The Well Spa Retreat at Bluestone Wales

I’m not a person who likes to treat myself much, I rarely buy clothes, or spend hours browsing posh beauty counters, I’m not one for a new pair of shoes each month and a matching handbag. My treat to myself is getting everything waxed every month and occasionally going for a pamper. Whilst on holiday in Bluestone Wales I booked myself in for four hours of pampering in The Well Spa Retreat. It was incredible.

I’d spent a long time (weeks, months maybe) looking at the website and examining in detail everything The Well Spa offered. I knew I wanted to do the “Celtic Spa Experience” and I also fancied a treatment, my favourite treatment being a facial. After being forced to make my mind up the week before we went to Bluestone Wales, I opted for the “Early Bird & Spa”, which was breakfast, three hours in the Celtic Spa Experience and a 50 minute treatment.

I arrived at 9am on the day of my treatment and was asked to sit in the “Cwtch” area (cuddle in Welsh) and complete my health and safety form. I was then given a bathrobe and a towel and shown to the changing area and told where to go for breakfast. The Well Spa changing area is large and open plan, there were no private changing cubicles, but at a push if you’re shy you could change in a toilet cubicle.

I put my swimming costume on, wrapped myself in a big snuggly bathrobe and went to find breakfast. There was no breakfast menu on the website for Caffi Mor so I wasn’t sure what to expect. On the tables were individual bottles of britvic orange juice and a box which contained a croissant (with butter and jam), a pain au chocolate, a pot of creamy yoghurt and an apple. The waitress came along and took my coffee order and I was left to munch my big continental breakfast in relative peace. It was a very lovely breakfast, I was very full by the time I’d eaten it all, I’m a sucker for a croissant so it was perfect for me.

After breakfast I had about half an hour before my treatment, so I had a very quick look around the Celtic Spa Experience, I would go back in after my treatment for a few hours of relaxation. The Celtic Spa Experience is a selection of thermal rooms you can use and spend some time in relaxing and unwinding. The Well Spa has six rooms including, the Red Brick Sauna, the Herbal Steam Room, the Marine Steam Room, the Hot Slate Sauna, a Salt Inhalation Room and an Ice Room. There are also Experience Showers and The Sanctuary Relaxation Room as well as an outdoor Hydrovitality Pool.

I didn’t want to get too hot and bothered before my treatment, so I had a quick sauna in the very lovely Red Brick Sauna which was a nice temperature for me, bearably hot, it was probably my favourite room so I did go back in a few times.

The time came for my treatment, so as instructed I went back downstairs to the Cwtch room and waited to be called. This was by far the least fun part of my experience. Having unwound a little upstairs in the spa I was in a fairly draughty waiting area with the most awful pop music blaring loudly at me. At one point I sat with my fingers in my ears for a few minutes to stop the aural assault. Thankfully Ruth my therapist arrived after about ten minutes and took me to my treatment room. I may well be showing my age, but I’m not sure why places, especially places which should be quiet temples of relaxation feel the need to blare out loud pop music all the time. Silence is underrated.

Ruth showed me upstairs to the Opal Treatment room and we had a little chat about what I was expecting from my facial. I had opted for the ESPA Re-Hydrator Facial as I’d been told a few months ago that parts of my skin were quite dehydrated and the previous day I’d managed to burn my face a bit in the sun, so hydration and pampering were the order of the day. Ruth wrapped me up on the treatment couch, made sure I was comfortable and began the blissful and relaxing treatment. The 50 minute Re-Hydrator facial is an intensive and regenerating facial for dehydrated skin leaving it supple and nourished. My skin looked and felt fantastic after it and continues to feel good a few days later.

After the treatment I retired to the Sanctuary Relaxation Room for a few minutes, had a drink of water and returned to the Celtic Spa Experience for a proper look around. I visited each thermal room in turn, here’s what I thought of them…

The Salt Inhalation Room – This was a room with two curved seats in it, it was slightly colder than room temperature and I wasn’t really sure of the benefits of it, though it did seem quite popular on the day, it wasn’t for me, my old bones prefer heat.
The Red Brick Sauna – A good sauna which runs at about 65 degrees. It was a great temperature for me, comfortable and I kept going back for ten to fifteen minute sessions.
The Herbal Steam Room – A lovely steam room with herbal steam, running at around 45 degrees this was a very pleasant room to spend time in, again I returned to this room a few times.
The Marine Steam Room – I thought I’d love this room, the marine steam smelt incredible and the sign suggested it was a 45 degree steam, but it was much hotter than the sign suggested and I couldn’t tolerate it for more than a few minutes. I did ask a member of staff but she didn’t know why it was incredibly hot in there, I heard several other people complaining to each other about it too.
The Hot Slate Sauna – This is a hot sauna, running at 85 degrees I really enjoyed it but couldn’t tolerate it for as long as I would’ve liked.
The Ice Room – This is a cold room, it’s about 10 degrees and there’s a big bowl of ice you can rub all over yourself. I didn’t linger, but understanding the benefits of an ice room, I popped in for a few minutes at the end.
The Experience Showers -Three showers of varying temperature and power, these were very pleasant and refreshing, especially after a session in the Hot Slate Sauna.
The Outdoor Hydrovitality Pool – This is probably my favourite thing. It was a lovely hydrotherapy pool on the roof top, it was incredibly peaceful and I enjoyed floating in the pool and enjoying the jets of water even in the slight drizzle, in fact I think the rain added to the experience. I wasn’t cold, it was just blissful.

The Well Spa Retreat is so lovely, it was pretty quiet, it wasn’t full of people, at other places I’ve been they’ve been full of large, noisy groups which I feel aren’t conducive to relaxation, this was just right for me. Peaceful perfection.

I only have two words of negativity about the spa, the first was the blaring pop music in the Cwtch room (it was like being trapped in Top Shop in my swimming costume); and the second is the slate floor can get quite slippy, especially when it’s wet, I think it would be good to offer people the use of spa slippers.

My four hours in The Well Spa and my Early Bird Experience cost just £75 which I thought was incredibly good value. The facial treatment alone should have cost £70, a two hour spa visit is £35 and the breakfast was plentiful and good quality. I’d love to go back, it was probably the most restful spa experience I’ve ever had. For more information about The Well Spa Retreat at Bluestone Wales visit their website.

Note: I paid for my visit to The Well Spa in full.

Packing for Pembrokeshire

Next week is the Husbear’s birthday, he will be that big number which everyone dreads. As a birthday treat we’re escaping to Bluestone in Pembrokeshire for four nights of rest, relaxation and fresh air. We’re taking the small boy of course, and there’s nothing he likes more than the beach, so Pembrokeshire seems the perfect spot for us all.

We’ve never been to Pembrokeshire before so it’ll be an adventure for us all. I like to do my research before I go anywhere new, find out where the shops are, a few nice places to eat, where the good beaches are and what attractions there are for kids nearby.

I like to have a few ideas of what we’ll do before we actually get there, I find it really helps to take the pressure off. We don’t have a strict itinerary, but it’s helpful to have some fluid plans for both wet and dry (and hopefully sunny) days while we’re in Pembrokeshire. Naturally my first stop was the Visit Wales website which is a pretty solid place to start your information gathering mission if you’re visiting Wales.

Having never visited the area before we were keen to get to grips with what we’ll find when we get there. I was blown away by the pictures of the beaches which looked beautifully sandy, sunny and gorgeous, not to mention perfect for kids. A quick scroll through the kinds of activities available locally shows lots of great outdoor activity suggestions, with a few great wet weather options too.

I think if the sun is shining, or even if it’s not, we’ll make the most of the local beaches and countryside. We holidayed in Devon in February and still spent lots of time wrapped up against the weather, exploring the beaches, so it can’t possibly be any colder or wetter than that!

As well as our car full of “everything you ever need and most of the things you don’t” that we normally take on holiday, we always pack a day bag with a few essentials in it, we can always leave what we don’t need in the car to save us carrying it about. So here’s what will be in our Berghaus bag of Pembrokeshire essentials –

Sun cream (we are ever hopeful)
Walking boots
Swimming gear
Bucket and spade
A camera
A few good books
A flask of coffee
A pac-a-mac (you never know)
A proper map (I don’t trust sat navs)

We can’t wait for our little holiday, I’m really looking forward to exploring a part of the country we’ve never visited and I’m really excited to be spending some lovely quality time with my boys. I’ll be reporting back (naturally) on how we get on in Wales and what we get up to, so watch this space!

PS. If you have any top tips for what we cannot miss in Bluestone, Pembrokeshire they would be very much appreciated!

Note: We were sent a brilliant Berghaus rucksack of goodies by Visit Wales as a thank you for writing this post. All images and opinions are my own.

Exploring the Wrecks of Westward Ho!

We’ve been visiting the beach at Westward Ho! for many years. It’s a stunning beach, around two miles of lovely sand, popular with surfers and a great beach for collecting shells. Like most beaches on the North Devon coast its character can often be changed by the winter (and summer) storms; the fierce waves shifting the stones and sand, hiding and revealing features.

When we last visited Westward Ho! in June 2014 there was nothing of particular interest to note, it was the same as it’s always been, sandy and flat, with a bank of stones against the shore. In February 2015 it was at first glance the same. We took a stroll along the beach hoping to collect some nice shells to take back to school when I spotted some pieces of wood sticking out from the sand.

I was really curious about what they were and they seemed to be attracting attention, so we walked over to have a closer look. What we found was the ancient hull of what is thought to be a barge trading on the Bristol Channel, but has also known locally as a ‘Viking Ship’ or ‘Spanish Galleon’, we called it a ‘Pirate Ship’ because the small boy is currently obsessing about pirates.

The wreck is an oak-framed vessel which is around 25 metres long and 7 metres wide. It is thought that the wreck could be one of two boats wrecked nearby, the ‘Salisbury’ of London, lost in March 1759 on Northam Burrows or the ‘Sally’ of Bristol, which was wrecked on Northam Sands in September 1769.

This large wreck isn’t visible very often, so it was a real privilege to be able to see it. It’s usually buried deep in the sand and it might be a number of years before we get to see it again. I took the opportunity to take some pictures of it for prosperity.

Westward Ho

A bit further along the beach we came across another wreck, this was much smaller than the first, measuring just over 15 metres in length. The remains of the wreck were not as complete as the first. This wreck is thought to date from the late 18th or early 19th century and is likely to be a Polacca Brig, a style of sailing boat which was used to trade limestone, coal and other goods across the North Devon coast, Taw Estuary and to the Bristol Channel.

Somewhere under Westward Ho! beach lies a third wreck, but that hadn’t been revealed to us by the shifting sands. We felt incredibly lucky to have seen the two skeleton wrecks which had been uncovered over the winter months and we’re hoping to visit again later in the year to see if they are still visible or not.

Note: All images are my own, they must not be used elsewhere without my written permission.

I Wish I Was There (North Devon)

As I sit and type this I am wrapped in a blanket, sat in front of a blazing fire. I can hear the rain bouncing off the windows. The whole family is collectively wearing more layers than a bag of onions and we just want to be somewhere warm.

I want more than nothing else to sit on a beach listening to the waves, feeling the warm sun against my back, heating up my old bones. I want to see my lovely husband emerge like Daniel Craig from the sea and I want to build sandcastles and paddle with my 3 year old son. I want not to shiver when I slip out of bed in the morning.

In short, I want to be here.

Here in this instance is North Devon. It might not be exotic or far-flung but it is beautiful. It is so restful and it is, in our eyes, just perfect. On the horizon you can just make out Lundy Island. If you follow the cliff path you’ll find your way to Hartland Quay, like we did.

I love this picture, it was taken a few years ago on a beautifully warm summers day. We’d spent most of that day in Hartland Quay, sat on the beach listening to the waves crash on the rocks, we’d paddled and swam. We’d walked up to the pub and had a pint and some lunch. The warm sun on our backs and our hair, thick and wild with the salt water. We’d never felt so relaxed.

Of course this was pre-baby, but we’ve taken him there since and he loves it as much as we do, though it is slightly less relaxing when you’re on toddler-drowning watch. It must be stunning if even my 3 year old says “oh wow” when he stands at that gate.