There’s nothing quite like booking a massage on holiday to make you tense.
This might seem like a trifling issue: Boohoo, I’m stressed out about my spa visit!
But going to a nice spa is one of the delights of getting away. It can also be a big expense, with treatments costing up to several hundred pounds, not including a session for your partner, teen or friend. Plus, you have to budget for tips. I’m not alone in noticing how stressful it is. When I mentiond it on my Facebook page the other day, loads of people chimed in to agree.
Thanks for my mediocre experience!
On holiday in particular you don’t want to shell out money and allocate valuable time to something simply mediocre. And you don’t know until you’re stretched out on a treatment table listening to pan flute music and the therapist is doing something weird and ineffectual to your body. By then it’s too late. I’m thinking especially about massages (my particular weakness) but it could apply to facials, body wraps, anything where a stranger legally strokes and palpates your body.
…whatever it was
Spas also don’t make it easy with their “menus”. It’s hard to even tell what you’re getting. Everything is billed as an “experience” or “wellness treatment”, a “lift”, a “recovery”, a “rejuvenation” or even a “sensation” (reading that last one, I myself feel a sensation in my throat, something akin to a gag reflex).
Of course there are some places where treatments are simple, affordable and spectacular. I had the best massage of my life in Ubud, Bali, at a place recommended by a friend who lived there. Regular massage is a part of a healthy lifestyle for the Balinese, so even though I was paying tourist prices, they were still a drop in the bucket compared with the rubdown I’d gotten a few days earlier at my plush hotel. I didn’t have to choose between wafting of burning herbs above my body or being massaged with long sticks and tree branches. My choices for massage were limited to how long I wanted it.
Done your research?
By the time I book a treatment at home, I’ve asked around, gotten referrals, read reviews online, tried a short treatment first before committing to an hour or hour and a half…. That’s all time-intensive. And because when you’re travelling you don’t know the therapists, you could get the amazing “magic fingers” woman who’s built the spa’s reputation, or the apathetic young therapist who feels you’re keeping her from her true career as a social media celebrity.
When you book at a hair salon, you often get the choice of seeing an associate, a junior stylist, a senior stylist or a creative director. That at least gives you some guidance. Spas should do the same thing. You could book with a junior masseuse if you’re just wanting a quick little session or with a “master” for a full-on pamper afternoon.
It would certainly help take away the stress of what’s supposed to be a stress-relieving experience. One of my followers said the discussion on FB made her reconsider booking a treatment on her upcoming holiday. I don’t want that. I truly believe that spa treatments are not just mood-enhancing, they can be healthy and life-enhancing.
We all need more spa treatment in my opinion. We could just use a little help for those who provide them.
What do you think? Do you enjoy spa treatments on holiday?
Linking up with
This is such an interesting, thought provoking read, Jen. I’ve had the best spa treatments in Bali too – it seems so instinctive over there, but I’ve also had some pretty painful experiences in other places. I remember signing up for one facial in Greece and trying very hard to convince myself that all the prodding and pulling was going to make me look 20 years younger. It didn’t – it just hurt! Thanks for sharing on #FarawayFiles
I feel your pain! Sometimes I’ve felt like telling them in the middle to stop, just stop. I don’t know why we enduring bad treatments.
There’s nothing like a great massage, but in all honesty I never book a spa treatment when traveling because there’s always too much I want to see. But I keep telling myself I need to change that and relaaaax! I actually for the first time in forever got a massage with a 2 year old gift card this week and realized I really should be doing it more often – my back was a wreck! #farawayfiles
Funny! I never go to spas anymore, and especially not on vacation. I guess I’m too busy trying to see everything. Maybe I should reconsider? #farawayfiles
You’ve hit the nail on the head with this. I find the reverse true though, the only decent spa treatments I’ve had have been on holiday abroad. I have given up on massages in this country because I find they are expensive and always a disappointment.
Hayley, That’s so disappointing. I must admit I’ve had several expensive massages in high-end places and sometimes the training seems mainly to be about lighting candles and striking those little cymbals. 😉