Gourmet morning at the spa: wine bath and chocolate massage

After the trauma of losing my luggage en route to the Canaries I took solace in the soothing delights of the nearest spa. Well a girls gotta cheer herself up doesn't she?

Now I love love love going to a spa, a salon, a hairdresser when I'm on my holliers. I love their new techniques and approaches and trying out the products they use. Balnearia are a big chain of Spanish spas and I was dying to try them out - I blame the husband, he spotted the place.

Well, it's a very different spa experience. Pop music plays over the speakers, the range of treatments is vast and the therapists all specialise in their own areas. So different from the hushed, calming, eastern music playing vibe our own spas favour.

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No, Balnearia was all business. And I really liked it. A totally new, fresh approach for me. First things first. I just had to kick off with a wine bath. Wine is well known for it's antioxidant properties, great for the skin and promoting a feeling of well being throughout the body. I have to admit that I'd gotten that feeling of well being the night before from downing a few glasses of vino. And now I was feeling the after effects. so a very different hair of the dog this time. The bath was the colour of white wine - Vina Sol let us say. And it smelled of grapes.

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The wine bath water boiled with energy. Like a jacuzzi on speed or similar drug, it bubbled violently, it spat, it gushed, I held on for dear life. But then I got used to it and relaxed into it. Underwater jets pummeled my muscles, moving from my back to my shoulders, up and down my legs - and my favourite bit - feet.

I got out of the bath, my whole body tingling and totally refreshed. But when your time is up in Balnearia you gotta move on. And my massage therapist was waiting for me.

I love hot chocolate. And the best hot chocolate in the world is found in Spain. One of the best experiences in the world, bar none, is time spent in a cafe in Barcelona sipping molten hot chocolate. We've nothing like it here. So I was fairly confident that this experience would be of similar quality. I was right. The aroma of the chocolate massage is DIVINE. Rich, totally indulgent - and calorie free!

I finished my morning with a deep cleansing facial (70 minutes of congestion annihilation) and a foot massage.

You can experience a similar luxury choc massage in the gorgeous Cloisters Spa in Muckross Park.