Everything about The Sanctuary was totally perfect! My friend and I went to The Sanctuary for the Girls Delight Package. This included one treatment, lunch, a skin consultation, full use of the spa facilities and a free gift!

We chose to go on a weekday as we thought that it would be quieter at the spa. We were wrong on this occasion! When we arrived at the reception, there was already a long queue of ladies waiting to check in. First thoughts were that the spa was going to feel over crowded and busy. But this was not at all the case. I think that because The Sanctuary is such a big place and so well organised, it really did not feel crowded.

So the day started off with checking in…it felt a bit like a hotel! We were given our schedule with the times of our treatments and lunch. After that, we went to the Spa shop to book the consultation and were also informed of the workshops that we could also book ourselves in for.

The lady at reception told us that after we had been to the shop, then we should head to the changing rooms where another member of staff will be there to show us and give us information about the lockers. Again, we were really happy that everything was so organised and that we didn’t have anything to worry about.

Once we were changed and were ready for the day, we were taken on a tour of The Sanctuary which is spread over three levels. I was taken aback by the size of the place and also how amazing everything looked.

The Koi Carp lounge is a fantastic place to sit, lounge and relax. There is a range of seating areas arranged around the water area with Carp fish! There is also food and drink available to order. There are a few other places in the venue where you can sit and relax! It was hard to make ourselves get up from the cosy seating in the Koi Carp lounge but we finally managed it!

We headed to the Steam Room and the Sanarium. Both were great and my skin felt so soft after being in there. There are also some pools and Jacuzzis for some further relaxation. There is the famous Atrium pool with its wooden swing!

We did all of this in the morning and were definitely ready for lunch! The restaurant was quite spacious and the staff were so helpful with all of our questions and food requests. All of the food was really delicious! We had the bruschetta which was topped with red peppers and goat’s cheese. For the main, my friend and I ordered two different dishes and shared. The courgette and parmesan risotto was great as was the ricotta and spinach ravioli. Both dishes were of a generous size and it was difficult to finish them! Saying that, we did have room for dessert. We were not disappointed with the banana parfait served with sliced bananas. It was not as heavy as ice cream but still very yummy!

The Sanctuary has an area called the Sleep Retreat. This has to be booked in advance. This is an area where the body gets to properly relax. The Sleep retreat has these special beds which give you a slight massage. You also have some music and narrative on the headphones to listen to. The whole point of the Sleep Retreat is to get your body in a state of relaxation and to help you with meditation too. Within about ten minutes of being in the Sleep Retreat, I was fast asleep. So it definitely worked for me!

Now onto the treatment that we had! It was the La Sultane Massage which was a full body massage lasting 50 minutes! 50 minutes of heaven! The room was really nice and the therapist was so friendly. I was given a choice of oils that could be used for the massage. The massage was great; a total top to toe massage! Even more relaxation for my body! I would highly recommend this massage.

The skin consultation was good as it showed if there had been any sun damage to the skin. Also we had the hand and nail workshop in which the therapist dealt with our individual skin needs and also suggested products. It was great as we were not pressurised to buy any of the products. We were happy with our free gift as well which was a full sized hand lotion and hand wash set!

The Sanctuary definitely lives up to its name! All of the staff were so friendly and helpful. It made the whole Sanctuary experience so pleasant. My body and mind felt like it had really had a total day of pure relaxation and pampering. We also thought that it was great that we weren’t allowed any mobile phones through the day, so we were happily cut off from the outside world. It was a real shame when our day came to an end! We felt quite strange stepping out into the hustle and bustle of Covent Garden after our tranquil day in the retreat!