Sometimes you know that it's going to be a great weekend when the stars align and things just go right. And that was certainly the case this past Friday, when, in need of a pick-me-up before heading to the Creamfields festival on Yas Island, I decided that the only course of action was an ostentatious trip for a massage. It's the 21st century man's recovery option of choice, don't you know?
Don't ask me why I decided that the Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi would be the best choice. But, one impulsive mobile internet search and a phone booking from the comfort of my bed later, that was where I was heading. It was the finest decision that I made all week.
I knew that there was an ESPA-based facility at the hotel, which has been open for a few months now. What I didn't know was that it was the first day that the 2,000-square-metre, Bedouin-inspired complex was open, until I was informed as much by the cheery young Moroccan man who arrived to ferry me from the reception to the spa on a golf buggy.
I was, I soon learnt, the spa's seventh-ever customer. The upside of this happy accident was nigh-on the royal treatment – even the hotel manager turned up to greet me, while a grandly turned-out spa-hand (think a leader of the city of Qarth from Game of Thrones) served me sweet saffron tea. Take note: this wasn't a press junket or a review freebie, merely how the Ritz-Carlton spoils its regular customers.
I opted to keep things simple with a 60-minute Swedish massage, preceded – at the suggestion of the endearingly keen staff – with half an hour of sauna and steam room, separated by an interval of skin-cooling courtesy of an ice dispenser between the two. After a shower, plus a spell boning up on National Geographic's top worldwide weekend break recommendations in the relaxation area, I'm led downstairs into the maze-like treatment areas by my therapist Sofia. Of the 50-or-so massages that I've experienced in my life, the next hour had to be up there – as the famously egotistic English football manager Brian Clough might have put it – in the top one.
For more information and to view the spa's menu, visit http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/properties/abudhabi/spa.
