actually show us anything other than the stairs that led to the other facilities and the koi carp lounge. At least there was only one other person with me to get confused!

I found myself a comfortable seat in the koi carp lounge and settled down to read the literature that I'd been given at check in. This didn't take long, but I did have to complete the medical questionnaire and then read up on the other treatments I could have booked but decided not to. I also had a questionnaire about my day - it seemed a bit early to complete that, so I left it for later. If you do complete this form, then returning it to the café in the lounge gets you a free juice (orange, apple, and pineapple were the choices).

My first treatment was booked for 1pm, and I wandered along to find the waiting area 5 minutes before hand, as requested. This didn't work quite as planned, since I got lost and couldn't find the area I needed - that's one of the problems with the Sanctuary, in that it's built in an old building in the middle of London, rather than a specially designed place that you get at hotels and the like. It does mean that there are lots and lots of stairs to climb almost everywhere you look, as there are (I think) five or six floors in total.

The treatment waiting area was fairly crowded, but there were enough seats for everyone, and water/toilets were available nearby. My first treatment, a 55-minute facial, was fabulous. It started with a foot exfoliation (um, wrong end...), included a massage of my kneecaps (closer, but still no cigar) and some other rather odd elements before heading to my head. Unlike other 55-minute facials that I've had in other spas, there wasn't a 30 minute "relax" built into this one. There was still a time when I was left alone with the whale music (or whatever it was), but it was shorter than I've experienced before. I was very relaxed by the end of this treatment, and would happily go through it all again - immediately afterwards, given half a chance.

The service during the day from both the therapists and the other staff there was fantastic, everyone was unfailingly polite and attentive, but not overly so. The therapists didn't chat if you didn't want them to, but equally were happy to discuss anything and everything (well, perhaps not quite everything, I stuck to the normal topics of holidays, films and similar).

In the afternoon I was booked into a freebie colour therapy session. Back up the stairs to the waiting area, this time there wasn't enough seats for quite everyone, but around 20 of us were off to sit in a room filled with colour. We were led up a couple of narrow flights of stairs right to the top of the building (good job we had a rest in the waiting area half way there) and waited outside it for a few moments while the previous group filed out and down.

Inside the room there were around 20-25 curved seats, rather like beach loungers, facing towards five large panels that looked like oversized TFT screens. We lay down on the seats and the girl who brought us to the room went through an introduction to relaxation techniques. This was a little bit irritating, but only because the girl had a very strange intonation and accent, the technique itself worked beautifully. In fact it worked so well that I think I fell asleep...

The large screens displayed a continuously moving set of colours, ranging from bright grass green to deep violet, and everything in between. The colours were very soothing, even though I was very sceptical about them making any difference to me. There was music in the background too, which again was very soothing and really quite non-descript - certainly not offensive in any way.

Back in the Koi Carp lounge, I decided to go for a quick swim. I'd been watching people in the small relaxation pool right in the lounge, and thought I'd go in there. Not least because this is the location of the famous Sanctuary swing, which hangs just in front of some steps leading down into the swimming area of the pool. The water wasn't very deep, around waist height on me (I'm 5'8" ish). However, to me the water felt rather cold. I'm sure it wasn't, but the temperature in the spa itself was so warm that getting in the pool gave me goosebumps. Fortunately, they didn't last long, and with it being so warm I didn't get them when I made my way back to my seat.

There's at least one other pool at the spa, which is aimed at the more serious swimmers among us - it also has some water-based exercise equipment that you can use (uh, why?). Then there's the large hot-tub pool that seemed to fit at least 10 or so people in it - I didn't have time to give that one a go. Both these pools were downstairs from the koi carp lounge. I came across them on the way to my final treatment of the day, a Creme Hair Bath.

The hair treatment wasn't just about my hair - like the facial, it involved parts of the body that other treatments don't reach. This time, there was massage of my neck, shoulders and chest along with the head bit. The treatment room was slightly odd, because this is a wet treatment you lie down onto a plastic table with a channel running all around the edge to drain away the water. And instead of having the normal Sanctuary perfumed smell, this room smelt more of chlorine instead. But that wasn't a deterrent, and I still really enjoyed the experience.

I had lunch in the restaurant as part of my day out, and I have to say that this was the one area where I was slightly disappointed with things. I'm vegetarian, and the veggie food choice was rather limited, although what there was, was lovely. I had a glass of wine to go with it, but I found all the wine on offer rather expensive for what it was. The juices and snacks available in the lounge were very nice, though not really any more reasonable in price.

In fact the entire experience is not a cheap one, I was lucky as I'd been given a gift voucher that covered the cost of entry plus a treatment, lunch and a free gift. So all I had to cover the cost of was anything extra to this - I booked an additional treatment and bought some things in the spa shop. As a gift, the voucher was fabulous - I received it for Christmas in 2004, and eventually used it in November 2005 - I'd been enjoying the thought of going to the spa so much I hadn't wanted to use it before this!

If you are paying for yourself, then the prices (excluding treatments) range from £40 for an evening spa (Mon-Fri 5pm - 10pm) up to a whopping £2500-plus for annual spa membership. Although they let you pay monthly... Treatments are priced fairly typically, from £30 upwards (eyebrow shaping, waxing etc are cheaper but more painful!).

The spa shop, just off the main reception area, had some very good offers available when I went. There were buy one get one free offers on all Sanctuary branded products, 3 for 2 on some other bits and pieces, and in addition my voucher got me a gift from the shop. I had a choice of 2 box sets, either a relax or a nourish version. On my previous visit, my voucher had let me choose from one of the recommended products used during my treatment, which I preferred.

More information about the Sanctuary, including how to join, how to buy gift vouchers and what treatments are available can be found at www.thesanctuary.co.uk.

Summary: It's expensive to get in, but the experience is wonderful. Make it a treat.