Review: Titanic Spa Visit – The UKs first Eco Spa!

Last week me and the Mr paid a visit over the weekend to Titanic Spa to celebrate my Birthday!

This was my first ever real Spa visit – I have had massages and treatments before at salons but have so far remained largely unimpressed. There is also a real lack of Spas up North – Titanic Spa is located in Huddersfield, so its close to Manchester, Leeds and surrounding areas.

We arrived very late due to a number of annoying hold ups – luckily the Spa are were very flexible and moved everything around so we were having dinner when we arrived and the treatments the following day.

The Entrance!

The Spa itself used to be a textile mill – so its a great big thing nestled in the middle of the Pennines.

The drive there was a little….scary. Lots of windy, narrow, hilly, dark roads…Sat Nav is 100% necessary. (The photo you see above was taken the morning after, it was actually pitch black when we got there.) The Building:

Reception:

As soon as we got there (very swish inside) we got a welcome Coffee:

The Apartment

We got slippers and a dressing gown, then got shown to our room which was a 2 storey apartment on the top floor. Anyway, we got shown in and it was just lovely…the kitchen:

The living area:

Audrey on the wall:

The Bathroom:

Upstairs, the bedroom (there was also a TV here and a large wardrobe):

Outside was a balcony –

The view:

The Apartment was very private – you can’t hear anyone else so you are pretty much ensconsed.

The apartment was fabulous darlings – just fab. We chilled out that evening (not much time to try out the Heat Experience until the next day) so we just went down for dinner (which is included with our package).

This is me, so yes, you will be seeing what I ate!

The Dinner

I had Elderflower Fizzies! I liked the wonky glass:

The Bistro is lovely, quite small but it has an intimate feel. Service felt a bit slow at first (when getting our orders in) but then it picked up. The meal included was 2 courses and there were some pretty decent choices. I got Haddock Risotto to start:

Tuna Steak with Noodles as a main:

Quite tasty:

The Mr had Beef Stew:

I also had Chocolate Orange Pudding:

There’s a supplement to pay on certain things (ie. my tuna steak was £2 more, the pudding was £5 – these charges are added on when you check out). There’s no Cola or bad fizzies on the menu! For the best really.

Anyway, dinner was really lovely, our waiter was friendly and after din we mooched back to the apartment and watched some films then zzzzzz….

The next day we visited the Titanic Heat Experience which is one of of their special features.

They say:

The Titanic Heat Experiences are based on the ritual of bathing where the body is heated and then cooled by a series of experiences. The heat experience area guides your body through a sensory journey with the ultimate aim of inducing deep relaxation.

Its a darkened area with a number of rooms, each with their own heat experiences. You have to wear a cozzie in (no, I didn’t take a camera in – do you want me to get evicted?).

Each room has instructions at the door (which were a little hard to read in the darkness) and you are supposed to shower in between each experience.

The rooms I tried in order:

1. Saunarium

This was a ‘timber chamber’ with little lights above us (like a Scandinavian sauna). As well as being hot, its very menthol-ly. As soon as you walk in in, its quite an overwhelming scent if you aren’t used to it.

You start on the lower level then move to the higher seats. Clearly no one else bothered to read the instructions outside because they all went for the top decker!

Anyway this was actually a very enjoyable room once you get to the menthol – cleared up my sinus and was quite relaxing.

---

2. Foot Baths

Next up was 3 foot baths. You fill these up yourself and set the jets going. Problem. I poured (accidentally) half a bottle of Elemis bubble bath stuff in and before I knew it, there were bubbles overflowing all over the place.

Mr Candy found this hilarious, although he did help my try and flatten all the bubbles.

---

3. Crystal Steam Bath

This was my FAVOURITE room! This was a Turkish Steam bath – so hot and steamy it really cleared up my chest and made me sweat. Its difficult to adapt at first but it was just lovely – the humidity, for me, made it easier to bear than a traditional dry sauna.

---

4. Sauna Cabin

This was a typical Sauna, brightly lit with wooden seats. Didn’t stay in here long as a guy came in with tiny orange shorts and decided to lay across an entire row of seats. I was not sat in a good place, and I was not looking at a good angle, that all I will say.

---

5. Plunge Pool

Not a room but there was a plunge pool here which was FREEZING. Good for refreshing yourself.

6. Ice Room

This was like a chiller! And there was plenty of Ice in there for people to rub over their bodies – good for cooling down after using one of the heat experiences. Also good for putting down and unsuspecting person’s pants….

---

7. Aromatherapy Room

This room is apparently a Roman tradition. This is just a moderately heated ‘dry’ room – it was also lightly scented with aromatherapy oils. After being in the Steam Room though, this felt a bit mild, but it was actually lovely just for getting dry and relaxing.

---

There were also various showers and a water fountain within the heat experience.

It got pretty busy after an hour or so (although it never felt awkward or cramped) so we got dressed and went for lunch!

Yummm lunch was tasty. It was a buffet, so I stuffed my face with a vegetable thingy, rice, jacket potato and salad.

---

Finally in the afternoon we had two treatments booked in – me for a Decleor Aromassage the Mr had the Elemis Deep Tissue Massage.

The treatment was great – relaxing without being too gentle or rough. The staff at Titanic Spa are extremely professional – I generally find body treatments quite traumatic because of unprofessional staff but they are really on the ball here, or at least the lady who did mine was.

We had to dash afterwards so I left, slightly oiled up (which I actually quite liked…..) and treated myself to some Jessica Nail Polish on the way out.

Verdict:

Although it was a fleeting visit I really enjoyed my time there (wish it was longer!) – I’m not one usually for treatments because I don’t have time and because have been traumatised before, but if they were all of this standard when I would treat myself a lot more. I slept like a baby when I got home and my skin is glowing.

More than anything it was just nice to get away and stay in a swish apartment and be fed and watered for a day. The staff are excellent, approachable and were always quick to show us around when we got lost “Where’s the toilets?”, and I enjoyed all the meals.

If there was anything I would say Titanic Spa needs, its a general sitting around/relaxing area for people to just have tea and coffee. When we checked out of our room (at 11am) we didn’t stay in our robes (you can keep using their services until 3pm but we chose to get dressed instead cos we’re sort of….uptight) .

We ended up having a few hours to kill before our massages, but there was nowhere to sit apart from the Reception area and we felt guilty taking up the space when new guests were arriving so ended up going for a drive instead.

I would have also liked a clock in the Heat Experience – each room has a recommended time you should stay in for but without a watch it was difficult to work out. Perhaps its part of the experience to not be watching the clock but I really think it would have been helpful.

Overall – it was lovely, just lovely and me and the Mr will definitely be visiting again. You can view the website here.