Four elements, five senses, seven spas
Words: Patrícia Barnabé
Photos: Pedras Salgadas
We’ve selected ten spas where treatments and massages are sensorial and use natural materials. There’s a whole world of pleasure to discover.
The Six Senses Douro Valley is the ex-libris of the hotel that is a spa, located in a romantic mansion nestled in the middle of the forest and on the banks of the Douro River. Specialising in wellness screening and sleep therapies, the spa works from the elements in its central pool, which works like a heartbeat. We recommend the circuit of massage jets, the vitality pool, where thermal extremes are worked on, and the underwater sound therapy combined with various massages and hydrotherapies – you’ll feel like you’re in your mother’s womb. There’s a Turkish bath with 100% humidity and various saunas, with infrared, vapours from local herbs or emanations from a Himalayan salt wall. There’s also cryotherapy and chronotherapy, vinotherapy, specialised massages based on hot and cold stones, aromatherapy balms and CBD oils, sea salts and algae, carried out in ten treatment rooms, some of which are glazed to let nature in. (Quinta do Vale Abrãao, Samodães, Lamego | +351 254 660 600 www.sixsenses.com/en/hotels-resorts/europe/portugal/douro-valley)
A little further down the hill are the famous Vidago thermal baths and the Pedras Salgadas Spa & Nature Park, where royalty spend their summers cooling off from the heat. Brought to life by the studio of Álvaro de Siza Vieira, it’s now more than just a beautiful historic site, it’s a little oasis. The old spa casino has been converted into a party room, as have the 19th-century chapel and the old spa baths. As well as accommodation in wooden tree houses and ecological studios in the middle of the forest, the spa has 14 treatment rooms, two double, five for hydrotherapy, specialist thermal treatments and therapeutic wraps. The waters are carbonated, bicarbonate and alkaline, rich in minerals with curative, rejuvenating, anti-stress and anti-pain properties, therapeutic for rheumatic and musculoskeletal disorders, metabolic and endocrine disorders, digestive and respiratory diseases. There is also a ‘dry zone’ for beauty and wellness treatments, a heated indoor pool with a walkway, sauna, hammam, hydromassage, needle shower and Vichy shower. And all this is surrounded by an eight-kilometre park and several hot springs. (Parque de Pedras Salgadas, Bornes de Aguiar | +351 276 990 993 www.pedrassalgadaspark.com)
Also worth a visit is Unhais da Serra, located in the heart of Serra da Estrela Natural Park, home to the Mountain Spa Aquadome is located, which welcomes visitors from all over Europe for health treatments and beauty and wellness treatments. A colossus in the spa sector, AquaTermas is the most modern thermal spa in the centre of the country, mainly for the treatment of respiratory diseases. It also has an osteopathy and physiotherapy centre and the so-called AquaCorpus, where beauty and aesthetic treatments combine different oriental philosophies and massage techniques. For the family, there is a play area with themed swimming pools.
Heading south, we recommend two spas in Comporta that work so well with the intoxication of the warmer lands and the local flora, as well as the benefits of sunnier days. We start with the magnificent Oryza spa at Quinta da Comporta. The rooms are fantastic and unpretentious, but the spa is of special quality: the staff, the treatments and the facilities. The 800m2 space is a replica of an old rice barn, supported by wooden beams over 100 years old, and clad in stone, metal and glass, with windows overlooking the nature and the rice fields that provide the active ingredients for the Oryza Lab brand. The treatments take place in six different rooms and combine the best of beauty care with wellness therapies, some of which are ancient and rooted in holistic philosophies, adapted by each therapist to the specific needs of their clients. Before or after, you can enjoy the indoor/outdoor swimming pool, the hammam, the sauna and, if you wish, the gym or the yoga shala where retreats are held throughout the year.
On a different scale, the small Aura Spa at Independente Comporta is the icing on the cake, with a holistic approach that works with several energy therapies from traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. It offers a very specific menu of treatments and relaxation, with high technical quality, using regional products such as salt and rice from Comporta, olive oil and grape seeds from the Alentejo region, oils and other textures made with plants that survive in this sandy land, such as lavender and rosemary aromatherapy, and the sand itself and some secrets brought by the sea, which, as we know, works wonders.
In the Algarve region, we recommend the Monchique Resort & Spa, right next to the Caldas de Monchique thermal baths. Designed using the region’s natural resources, it is a sensory spa specialising in rejuvenation and relaxation, supported by the excellent Comfort Zone, based on natural ingredients. We recommend a basic circuit that includes a sauna with Himalayan salt stones, a Turkish bath with local aromas, an aromatherapy cabin, a hydromassage pool, a foot bath, tropical showers, an igloo for temperature changes and heated sun loungers to finish. Signature rituals include a massage with CBD oil and a tea ritual, or a full body scrub and massage with aromas from the Monchique mountains. And there are even more derivations, with natural oils and aromatherapy, hot stones, clay wraps or honey foot massages.
If you’re heading to the islands, check out Santa Bárbara in S. Miguel, a hotel inspired by the elements that make the Azores so special, from the volcanic terroir to the unspoilt sea, and a beautiful spa overlooking the sea with treatments as inspiring as the landscape. One example? The relaxation massage with full-body exfoliation using geothermal stones, crystals and sand, some of which are heated. And there are many more variations to choose from. What more could you possibly want?
