Unwind in Style

Dubai is a heaven for us! It’s a heaven of SPA’s. It can be very hard to find the best one tough.

The best SPA I have been was Talise SPA at Madinat Jumeirah. I had the Detox Package which was fantastic. First they massage your whole body with an oil and then gently massage you with natural sea salts which helps to remove the dead skin. After that they wrap you with some nice body masks and while waiting wrapped in towels you get the head massage. This mask leaves the skin so nice and smooth. Between all these sessions you have shower and aromatherapy baths. After all these you get the chance to relax at the outdoor terrace overlooking to the water canals of Madinat Jumeirah. That was one of time well spent day at Dubai. Talise has also couple therapy rooms so you can have a chance to relax with your partner or with your SPA-coholic friend. I like Talise SPA but to be honest it’s a bit pricey to go every week. So it’s best for some special occasions.

So my favorite SPA for more often use has been so far Angsana SPA at Dubai Marina. I found my favorite massage which they call ‘Fusion’. This massage includes nice Balinese style deep tissue massage with nice stretches and aromatic oils. They are also a bit pricey but they have really good packages if you purchase a pack of 10 massages or even better alternative if you select a package only for week days.

I am not including The One and Only Hamam experience into the SPA category as Hammam has it’s own category and I simply enjoyed the experience I had at One & Only.

I also love the reflexology. Just stop by at any FeetFirst for a half an hour foot massage and there you're a complete new person.

A friend of mine will be visiting me next weekend and she is a SPA-coholic like me. I am listing down some new SPA’s where I haven’t been yet. One of them is The Address Downtown. I heard that they have really good treatments as well as the best Burj Khalifa and Old Dubai view from the relaxation room.

Some humble ways unwind in Dubai.

Weekend well spent at the Capital City

After having a fantastic weekend at Abu Dhabi, finally I am back on track with so many things on my to-do list.

I have been running from one place to another last couple of months that I needed this quick break so my husband and we spent last weekend at Shangri-La in Abu Dhabi. This Hong-Kong based luxury hotels chain is a synonym for serenity and tranquility.

The reason why I picked Shangri-La was just to be away from Dubai and knew that they’ve got the best SPA’s in the world.

Hotel was a very good choice. Nicely set on the beach with fabulously large rooms with balcony, overlooking to the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque of Abu Dhabi with the best bed and pillows I’ve ever slept. We had our dinner at the Pearl & Caviar, hotel’s signature seafood restaurant. Personnel, food and atmosphere were just fantastic. Decorations of the plates were like a piece of art and still quite enough food to fill your stomach unlike many fancy restaurants. Either we are used to charged overpriced in Dubai or prices were really good because we paid only 500 dirhem including champagne –which was complimentary, you wont get a complimentary water in Dubai-, wine, oysters, main courses and coffees. After dinner we moved upstairs, open air bar. There was a guest DJ playing that night, we had fun but the music was not really that good.

Unlike the hotel experience SPA was a big disappointment or maybe I selected the wrong treatment at an Asian SPA. I wanted to try the hamam and they had the only hamam in UAE where we could experience as a couple. All other place here are either only for men or women. Price of the hamam therapy was double the price of Moroccan Hamam at One & Only but I definitely can not say the same about the experience. Unfortunately when we entered, hamam was cold, not steamy as they turned it on only when we got there and the ‘kese’ was made of synthetic material that it did irritate our skin rather then giving us a calming smooth skin. Well, we had to drink more champagne after all to cheer the mood up.

We returned back to city to join our friend Tanja’s 30th birthday party after chil’in at the infinity pool of the hotel overlooking to the Mosque. I still recommend this place for short breaks but maybe next time to try the Thai massage.

Dubai Pamper Services: Oriental Hamam

If you’re born and raised in Turkey, you already know a lot about the Hamam. Their architecture, ritual and traditions. If you’re from Istanbul, you see many of them around the town, at least you read about them in the history books or simply you have been dragged by your grandma at least once when you were a kid.

Hamams are no longer fashionable among my friends mainly because of the fantastic hotel spa’s and unfortunately treatments and hygiene at the historical hamams can not really compete with the 5 star hotel comfort. But at the same time, you can not really compare the atmosphere of a 18th century Cagaoglu Hamami with the bath at any 5 star hotel.

I love the historical hamams and especially the special exfoliation treatments ‘kese’, hot marble stones and simply the shadowy lights which flow through the small round glass windows at the dome. So relaxing!

Last week, for the first time in Dubai, I went to discover the Hamam at One & Only Royal Mirage. To be honest, I didn’t have any expectations since I was sure that it would be same as any hotel Turkish Bath experience. But when I got there, I entered the place and already had completely different opinion. This oriental hammam is called Moroccan Hamam and interior decoration done in such a lovely traditional way that it immediately takes you away. With its light, and Moroccan Blue tiles and small details are just worth to see and feel it and suddenly you’re out of this world.

In the traditional hamam, you do nothing and let ‘tellaks’ guide you through this experience. Tellaks at the Oriental Hamam are the masters of this ritual and are really good in exfoliation treatments and massages. If you like to pamper yourself more, you may also add on a honey body warp which was absolutely fantastic.

After hamam, there is a beautiful resting area where you just have your nice Moroccan tea and just chill out. When I was there, there were two girls from Brazil and actually one of them was getting married on the same day. They were just relaxing and enjoying the day like our traditional Bridal Hamam, Gelin Hamami. The whole bath thing takes about one hour but I spent like three hours there, just chilling and relaxing.

So I finally found perfect hamam for myself in Dubai and highly recommend this fabulous place for all friends and guests.