I had (as part of a very busy week last week) a lovely trip to Aqua Sana in Wiltshire. I went a year ago with some friends and had been promising to take my husband there ever since - so finally got around to it for his birthday almost 12 months later.
It’s based at the Longleat Center Parcs in Wiltshire, and is very easy to find as Longleat is signposted from far and wide (but of course you can just satnav it). Head to the Center Parcs entrance when you arrive, and just tell the guys at the gate that you’re booked into the spa - they’ll have a list with your name on it.
Changes to the arrival process at Aqua Sana
So, last year I’m pretty sure the time slot we booked was 10am (as we left immediately after the school run and it’s an hour away) and it finished at 2 (because with a quick get away I’d hoped to do the school run at 3:15). When we arrived, we booked our time slot for brunch, and ordered any dietary requirements.
This time, the session was advertised on the packages page of the website as 10:30 - 2:30. Great - that gave us longer to get there without missing the start, but meant I booked after school club so that we didn’t need to leave early. However, we ran a little late because of nursery drop off and arrived at 10:45 - and to my horror, when I looked up the confirmation email at the gate (which you didn’t need to do, they just wanted your name) it said our arrival time was 10am!! So then I felt awful that we’d missed a chunk of time that we’d paid for.
To make matters worse, when we checked in at reception, the lady said - at 10:50am - “so you’re booked in for breakfast at 10:30”…. Which obviously horrified me as that was in the past by then, which she hadn’t even realised when she said it! Therefore we hurried through the changing rooms (getting changed on the way) and met again in the restaurant where I asked a waitress if we could re-arrange the food we’d paid for. Her initial reply was “no” which again, filled me with horror! She then added “because we only do breakfast until 11:30, so you could have it now?”. Yes! Yes please! That’s what I meant by rearrange the 10:30 slot!
Food and drink at Aqua Sana
So we sat down to check the menu and eat. Most of the things on the menu (at least the one I looked at) other than drinks and cake, didn’t have prices so I think it’s all largely based around packages that include lunch or breakfast or similar. Which I guess helps them manage the kitchen.
Our choices were between a regular breakfast, vegan breakfast, or gluten free breakfast. Now, don't get me wrong, the menu sounded fantastic and the food was delicious. But I'm trying to be super healthy at the moment and the regular breakfast just seemed really unhealthy… it’s mini waffles with syrup, smoked salmon on brioche (which was a brioche muffin), a cheese straw, a bacon and Brie focaccia, and Greek yogurt with fruit compote. The vegan option sounded less calorific, so I asked if I could have that and the waitress said she wanted to be honest with me, so told me there would be a really long wait for it. So I just went with the regular. And it is gorgeous food - but it’d be all the points on Weight Watchers!
Changing rooms at Aqua Sana
To tell you my tale about breakfast, I skipped over the changing rooms, so let’s circle back.
There are male and female changing rooms, and each are open plan once you get inside. I noticed a private cubicle in the ladies (Tom didn’t notice one in the men’s side but that’s not to say there wasn’t one) but on the whole you’re all getting changed together.
You’re given a robe and a towel before you go in - the towel is a little on the small side post-shower (and I’m short) but it’s fine. You also have a wrist band for a locker.
The showers are absolutely amazing - possibly my favourite “experience” of the whole spa, with glass doors on the cubicles for a small amount of privacy (apparently there aren’t doors in the gents) and Elemis body wash, shampoo AND conditioner. There are lots of hair dryers, and one of those noisy machines for drying your swimming costume which is super handy. You can literally rock up with a cossie in your hand bag, and leave like that again.
25 experiences in Aqua Sana, Longleat Center Parcs
Once you enter the spa you see a big map on the wall of 25 different experiences to try. A few of these are showers (which get a little samey - different variations of “tropical rain”), and 1 is basically a nice meeting room for talks, but it’s still a brilliant selection.
The full 25 are:
- Sole therapy (foot spa - this takes a while to get going so be patient, it's probably not broken)
- Rain forest walk (a shower)
- Alpine Steam (didn’t love the heat in this one personally, but good to do)
- Ice Cave (you scoop up almost slush ice and rub it over yourself - which you need to feel brave to do after the hot rooms!)
- Scandinavian Snug (little like a nice front room)
- Nordic Sauna (classic sauna - but with big windows at the end to look out at the forest)
- Volcanic Steam
- Volcanic Mists (showers)
- Lava Volcano Sauna (I actually quite liked these volcanic ones)
- Fireside relax (just chilling by a fake fire)
- Sweet slumber (curved, heated (hard) loungers - these were surprisingly nice)
- Deep relax (beds which we didn’t try but now I see they’re water beds so that would have been interesting)
- Rainforest shower (to be honest, we were skipping over the showers by this point)
- Forest Glade (sitting on fake little tree stumps was cute)
- Outdoor Spa Pool (lovely medium sized round outdoor pool you enter from inside)
- Waterfall Shower
- Salt Steam Room
- Hot Tubs (these are outside and get busy so I’ve never actually done one here)
- Forest Nesting (these rooms without particular heat, but just relaxing, were actually really nice)
- Moonlight Shower
- Moonlight Steam
- Forest View (possibly our favourite room although it’s was just comfy beds/seating looking out a window to the forest, watching butterflies dart around)
- Forest Meditation (video on the ceiling of a forest canopy)
- Forest Cavern (the room is made to be like you’re in a cave, so it’s a bit fake but still good)
- Discovery area (where they do beauty demos and talks)
I don't have photos of the individual experiences because there are lots of signs asking you politely to leave your phone in the changing room.
I was really looking forward to trying out some sound bathing, which the website said was available at the Longleat Forest location, but it wasn’t running on our day there, which was disappointing. We could have gone to a talk about beauty products (and no doubt have bought them afterwards), or a talk about sleep (which just always feels passive aggressive when the reason you can’t sleep is because of little people in your house, rather than your own routines). So don’t get your hopes up if you’re after sound bathing too.
Coming away relaxed
I’ve got a bad back at the mo, and sitting upright all day isn’t quite what I needed. Plus I was straight back into work (on my phone) the moment we left, and trying to double check the logistics of which kid was where after school. So I’m not a super fair test. But my husband - who finds it really hard to relax normally - had a lovely day and has told lots of people since how relaxing it all was and how chilled he was afterwards, so that’s a very big compliment!
The thoughts and views expressed in this blog post are the author’s own and not that of Activibees.com or it's operators.
