Akasha Spa, Cafe Royal
London, uk
Central London spa with Ayuverdic offerings.
Overview
The 5-star Hotel Café Royal’s past is littered with names from a bygone era; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mohamed Ali and David Bowie are just a few names who have stayed in this grand art deco hotel nestled in London’s West End. In 2012 it underwent a sympathetic £200million refurbishment and has never looked more elegant.The Akasha spa (pronounced a-car-sha) is situated just a few doors down, close to the entrance of Piccadilly Circus tube station. On this occasion we just visited the spa, but having stayed here previously, we can tell you the rooms are first rate.
It’s a haven away from the bustle of London. You’re greeted with a cup of iced tea and sit down to fill in your mandatory forms in an elegant welcome lounge area. The spa is in the basement so there is no natural daylight and it’s low lit with pink hues throughout making it super relaxing. All of the materials are earthy; stone, wood, slate, it almost feels Japanese in design which adds to the zen.
Spa brands
Aromatherapy Associates is used here and is one of our favourites for it’s incredible relaxing results. You can also have treatments using Valmont, a luxury swiss skin and bodycare brand and there are some Vichy water treatments too, using mineral-rich French Vichy waters.
Prices
Massages start at £150 for 60 minutes which is average for a five-star spa.
treatment booked
Watsu Massage, £150 for 50 minutes
How to book
This particular treatment needs a few weeks’ notice as the specialist therapist isn’t onsite all the time so do call/email well in advance to book and specify your preference (male or female therapist).
THE TREATMENT MENU
Akasha is Sanskrit for ‘essence of creation,’ but oddly there are no Ayurvedic or Indian treatments on the menu (we’ve got more to say on this below.) Instead, you’ll find a pretty extensive, mostly European spa menu based around the four elements of Akasha: earth, water, fire and air, set alongside South East Asian alternative therapies such as Reiki, Thai massage and Watsu water therapy, as well as nutritional advice and meditation sessions.
Our TREATMENT
Ever had a shiatsu massage? Well, Watsu is like a water shiatsu massage. The massage actually takes place in a pool where, wearing a swimsuit, you have floats attached to your legs to give you buoyancy as your upper body is held. It feels almost infant-like being held by a therapist who twists, turns, pulls and stretches you into a state of sublime relaxation. Before the massage, we were led into a private room at the back of the main swimming area which contained a small private pool heated to a toasty 35 degrees. Our therapist (who was also wearing a swimming costume, FYI) explained what was going to happen during the treatment and explained that to get the best results, we should relax completely. She told us that she’d be manipulating our limbs into different positions and explained that at the height of relaxation, the point where you’re almost asleep, your muscles could spasm a bit as your body relaxes and not to worry. (This actually happened, so we’re glad she was so thorough.) You then enter the pool together, and have floats tied around your legs and as your upper body is held gently. It took a while to relax into the treatment because it’s so different to a regular massage, but despite the initial awkwardness, what followed was one of the most relaxing therapies we’ve ever experienced - it’s almost womb like. The power of water is so overwhelming, the noise of it, the weightlessness, the gentleness of the stretching minus that sore feeling when someone stretches you out ‘on land.’ The sound of the tube rumbled by every so often and reminded us we were in London but apart from that, we ended up dozing into that sweet spot between sleep and awake and it was blissful. If what you need is a deep tissue workout on your shoulder knots, this isn’t the treatment for you. This is more centred on mindfulness and deep relaxation with a bit of a stretch. And, it’s also quite intimate because you are being physically held by somebody and we asked for a female therapist on this occasion, but it’s worth knowing that the Watsu massage specialist Stevie Karle, is male. This treatment was really something quite special – it felt like an antidote to busy city life.
Little extras and other facilities
There is an 18m pool around which are several secluded seating areas. The spa also has a hammam, sauna and jacuzzi. There is also a well-equipped gym and studio area where you can attend a range of gym classes and meditation sessions, which was a cool bonus we’d like to see at more spas and gyms.
Sleep Over
Rooms at Hotel Café Royal start at £332 for a standard double, they’re grand, traditional in style and elegant as you’d imagine. The service at breakfast was a little on the slow side - give yourself extra time so you don’t have to dine and dash.
Food
The lounge bar menu is available in the spa, think salads, fresh fish and cold pressed juices, which is perfect and not too heavy.
GOOD TO KNOW
The spa is based literally IN Piccadilly Circus so everything you would expect from Central London. The theatres are all close by, you’re near restaurants and bars galore. For a quick bite you’re steps away from a large WholeFoods with outdoor and indoor seating areas.
Take the usual suspects for a spa day; swimsuit, change of clothes etc. But flip flops, robes, towels, and shower gel/shampoo/conditioner are all supplied for you. One tip - take your own ear plugs and/or an eye mask to really shut the world out. The seating around the pool is private with concrete walls separating pairs of beds, but the sound travels so anyone having a conversation can be heard around the whole area which we felt was a flaw in the overall spa design.
What wasn’t great
Although the changing rooms were well kitted out, they were small for this size of spa. The hotel offers a membership for its spa facilities and gym, so the changing rooms did feel like those at a gym and were being used by the post-work crowd arriving for classes. We felt that separate rooms to prolong that relaxing post-treatment feeling would have been better – especially as we also had to queue for showers with the gym goers, which wasn’t ideal. And back to a point we mentioned earlier, TSL found it odd that the spa had an Indian name but no Indian treatments. Spas often culturally appropriate without meaning to, but for a luxury spa we felt this was an oversight that needed addressing.
Just FYI
The location is a blessing and a curse. It’s so accessible but also somewhat jarring to have a serene treatment and then step into the middle of Piccadilly Circus afterwards with the pollution, noise and people. We’d strongly recommend that you book a taxi post treatment to try and prolong the chill.
DETAILS
Address - Hotel Café Royal, 68 Regent Street, London, W1B 4DY
Number - 0207 406 3333
Website - www.hotelcaferoyal.com/
Instagram - @akashawellbeing