Vital Spa at Macdonald Frimley Hall Hotel and Spa 2.9 5 reviews

Booked this directly with the venue for a group of 4 of us girls to enjoy as day spa together. The Vital Pamper Package at £55 was excellent value, including robes/ slippers, light lunch, 2x 30 minute treatments and all day use of the spa facilities.

Positives: easy to get to from London, very clean, delicious healthy lunch, nice changing rooms, nice steam room and sauna, beautiful treatment rooms, good size pool, brilliant value day.

Negatives: lacking a jacuzzi, kids in pool at certain times of day made it less relaxing, staff didn't tell us about the relaxation room upstairs so we missed out on this, treatments were fine but not overly memorable.

Major gripes: girl on reception initially insisted that our package did not come with robes and slippers and seemed to think it was fine to tell me to pad upstairs for my treatment with bare feet and in a dripping wet towel only! apologised for the error when she had double checked. They send you OUT of the building in your robe to have lunch in the main hotel bar with everyone wearing their normal clothes, which was chilly and a bit awkward, and made our slippers dirty...

This hotel is a beautiful period property on amazing grounds, however, the "spa" is not really a spa...its a pool, sauna and steam with very few poolside loungers (10 in total - we had to sit on the floor!) and a separate, darkened relaxation room, which has chairs and foot stools with tea/coffee (10 seats there too). We booked as a group of 12 and they did not warn us there would not be enough seating, in addition, people had got there earlier and occupied all the loungers - leaving them with just towels/belongings on for many hours, without sitting in them. As you can imagine, it was slightly infuriating for those of us sitting on tiled floor! Management refused to bring in more seats due to having no "non slip" feet and did nothing about the unused loungers. All of that aside, we did have a lovely time and the hotel is very nice, but I'd not recommend this as a real spa resort.

I was very pleased with my manicure and it didn't chip for weeks. I opted for a French Manicure and it was gorgeous.

I was lucky enough to try the facilities for free so definitely spot on for value for money. It's a lovely venue and the grounds are beautiful. Staff are friendly bit on the small side for a spa and you can't have lunch in the spa area but nice all the same.

All the potential of being a brilliant value spa break but feels a little bit 'Posh Butlins' . I shouldn't complain, the spa package at Frimley Hall is a bargain, with Dinner Bed, Breakfast and 2 mini treatments for £145 per person a definite credit crunch thumbs up. but there's just something about it that makes it feel like the Tescos of the spa world. The rooms are borderline Travelodge, the restaurant feels like BHS cafe (not that I've been of course!) and the spa's attempts at Zen are kaiboshed by gaggles of housewives cackling about childcare, I'm all for the sisterhood but quieter please ladies. I know I should see beyond the surface but hey, I'm on a spa package, I'm all about the surface!

Anyway, substance wins over style as the food is delicious and the treatments sublime. You don't feel like they are 'mini' and express. They use Decleor products and Penny, my therapist, was just the right balance of helpful and silent. Hanging out by the pool, steam room and sauna the next day was nice but once again with those big lady groups.Only an hour from London, this is an easy, cheap escape but next time I might pay a little more for peace, quiet and a little personality.