{"title":"Spas in the Cotswolds","description":"\u003cp\u003eTen of them within an hour of each other and no two alike, which makes it the easiest place in the country to start.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"eynsham-baths-at-estelle-manor","title":"Eynsham Baths at Estelle Manor","description":"\u003cp\u003eEstelle Manor · Eynsham, Oxfordshire, Cotswolds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eGold\u003c\/strong\u003e · 82%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEynsham Baths at Estelle Manor near Eynsham is a 3,000 square metre Roman bathhouse running five named thermal pools, from a 10 degree Frigidarium plunge to a 36 degree Tepidarium bathing hall. Three hour sessions are capped at 35 guests, and the Baths open only to Estelle Manor members and hotel guests.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEstelle Manor built Eynsham Baths as a bathhouse first and a hotel spa second, and the difference shows in every decision. The architecture is neoclassical and entirely unembarrassed about it, with carved marble, sky lit halls and hand shaped brick, and the main bathing floor sits below ground, reached down a wide oak staircase that does much of the work of separating the day from the bathing. It opened in 2024 as the largest spa opening Britain had seen that year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe idea is a route. Roman bathing was a sequence and the Baths treat it as one, so the whole design assumes movement from cold to hot to warm and out again rather than picking a sauna and settling in. It is worth being precise, because the shape gets overstated elsewhere. The property's six thermal areas is the count for the whole circuit rather than for heat rooms, so what is here is three heat rooms and five named pools inside one journey.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSessions run three hours from four fixed start times, capped hard at 35 guests, and that cap is the entire reason a spa of this size stays quiet. Photography is not allowed anywhere and the rule is enforced properly, with phones stickered and locked away, which changes the sound of the place more than a rule on a wall should. The circuit finishes outdoors in The Hideaway, an open air oasis with a waterfall, and then in a Tea Lounge running thirty two teas.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTreatments come from ten rooms on an entirely in house line, and the confidence in that is worth noticing, because a property with this budget could have bought a famous skincare house and chose not to. The Master in Residence, Manos Dimoudis, brings Thai massage and Chi Nei Tsang from Chiang Mai alongside advanced clinical and sports work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe thing to settle before anything else is that the Baths are not open to the public. Membership or a night at Estelle Manor is the way in, and the whole bathhouse is 18 and over, with the estate's considerable family offer kept entirely elsewhere. A hard guest cap, a fixed session and an adults only floor is an unusual combination at this scale.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eFive pools, three heat rooms and one circuit meant to be walked in order. It begins cold, with the Frigidarium at 15 degrees and Frigidarium X at 10, and there are 8 degree Scottish buckets to tip over the shoulders as well, the sort of cold that arrives as a shock and leaves as clarity. Heat comes from a hammam, a hay sauna running between 70 and 100 degrees and a botanical steam room at 42 to 48 degrees, while the Caldarium is a 40 degree hot bath rather than a room. The Tepidarium at 36 degrees is the grand bathing hall the whole building aims at, warm enough to stay in for a long time and quiet enough that nobody much wants to leave.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOutdoors, The Hideaway holds a marble Breathwork Pool at 12 to 17 degrees beside a waterfall, and the Tea Lounge closes the journey. Robes and slippers are provided and swimwear is required in the pools.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTen treatment rooms, and no third party skincare house anywhere in them. Eynsham Baths formulated its own line instead, five plant based oil remedies with names that tell you the register, being Walking On Air, The Calm That Slipped Away, Finding The Marbles, Little Song For The Self, and Going Inward, Moving Onward.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCouples are properly looked after. The Ceremony Suite is a self contained private spa with a warm marble stone bed, an adjoining double treatment room and a butler on call, at 240 minutes and £1,800 for two, and a separate double room hosts the Revelry of Renewal at £495 for two.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGarbh Sanskar pre and post natal massage runs 60 or 90 minutes at £195 or £280, with the Ananda Facial available from week 13, while before twelve weeks only Reiki is offered and the thermal spaces are not recommended at any stage of pregnancy. A male or female therapist can be requested, a substantial Advanced Wellness menu of IV infusions and boosters sits alongside all of it, and the Baths host periodic Kamalaya residential retreats.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEynsham Baths is not open to the public and there is no day pass at any price, so it is worth being completely clear about who can actually get in. Estelle Manor members have the Baths as part of membership, with the Thermal Journey complimentary to them and £95 for a member's guest, and anyone staying the night at Estelle Manor has access at £155 per person. That is the full list. One contradiction sits unresolved on the property's own site, where the FAQ gives £145 while the Eynsham Baths page and the brochure say £155.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSessions last three hours from four fixed starts at 9am, midday, 3pm and 6pm. The bathhouse runs 9am to 9pm daily with last entry at 8pm, treatments 11am to 7pm, and the Tea Lounge 9am to 8.30pm, with cancellations inside 24 hours charged in full.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bathhouse is 18 and over and mixed gender throughout, with swimwear required in the Thermal Journey and all public areas. Estelle Manor is entirely cashless, vouchers are sold, and dogs are not permitted in the Baths. The main bathing floor is below ground, reached by a wide oak staircase, so do raise it with the estate ahead of a stay if step free access matters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere is no public day access to Eynsham Baths at all, so the only routes in are Estelle Manor membership or a night at the hotel, and that has to be settled first.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe whole bathhouse is 18 and over and the estate's family provision sits elsewhere, so this is not a spa to build a family weekend around.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBathing runs to four fixed start times in three hour sessions capped at 35 guests, so the day gets planned around the Baths rather than the other way round.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePhotography is prohibited and phones are locked away for the whole session, which is lovely for the atmosphere and worth knowing for anyone who needs to stay reachable.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThermal spaces are not recommended at any stage of pregnancy, and before twelve weeks the only treatment offered is Reiki, subject to availability.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCouples, and solo bathers who want a full circuit done properly rather than a sauna and a swim. It suits an occasion, an overnight where the bathing is the reason for the trip, and international visitors basing themselves near Oxford.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54406692110677,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-35679311.jpg?v=1786552150"},{"product_id":"fieldhouse-spa-at-the-pig-in-the-cotswolds","title":"Fieldhouse Spa at THE PIG-in the Cotswolds","description":"\u003cp\u003eTHE PIG in the Cotswolds · Barnsley, nr Cirencester, Cotswolds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eSilver\u003c\/strong\u003e · 73%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Fieldhouse Spa at THE PIG in the Cotswolds is reached on foot through Rosemary Verey's Grade II listed gardens near Cirencester, so the walk is already part of the treatment. At the end of it sits a small heated outdoor hydrotherapy pool with nothing in front of it but open Cotswold fields.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe walk is the beginning of it. Rosemary Verey made these gardens, her first ever and now Grade II listed, so getting anywhere means crossing the knot garden and the laburnum walk with the honey stone seventeenth century house behind. Most spas begin with a corridor, while this one begins with gravel underfoot and the smell of cut box.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Fieldhouse itself sits on the edge of the fields, deliberately apart from the house, and it is new, built by THE PIG group and opened in 2024 as the group's first and only standalone spa. It looks nothing like the building it serves, being low and light filled and made of warm natural materials, with the unfussy calm of a place not trying to impress anybody. The first thing most people notice after changing is the sound, which is birdsong and wind in the hedge.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe shape of what follows is unusual and it is the whole point, because there is no circuit here. One sauna, one steam room and one small heated hydrotherapy pool, and the pool is outside. Nobody works their way through rooms, they choose between three good things and mostly choose the water, and sitting in warmth in the open air with cold Cotswold wind overhead is a completely different pleasure from a thermal journey.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBehind the water sits the therapy, which is the real reason to come. This is a treatment led spa of six to eight rooms depending which of THE PIG's own pages is open, and the work is consultation led, so somebody asks what the body is actually doing before deciding what to do about it. Therapists here get asked for by name.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBetween things there is the spa snug, being one relaxation room with field views and a garden terrace outside it, and something homemade arrives after every treatment without appearing on a bill. Everything is capped at eight people at a time because THE PIG says plainly that the space is cosy and would rather it stayed that way. Anyone who remembers the Elemis and CACI era spa at Barnsley House should know this is a different proposition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEverything wet here happens in miniature and mostly outdoors. The heated hydrotherapy pool is small, more a warm pocket set into the ground than a lap pool, and it faces open fields, which is exactly where this spa is at its best. One sauna and one steam room sit indoors and both are compact, showers are the standard changing room kind, and there is no indoor pool, no hammam and no ice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa snug is the one relaxation room, with field views, and a garden terrace runs outside it. Capacity across the sauna, steam room and pool is capped at eight at any one time, and swimwear is required in all three.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSix to eight treatment rooms, since THE PIG's own pages give both numbers, plus a nail offer. The house style is bespoke, so a proper conversation comes first and the treatment is shaped around the answer rather than applied identically to everybody.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUntil July 2026 the menu runs on a Bespoke Massage at 60 or 90 minutes for £135 and £185, hot stone work, an Upper Body Unwind for people who carry everything in their shoulders, two prescriptive facials and 90 minute wraps at £195, plus pregnancy massage. From August 2026 it moves to Rituals called Grounding, Restorative and Comforting alongside the Biome facials, at £148 and £193 or £158 and £203.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eProducts have been Tribe517, a family run natural skincare brand handcrafted in south Wales and suitable for anyone with nut based allergies, though the new menu keeps its own product house section, so it is worth asking which range is in the rooms. Therapists hold holistic cancer care training, and an oncology journey in the past five years is flagged in advance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Fieldhouse is open to residents and non residents alike and genuinely so, though everything runs by slot booked in advance. Non residents pay £60 per person for 120 minutes of the wet facilities, guests staying at The Village Pub across the road pay £30 for 60 minutes, and hotel residents get 60 minutes a day included. Treatments are booked separately and are open to everybody.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished hours differ between sources, with the treatment menu giving 8am to 7pm daily and the property's own FAQ giving 9am to 6pm, so confirm the slot when booking. Booking is online at thepighotel.com\/book\/spa, by phone on 01285 740000 or by email to fieldhouse@thepighotel.com, and card details are taken under a 72 hour cancellation policy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa asks guests to bring their own flip flops or flat sandals, deliberately, to cut single use waste, and a dressing gown, towel and locker are provided. The building sits across the grounds over gravel paths, so do call ahead if step free access matters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe thermal offer is genuinely light, being one sauna, one steam room and one small outdoor hydrotherapy pool with no indoor pool and no circuit, so two or three hours is the right length of visit rather than a whole day.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe wet area is capped at eight people and sold by slot booked in advance, which is why it never feels crowded and also why weekends go early.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe best of the Fieldhouse is outdoors, so the weather is part of the booking, and warm water under rain is glorious while a grey afternoon asks rather more of you.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Fieldhouse is over 18s only even though the hotel welcomes children, so a family can stay happily while only the adults use the spa.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere is no packaged spa day and no spa lunch, the offer being treatments plus a wet facilities slot.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCouples, and solo visitors who want to be left alone with a good therapist and a view. A lovely gift for somebody who loves gardens as much as spas.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54407602766165,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-29887394.jpg?v=1786552152"},{"product_id":"bamford-wellness-spa-cotswolds-daylesford","title":"Bamford Wellness Spa, Daylesford","description":"\u003cp\u003eDaylesford Organic Farm · Daylesford, Cotswolds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eGold\u003c\/strong\u003e · 89%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eBamford Wellness Spa at Daylesford has set a crystal at the centre of its sauna and run full windows along the back wall, so the heat arrives with an open view over a working organic farm. The field outside is the same ground that grew the lunch.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe approach runs through Daylesford Organic Farm itself, past the farmshop and the kitchen gardens and the orchard, and it does a surprising amount of work before anybody reaches the barns. The Cotswolds is full of spas in beautiful places, but very few sit inside a business that is genuinely growing food.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa occupies converted barns in Cotswold stone, extended and relaunched in 2021 from the two room Haybarn where the whole Bamford idea started. Inside there is pale wood, marble and unbleached linen, with tree roots and stone bowls and crystals set where another spa would put a vase, and water moving quietly somewhere out of sight. It reads as belief rather than styling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat Bamford leads with is hands and philosophy rather than plumbing, and it is completely unembarrassed about that. The Spring, being the wet spa, is three rooms and a pool that an hour will cover, while the real depth sits in the twelve treatment rooms around it. The ninety minute Bamford Signature moves through an Epsom salt foot ritual, shiatsu, Swedish work, heated chakra stones across the abdomen and Indian head massage before finishing with assisted yogic breathing, and most people lose track of the order somewhere in the middle.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen there is the other half of the building, which catches people out. A Medi Spa runs microneedling, Dermalux LED light therapy, hydra dermabrasion and ultrasound skin tightening, and Effect Doctors give intravenous infusions and intramuscular boosters a short walk from a crystal healing hut in the grounds. Bamford makes no attempt to reconcile the two and simply offers both, which is oddly the most honest thing about the place.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA daily programme runs alongside all of it, with yoga, Pilates including reformer, meditation, Qi Gong, breathwork and sound baths, some of it under a tipi in summer. Lunch at The Orchard Bar comes out of the ground everybody walked past on the way in, and phones, tablets and cameras are banned throughout, so the rooms stay quiet in a way most spas gave up on years ago. People leave slower than they arrived while the farm carries on working.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Spring is compact and beautifully judged for its size. The pool is warm rather than bracing and made for lying in, with two air loungers holding the body under the surface, volcano pads in the floor sending oxygen bubbles up past the spine, and swan neck jets delivering a heavy, insistent fall of water onto shoulders that have been holding on to something.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe steam room carries salt brine diffused through it, so the air arrives thick and faintly mineral and breathing opens by degrees. The sauna is the room people remember, though Bamford's own pages call it the herbal sauna while the printed guide reaches for another name, so take the label lightly and go for the room. A light filled relaxation space called Lavender looks over the orchard, and there is no outdoor thermal, no hammam and no ice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwelve candlelit treatment rooms work with Bamford's own COSMOS certified organic skincare throughout, and the line from field to bottle to skin is the whole proposition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe ninety minute signatures sit at £160, so B Silent is built for sleep, B Vibrant works with sound therapy and Citrine, and the Bamford Signature is the full holistic sweep. A full body massage is 60 minutes at £110, lymphatic drainage runs £120 or £170, pregnancy massage is £110, and facials follow a choose your facial structure of Awaken, Restore or Purity from £75 to £170.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTherapists reach across Japanese shiatsu, Thai style assisted stretching, hot and cold stone, reflexology and marma point work, and press coverage keeps returning to therapist intuition and to firm pressure when it is asked for. Alongside sit the Bamford Grooming Department for men, Kure Bazaar and Manucurist Green Flash for nails, and the Medi Spa courses.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eBamford is a day spa rather than a hotel spa, so everybody arriving is a day guest and there are no bedrooms attached to the building. Anyone wanting to stay books separately through Daylesford Stays, and quoting that booking reference brings preferential rates. Hours are Monday to Saturday 8.00am to 8.00pm and Sunday 8.30am to 5.30pm, with reduced hours over Christmas and New Year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTime in The Spring is bundled into every full spa day, can be added to a treatment, or bought on its own, though that standalone price last appeared in an older guide and is worth confirming on the phone. Spa days run from around £280 to £460, and B Restored at £460 is the full one, carrying a facial, a massage, a manicure or pedicure, an hour in The Spring and lunch, while Detox \u0026amp; Glow and B Clear sit at £280.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBooking runs through +44 (0)1608 731703, bamfordspa.cotswolds@bamford.co.uk, the Bamford Wellness App or bamford.com, with a credit card guaranteeing every booking and anything cancelled inside 24 hours charged in full. Robes and towels are provided, changing rooms are unisex, swimwear is required in The Spring, and phones stay in the locker.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe spa is wellness led rather than thermal led, with one hydro pool, one sauna and one steam room, so anybody who counts heat rooms will be counting a short list.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Spring is sold in a fixed sixty minute slot rather than as open all day access, and it is charged separately or bundled into a package, so the day works best planned around that hour.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe pool is a hydrotherapy pool for lying in rather than a swimming pool, so anyone hoping to put in lengths is better served elsewhere.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere are no bedrooms here, so an overnight stay is a separate booking through Daylesford Stays.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe children's policy here covers treatments rather than The Spring, so this is not a family swimming trip.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCouples, solo visits, two friends with a great deal to talk about, and gifting to somebody who cares more about the hands on their back than about counting saunas.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54407602897237,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-35451965.jpg?v=1786552142"},{"product_id":"the-house-spa-at-dormy-house","title":"The House Spa at Dormy House","description":"\u003cp\u003eDormy House (Farncombe Estate) · Broadway, Cotswolds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eLSE Selected\u003c\/strong\u003e · 60%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe House Spa at Dormy House, high on the escarpment above Broadway, runs a fire and ice thermal suite where a Himalayan salt sauna sits a few steps from an experience shower offering forest mist, tropical rain or arctic blast, and from a snow shower that falls in dense flakes. Pool and thermal use goes in timed sixty minute sessions, which is why a Cotswolds spa this well known still feels quiet.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eDormy House sits on the Cotswold escarpment inside the 400 acre Farncombe Estate, above Broadway, and the drive up does much of the unwinding before anyone has taken a robe off its hook. The house began as a seventeenth century farmhouse and wears a light Scandinavian touch now, so pale wood, wool and low lamplight stand where the chintz would usually be.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe House Spa carries the idea further. It is a boutique spa on a very large estate and it never sprawls, being a few beautifully finished rooms rather than a long circuit. The centrepiece is a sixteen metre indoor infinity pool, and the word earns itself here, because the water runs to a lip and stops with nothing beyond it but light off the valley. People float in it far longer than they meant to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOutside on the spa terrace a hydrotherapy pool keeps its jets running in open air, and warm moving water at the shoulders with cold air on the face is where a countryside spa justifies the journey.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHolding the day together is The Greenhouse, a glass walled lounge and café with fireside seating and a sun terrace, where a robe is correct dress and nobody hurries anybody, and spa days carry an allocation to spend there, so lunch belongs to the day rather than interrupting it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe decision that shapes everything is the timed session, since pool and thermal access runs in sixty minute blocks, which sounds restrictive on paper and is in practice why the rooms stay calm. The thermal suite is 16 and over at every hour too, and children reach the infinity pool only in two short booked windows.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa keeps local members alongside hotel guests, which is why the hotel will not fold it into an exclusive use buyout even when a party takes the whole house, and that is part of why it feels lived in rather than staged. The treatment side is led by Temple Spa and is unusually consistent, since every therapist trains in the same massage method. What Dormy House has built is a small, serious, warm spa on a big estate rather than a thermal palace to roam all day.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eWarm first is the sensible order, starting in the infinity pool until the limbs go loose, and then the heat arrives in two contrasting doses, the Himalayan salt sauna dry and mineral and faintly pink, the aromatic steam room wet and close and herbal enough to lean on. The experience shower offers a choice of weather in forest mist, tropical rain or arctic blast, and the arctic setting takes your breath in one gasp and hands it back brighter, while the snow shower drops real flakes onto warm shoulders.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFinish outdoors in the hydrotherapy pool with the jets going and the Cotswolds below. Two pools then, four heat and cold experiences between them, and a lounger area in The Bathing Room for the pause in the middle. There is no hammam and no ice room.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSix treatment rooms, one of them a double that can be requested at booking. Temple Spa is the house language, with four Aromatherapy Associates treatments alongside it, and every therapist trains in the Beata Aleksandrowicz massage method.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe signature is stated plainly by the property, being the Dormy House Head Spa, ninety minutes of Japanese style scalp and hair work at £175 using Tabitha JK products, with fifteen minutes and £20 more for very long hair, though it is not offered in pregnancy or over hair extensions. Beyond it the Champagne and Truffles anti ageing facial runs ninety minutes at £190 and The Golden Truffle Experience two hours at £235, the Wave Touch Massage puts a guest on a dry flotation bed under an LED canopy for twenty five minutes at £45, and the float tank holds 500kg of Epsom salts at £65 for the hour.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa is open daily from 7am to 7pm, with pool and thermal use in sixty minute sessions and treatments from 9am, closing at 5.30pm on the current spa page and a little later in the brochure.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnyone not staying the night comes in on a spa day rather than a facility ticket, booked online, from £120 per person. Morning Meander runs Sunday to Friday between 10.30am and 2pm and Afternoon Bliss Monday to Friday between 11.45am and 3pm, each with a £30 food allocation in The Greenhouse, two hours in the pool and thermal suite and a glass of prosecco or a smoothie, and no treatment at that price. Treatments alone belong to hotel guests. The thermal suite and every treatment are 16 and over, and children may use the infinity pool only from 9am to 10am and 3pm to 4pm, with an adult.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is lift access to the spa and The Greenhouse, accessible changing and a step free thermal suite, and the infinity pool is entered by a step ladder, so do call ahead if help getting into the water matters to you. Dogs roam most of the hotel happily but not the spa.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe thermal menu is compact rather than vast, being one sauna, one steam room and two showers, so this is depth of finish rather than breadth of circuit.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFacilities run in timed sixty minute sessions, which keeps the rooms calm and also means a day here cannot be spent drifting in and out of the water.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere is no facility only entry for day guests, so a spa day from £120 per person is the way in, and treatments alone are kept for people staying the night.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe thermal suite and all treatments are 16 and over and children have two short pool windows a day, so this is not a family splash about.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWeekends are the full end of the week and midweek is a noticeably emptier spa.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCouples wanting a beautifully finished small spa on a big estate, solo guests who would like to be left alone kindly, and anyone buying a milestone gift for someone whose tension sits in the scalp and shoulders.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54407602930005,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-13020533.jpg?v=1786552155"},{"product_id":"the-meadow-spa-at-thyme","title":"The Meadow Spa at Thyme","description":"\u003cp\u003eThyme, Southrop Manor Estate · Southrop, Cotswolds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eGold\u003c\/strong\u003e · 82%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Meadow Spa at Thyme swims in water that came out of the ground beneath it, a black slate outdoor pool in a walled garden at Southrop, drawn from a subterranean river some fifty metres down and filtered naturally through Cotswold limestone with no chlorine in it at all. It is the only pool here, and it opens seasonally through the warmer months.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThyme does not look like a spa and does not behave like one. There is no glass box and no price list hanging behind a reception desk, and instead there is a walled garden inside a 150 acre working estate, with a cluster of restored Cotswold stone outbuildings that guests move between on foot, in a robe, across grass and gravel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEach building does one job. The Greenhouse is tiled in green and white with a botanical water bar, and it is the room where shoulders come down without being asked. Meadow Cottage holds the treatment rooms, pea green walls and windows that look into planting. The Botanical Bothy is the concept space, with heated organic resin seating moulded to lie on and a private veranda beyond its door.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat is on offer is unusual and it is not a compromise. There is no heat journey at the Meadow Spa, meaning no sauna, no steam room, no hammam and no ice, and that is the design rather than an omission. The seduction here is cold spring water on skin, black slate underfoot, herbs in hot water beside a fire, meadow air, and hands trained to slow the breath down. Thyme makes its own botanicals from its own water meadows, so what is being sold is the ground itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe signature ritual says the same thing, beginning not with oil but with guided diaphragmatic breathing, and every treatment was designed by breathwork specialists, with a former doctor as founder and real thinking underneath the softness. Around it the estate keeps sheep, orchards, woodland and a two acre organic kitchen garden, where the chefs and the gardeners meet daily to decide what everyone will eat, and the poolside Orchid House pours kombucha, sparkling teas and house ice cream through the warmer months.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is also genuinely quiet, being adults only and small, so the loudest thing on a summer afternoon is a fountain or a blackbird. The catch is that a spa day here is hard to come by, since the Meadow Spa belongs to residents at weekends and the day experiences run midweek in summer only.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is one body of water and it carries the whole spa. The pool is open daily from 9.30am to 7pm through the warmer months, set against Cotswold stone with lawn beyond, chemical free and filtered biodynamically through limestone, and Thyme describes the water as pure enough to drink. Swimming in it in July, with the meadow going on in every direction, is the memory most guests take home, and skin comes out of it soft rather than tight.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeside the Botanical Bothy, on its private veranda, sit two herbal soaking baths next to an open fire, so hot botanical water and cold Cotswold air reach you at the same moment, and inside the Bothy the heated resin loungers hold their warmth. Out of season there is no swimming at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe treatment rooms sit in Meadow Cottage looking into the planting, and the Botanical Bothy can be taken alone or as a pair. Bertioli is Thyme's own botanical brand, and Aurelia London probiotic skincare comes in under an exclusive partnership.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Botanical Bothy Signature Ritual, called Breath, Scent, Nature, runs ninety minutes at £245, moving through breathwork, pressure point work, lymphatic body brushing, a hair wash and a head massage before finishing in a warm herbal bath on the veranda, taken in swimwear. Bertioli Breathe, Nurture \u0026amp; Restore runs sixty or ninety minutes at £165 or £205, the Thyme Body Massage with warm stones is ninety minutes at £205, the Aurelia London Probiotic Facial sixty minutes at £155 and the Aurelia Ritual for Skin, Body \u0026amp; Mind ninety minutes at £215, with a discretionary 12.5% service charge added. Pregnancy treatments are given from the second trimester, and gel polish is neither applied nor removed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAccess is narrow and worth settling before anything else gets planned. The Meadow Spa is for residents only at weekends, on Bank Holidays and between 26 December and 4 January, and that rule runs all year rather than only in season. Day guests come midweek only, Monday to Thursday, June to September and excluding bank holidays, and only by booking one of three Summer Spa Experiences, the Bertioli or the Aurelia at £275 per person or the Botanical Bothy at £305, each with a treatment, lunch in the Orchid House and use of the spring water pool. There is no facilities only or pool only day pass at any time of year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBooking is by request rather than instant confirmation, through a form at thyme.co.uk, a call to 01367 850174 or an email to spa@thyme.co.uk, with a waitlist running through the residents only periods. Staying is the simpler route, with 31 bedrooms across the estate from around £430 a night including breakfast.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe buildings are reached on foot across a garden and the estate has gravel drives and uneven farm paths, so do speak to the team before travelling if mobility matters to you. Thyme lends crocs instead of slippers, and the estate is cashless.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere is no heat journey of any kind, meaning no sauna, no steam room, no hammam and no hydrotherapy pool, so anyone who measures a spa by its thermal circuit should look elsewhere.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe single pool sits outdoors and opens seasonally, so out of the warmer months there is no swimming at all and the day becomes treatments, the Bothy and the quiet.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDay access is deliberately small, running Monday to Thursday from June to September on a package from £275 per person, with weekends, Bank Holidays and the Christmas period kept for residents.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBooking is by email request rather than instant confirmation, and the Botanical Bothy is small and fills quickly, so dates that matter want asking about early.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe spa is adults only, with treatments from 16 and the pool open to accompanied 12 to 16 year olds, and the buildings sit apart across grass and gravel.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCouples who want to disappear for a few days, solo guests who would rather be left entirely alone, and gifts for anyone who cares about gardens, food, provenance and quiet in roughly that order.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54407602962773,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-11857437.jpg?v=1786552158"},{"product_id":"c-side-spa-at-cowley-manor-experimental","title":"C-Side Spa at Cowley Manor Experimental","description":"\u003cp\u003eCowley Manor Experimental · Cowley, nr Cheltenham, Cotswolds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eLSE Selected\u003c\/strong\u003e · 62%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eC-Side Spa sits in fifty five acres of parkland outside Cheltenham and keeps a heated outdoor pool open all year, so a swim in February happens with steam lifting off the surface and bare Cotswold trees round the edge. In summer the same pool grows its own bar with waiter service.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eC-Side Spa at Cowley Manor Experimental is sunk into the hillside, a low pavilion of Cotswold stone and full height glass sitting a little apart from the Italianate manor above it. The manor is Grade II listed and nineteenth century, reimagined by Dorothée Meilichzon with a thread of Alice in Wonderland running through it, playful and saturated and quite unlike a country house hotel. The spa is the calm end of that conversation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInside, the defining move is the glass. The indoor pool runs seventeen metres, lined in slate so the water reads dark and still, and one whole wall of it is window onto woodland. Swimming happens towards trees, with summer light arriving through the leaves in pieces and winter putting bare branches and frost a few feet from your shoulder.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe outdoor pool is the thing to build a visit around. It measures fourteen to fifteen metres depending which of the hotel's own pages is open, it is heated and it stays open all year, so cold air lands on wet shoulders while everything below stays warm and the listed gardens, lake and parkland go on doing nothing in particular alongside. In the warmer months a seasonal pool bar opens with waiter service and the place turns sociable and faintly lido like. This is not a hushed spa and does not want to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe heat offer is deliberately modest, being one sauna and one steam room and nothing beyond them, so C-Side belongs to people who come to swim and to lie by water for a whole afternoon, with heat as punctuation rather than the sentence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFour treatment rooms carry the other half of it, working with Biologique Recherche and Oskia, which is results led skincare rather than scented drift, and a gym sits alongside with Pilates, Core Flow, Aqua Fit, a walking club and tree bathing around it. What makes C-Side unusually easy to reach is that it works as a genuine day spa as well as a hotel spa, open from a £95 facility pass up to a full day at £220, with local members swimming alongside residents.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo heated pools carry this spa and both earn the drive. The indoor pool is seventeen metres and slate lined, with floor to ceiling glass onto the woodland, so the water reads dark and the light comes in green. The outdoor pool measures fourteen to fifteen metres across the hotel's own sources, is heated all year and gains sunloungers, waiter service and its own bar in season.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHeat is one sauna and one steam room, with no hot tub, no hydrotherapy pool, no hammam and no ice. Relaxation happens on loungers beside the water, and swimwear is required in the pools and in the heat rooms alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eFour treatment rooms plus an express and nail bar, running on Biologique Recherche and Oskia. The Cowley Ritual is the flagship at 90 minutes and £190, and the Cowley Mindful signature massage runs 60 or 90 minutes at £125 and £185. The Biologique Recherche High Performance Facial is 75 minutes at £175 and starts with a proper dermo cosmetic reading of the skin rather than a guess, the Oskia Signature Nutri Glow is 90 minutes at £175, and Muscle Melt at £140 is the one to book after a long drive with your shoulders somewhere near your ears.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTherapists work across deep tissue, lymphatic drainage, Indian head massage and reflexology, with an Oskia Mother to Be treatment for twelve to thirty six weeks.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eC-Side is genuinely open to non residents, with more ways in than most hotel spas offer. Recharge is £95 for the facilities from 11am to 3pm, Twilight Spa is £115 Monday to Thursday, Half Day Spa and Half Day PM are £160 each and Daylight Spa is £220 with a 90 minute treatment and lunch. Pool Bar Access at £40 covers 6 to 8pm with a robe and towel, the ticketed over 18s Late Night Spa evenings are also £40, and membership is public at Bronze £1,250, Silver £1,300 and Gold £2,200 a year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHours are Monday to Thursday 7.30am to 9pm, Friday 7.30am to 8pm, and Saturday and Sunday 8am to 8pm. Treatments and the Recharge pass book online, while the Half Day, Daylight and Twilight packages go through relax@cowleymanor.com or 01242 870900. Booking treatments ahead matters here, because walking up on the day and hoping is optimistic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRobes, towels and flip flops come with a spa day, and dining is in the main hotel restaurant led by Jackson Boxer. On getting about, there is a step free route to the indoor pool area and the treatment rooms are accessible with height adjustable beds, while entry to the pool itself is by steps with a grab bar and no hoist, so do call ahead.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe heat offer is two experiences and no more, being one sauna and one steam room with no hot tub, hammam or ice, so this is a spa to swim in rather than a circuit to work through.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe wet area is compact for the residents, day guests and members it serves, so it can feel full at peak times, and weekday mornings and the Twilight slot are the quieter ways in.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRelaxation happens on loungers beside the pools rather than in a separate darkened room, which suits people who like light and water and suits less well anyone wanting somewhere dim.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe spa is not reliably adults only, because children of hotel guests and members swim between 8 and 11am and between 3.30 and 5pm, so guaranteed grown up quiet means booking outside those windows.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlcohol runs through the offer by way of the pool bar and the cocktail club, and the spa cannot be taken exclusively even by a party booking the house.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCouples, and friends who want a spa day that talks rather than whispers, especially in summer when the outdoor pool and its bar come into their own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54407603093845,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-8680882.jpg?v=1786552144"},{"product_id":"aquarias-spa-at-whatley-manor","title":"Aquarias Spa at Whatley Manor","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhatley Manor Hotel \u0026amp; Spa · Easton Grey, nr Malmesbury, Cotswolds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eSilver\u003c\/strong\u003e · 72%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAquarias Spa at Whatley Manor near Malmesbury is built around a single hydrotherapy pool that starts indoors and carries on out through the wall into the open air, with a Roman style thermal suite of five heat experiences around it. Twenty three bedrooms and an adults only rule keep it quiet, and there is a one Michelin star dining room on site.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhatley Manor is an Elizabethan manor house in twelve acres of landscaped garden on the southern edge of the Cotswolds, and the first thing to understand about the spa is the deliberate absence of scale. Twenty three bedrooms, adults only, and a wet area built for roughly the number of people actually on the property. What that produces is a slightly luxurious sensation of expecting to have to share and then not having to, and it is why the people who know this spa are quietly protective of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAquarias thinks in Roman terms, which means the sequence matters more than the inventory, so the rooms are arranged to ask something slightly different of a body in turn rather than to be counted up. Five heat experiences and one hydrotherapy pool is not a long list by Cotswolds standards and Whatley has not tried to make it one, choosing instead to make each part good enough to stay in for a long time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat lifts this beyond a very good country house spa is what sits next door to it. Whatley Manor holds one Michelin star in The Dining Room and runs the more relaxed Grey's Brasserie alongside it, and very few spas in Britain let a day travel from a heated stone recliner to cooking of that standard without much more than a change of clothes. It makes a spa day here less a treatment with lunch attached and more one continuous day designed as a single piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe estate holds gold level sustainability certification and it shows in the texture of the place rather than in signage. The register inside the spa is serene rather than showy, and it is quiet almost all of the time, though it is small enough that a full complement of day guests changes how it feels, so midweek is where the character sits at its purest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa lounge looks out over the pool with food and drink arriving without ceremony, and the whole thing is designed for two people or for one rather than for a group. That is a real choice, and it is why the people who do come tend to come back.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eWarm, then warmer, then out into cold air with the shoulders still steaming. The single pool is why the sequence works, starting indoors with an airbed, an air tub, neck massage jets and an air bench fizzing away underneath, then carrying on out through a gap in the wall into the open, where multi massage jets take over and there is suddenly sky, cold on a wet face, and garden all around. It is about thirty seconds of transition and people remember it for years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFive heat rooms surround it. The tepidarium is the heart of them, with heated mosaic recliners moulded to the shape of a person, where the warmth is radiant rather than airborne and twenty minutes does more than an hour of most things. The calidarium takes the temperature up, the steam grotto is dense and wet, the laconium is dry and gentle, and the infrared sauna works from the inside out so the skin stays cool while something deeper gives. Salt scrub and experience showers sit alongside them, with a spa garden and terrace outside. Sources differ a little on the exact composition, so do ask at booking if one particular room is the reason for the trip.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eFive treatment rooms, plus a VIP Suite with its own private hot tub, which is where the Heart to Heart Spa Day happens, a full body massage and facial for two together at £495 midweek.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo houses share the menu and they do different jobs. Sothys brings the precision, with the Hydra Hyaluronic Acid 4 Facial named as the Aquarias signature at 60 minutes and £150 and the Sothys Organics Face and Body Ritual at £145. GAIA brings the mood, with the Awakening Journey at 90 minutes and £190, the Calming Journey at £135 and a bespoke body massage from £120. Hot stones run only from September to May, which is exactly right because they belong to cold months.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePregnancy work is thought through rather than tacked on, with the Mother Gaia Ritual and pregnancy massage offered from the second trimester and nothing in the first, and the thermal cabins and hydro jets are not recommended in pregnancy. There is no residential programme, but weekly yoga and Pilates classes run, and the Midweek Wellness Spa Day Retreat is £130 per person.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa and gym open daily from 8am to 8pm. Hotel residents have the spa from 1pm on arrival day until 1pm on departure day, and non residents are genuinely welcome, booking by package rather than by the hour.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe way in starts with the Awaken and Restore Morning Spa at £70 per person from Monday to Thursday and £85 on Friday and Saturday, running 8.30 to 11.30am with three hours of the facilities, a pastry and a hot drink, which is a remarkably gentle entry point for a spa of this standard. Above it the Twilight Spa Retreat is £125 per person with dinner in Grey's. Booking is online, by phone or by email, and gift vouchers are sold. Sixteen and over for the spa and gym, eighteen and over for every treatment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA ramp can be placed over the single step at the spa entrance, the ground floor is wheelchair accessible, and there is a lift to all floors. Whatley states plainly that a pool hoist is not available, so do call ahead if help into the water matters. Service dogs only inside the spa, and alcohol is part of the offer here.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere is one pool and it is a hydrotherapy pool rather than somewhere to swim lengths, so anyone whose spa day is built around a proper swim should look elsewhere.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe wet area is compact by design, which is exactly what keeps it calm, but it is a spa to settle into rather than one to explore.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdults only and firmly so, at sixteen and over for the spa and eighteen for every treatment, with no family provision at all.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIt is quiet almost all of the time, though a full complement of day guests fills a spa of this size, so midweek is when it is most itself.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNot the place for a lively group day out, because the whole design assumes twos and ones and quiet.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCouples marking something, and solo guests who want silence with excellent food attached. It suits a romantic overnight where dinner is as much the point as the water, and a restorative midweek morning for anyone who can take a Tuesday off.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54407603290453,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-14973506.jpg?v=1786552140"},{"product_id":"the-spa-at-ellenborough-park","title":"The Spa at Ellenborough Park","description":"\u003cp\u003eEllenborough Park · Cheltenham, Cotswolds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eLSE Selected\u003c\/strong\u003e · 64%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Spa at Ellenborough Park, in parkland outside Cheltenham, keeps a private outdoor spa garden that one group books entirely to itself, with a hot tub, a Scandinavian sauna, an ice bath, loungers and a Taittinger Champagne yacht box reported as the only one on dry land. The Spa Garden Retreat takes two guests or up to twelve, and the gate stays shut behind them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe drive comes up through ninety acres of parkland at the foot of Cleeve Hill, with Cheltenham Racecourse below and a fifteenth century manor house arriving ahead in honey stone and mullioned windows. Inside, the country house register gives way to something less predictable, because the interiors are Indian in feeling, a nod to the Earl of Ellenborough who was once Governor General of India.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa follows the same logic and is small and warm rather than cool and cathedral like. The hotel's own word for it is intimate, which is accurate rather than evasive, since the indoor thermal area is a handful of rooms rather than a circuit, holding a jacuzzi to sink into, a sauna, a steam room and curved showers, with one relaxation room beyond them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat lifts the place is that it does not keep anybody indoors. The heated pool is outside, fifteen metres of it, open every month of the year on a terrace a short walk from the house across the grass, and January turns the walk over into part of the appeal, with breath showing on the way and warm water and cold parkland air waiting at the other end. Beyond the spa the estate keeps a Dubarry boot room for borrowing wellies, an outdoor chess board and a private track down to the racecourse.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Spa Garden Retreat is hired privately by the hour and reorganises a visit around itself, because ninety minutes with nobody else in the garden is a different proposition from sharing a thermal suite with a hotel. The treatment side is Elemis done properly across both the hands on rituals and the device work, and the Japanese head spa, which opens with scalp analysis, is quietly the most interesting thing on the list.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo practical truths shape a visit, being that guests staying in the hotel do not book facility slots in advance, so a full house at a weekend arrives in the thermal rooms at once, and that the racecourse next door makes Festival week the loudest and priciest of the year. Read Ellenborough for what it is, a characterful country house spa at human scale with one exceptional outdoor asset attached, rather than a large thermal destination.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndoors is short and sweet. The jacuzzi doubles as the hydrotherapy pool and it is a small one, the sort shared companionably rather than swum across, with the sauna and the steam room alongside it and curved sensation showers, which the hotel's own accessibility notes call mood showers, giving the sharp rinse in between. The Relaxation Karma Room comes afterwards, with a day bed, weathered mirrors and an iced water bar.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOutdoors is where the water gets serious. The heated pool runs fifteen metres, between 950 and 1350mm deep, entered down steps with a handrail on one side, and it is open during daylight hours in every month of the year. The Spa Garden Retreat sits apart from all of this and is charged separately from a spa day, so its heat and its cold belong to whoever has booked the garden. There is no indoor swimming pool at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeven rooms in total, six of them reached by lift and the seventh a dual room up a flight of eight narrow carpeted stairs, which is also the only one with natural light.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eElemis runs throughout, across two tracks. The hands on Expert Touch side covers the Expert Touch Facial, the Absolute Face and Body Ritual and a bespoke full body massage, while the Expert Tech side works the BIOTEC devices, from ultrasonic peel and microcurrent to LED masking, priced from £120 to £155. The Peaceful Pregnancy Massage is given on a pear shaped bean bag from twelve weeks. Jessica looks after nails, waxing and tinting start at £14, and anything added during a spa day comes with 20% off. The brochure notes that gel polish cannot be removed here, which is worth knowing before arriving wearing it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEntry is package based. Day guests are welcome, but only on a booked spa day or package, since the hotel states plainly that only hotel guests and guests booked on a spa package may use the spa facilities, so there is no facility ticket at the door, and booking goes through the OneJourney portal, on 01242 545426 or by email to spa@ellenboroughpark.com.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa is 16 and over at every hour, opening 10am to 6pm Monday to Friday, 10am to 7pm on Saturday and 8.30am to 6pm on Sunday, with the outdoor pool open during daylight hours all year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpa days start at £99 per person for Revive \u0026amp; Glow from Monday to Thursday, with a twenty five minute treatment and full use of the facilities, and Indulge is £170 with a fifty minute treatment and lunch. Spa Garden Retreat packages start at £145, exclusive hire from £249 for ninety minutes for up to six guests, and the indoor spa and garden together from £999 as the Ellenborough Exclusive Evening.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe treatment floor is served by a lift, the main entrance has two steps with a portable ramp and the outdoor pool is entered by steps with a handrail on one side, so do call ahead if any of that matters to you. Cheltenham Spa station is about thirteen minutes away by car.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe indoor thermal area is genuinely small and hotel guests do not book facility slots in advance, so a busy weekend arrives all at once and midweek is the calmer choice.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere is no indoor swimming pool, so the swimming is outdoors on the terrace, a short walk from the house, glorious in July and a proper commitment in January.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Spa Garden Retreat is a separate booking at extra cost on top of a spa day, so it is worth budgeting for from the start.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDay guests need a booked spa day or package rather than a facility ticket, and the spa is 16 and over throughout, so a family staying at the hotel will find the day splits in two.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe racecourse sits next door, so the Cheltenham Festival and the big meetings bring noise, crowds and the highest rates of the year.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCouples, a romantic overnight in the Cotswolds, a small group of friends who would rather have a private garden than a big spa, and anyone buying a gift with the Spa Garden Retreat in mind.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54407604994389,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-34155276.jpg?v=1786552160"},{"product_id":"calcot-spa","title":"Calcot Spa","description":"\u003cp\u003eCalcot Manor (Calcot \u0026amp; Spa), part of the Calcot Collection · Calcot, nr Tetbury, Cotswolds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eLSE Selected\u003c\/strong\u003e · 61%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCalcot Spa near Tetbury does its best work outdoors, in a Recovery Garden of infrared saunas and cold plunge baths set around an open fire, and in an eight seat hot tub in a lavender lined courtyard beside a second wood fire. Both run all year, inside 220 acres of rewilded, biodynamic certified Cotswold estate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCalcot has been a name in this corner of the Cotswolds for decades, and the interesting thing now is how little it wants to compete on the terms other spas use. The spa has its own building in a quiet part of the estate, well away from the sixteenth century Grade II listed farmhouse, so getting there means a walk across the grounds. Inside it is timber and neutral light, and it smells of wood and outside air rather than chlorine, which regular spa goers register within about four seconds.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 2024 expansion turned a well liked hotel spa into something with a point of view, adding a spa lounge, a deep relax room, a spa snug and a café that looks straight out at the courtyard fire, bringing in Comfort Zone and Proverb, and opening the 280 square metre Grain Store gym with a serious class timetable. The water that came of it is broad rather than deep, and the real invention happens outside.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat surrounds all of this is 220 acres of biodynamic certified land that Calcot is actively rewilding, with 21,930 native trees planted, wildflower meadows, Belted Galloway cattle, beehives and a resident naturalist who takes guests out at dawn to listen to the birds. There is a 3.3km running track and complimentary bikes, and the spa assumes a good spa day might include a long muddy walk.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe honest headline is a nuance rather than a flaw. Calcot is one of Britain's most genuinely family friendly luxury hotels, with an Ofsted registered crèche taking children from newborn, a supervised space for older ones, a pirate ship and tennis, and yet the spa building itself is adults only for roughly eleven of its fourteen daily hours. Two moods run side by side on one estate, and knowing which one you have booked into makes all the difference.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe register is unpretentious country house rather than high gloss minimalism, warm and outdoorsy and a bit muddy round the edges in the best way. Most of the team live within twelve miles of the estate and many have been here a long time, so the same faces tend to be there year on year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe sequence Calcot rewards runs warm indoors and then deliberately out into the cold. The indoor pool is 16 metres by 7, level decked and a constant 1.2 metres deep, held at 30 degrees and lit end to end by daylight, and that constant depth makes it somewhere to stand about and talk quietly rather than swim lengths in. One sauna and one steam room run from 7am to 9pm, with a spa lounge and deep relax rooms alongside.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOutside is where it gets interesting. In the Recovery Garden the radiant heat gives way to a plunge that takes the breath in one clean gasp and hands it back brighter, and standing steaming afterwards in Gloucestershire weather is the point rather than the price of admission. The courtyard tub seats eight and runs all year, and a heated outdoor pool opens from roughly May to mid September. There is no hammam and no hydrotherapy pool.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeven treatment rooms, with more added in the 2024 refurbishment. Comfort Zone and Proverb are the core houses, alongside Aromatherapy Associates, CACI for face technology and Jessica for nails. The Signature Face and Body Ritual is the full length statement at 110 minutes and £250 midweek, and the Himalayan Salt Ritual runs 55 minutes from £140.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe reason to look past the headline names is who the menu is built for. Pause and Reset is designed for peri menopause and menopause, which is rarer on a spa list than it ought to be, pregnancy and post natal work is offered from fourteen weeks, and there are oncology aware therapists for guests during or after cancer treatment. CACI covers microcurrent, LED, galvanic and microdermabrasion between £115 and £180, advanced without being medical. Beyond the rooms the Grain Store runs eight styles of yoga plus Pilates, barre and sound healing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa and indoor pool run 7am to 9pm daily, sauna and steam room the same, and treatments from 9am, though the website and the 2026 brochure differ by half an hour at the end.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDay access is sold as prepaid packages rather than a facilities only pass, opening at £120 per person for the midweek Mini Evening Spa and rising to a Tailored Day at £320, with food built into every level. Booking is online or on 01666 891232, everything is prepaid, and packages want seven days' notice to cancel. Residents booking direct have unlimited spa access, and gift vouchers cover every package.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorth asking when you book, the Recovery Garden sits administratively with the Grain Store rather than with the spa, so confirm it is inside the package if it is the reason for the trip.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAccess is well documented for a period property, with disabled parking at the spa entrance, a ramp at the main door, a step free ground floor and a pool hoist. Service dogs only inside the spa.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIndoors the heat offer is light, being one sauna and one steam room, so this spa's character lives outdoors, which suits some people far better than others.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere is no facilities only day pass, so day access means a prepaid package with a treatment and usually food attached, from £120 per person.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe fireside hot tub seats eight and is the most wanted spot on the estate, so a short wait is possible at busy times.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUnder 14s use the pool in two short daily windows while the thermal areas stay adults only at every hour, so timing the day matters.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe wider estate is emphatically family friendly, so anyone wanting an adults only world from car park to car park will not find it here.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCouples and pairs of friends who want a spa day with weather, a walk and a fire in it, gift givers after something with more character than a treatment list, and anyone drawn to cold water contrast therapy done properly outdoors.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54407605944661,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-14436987.jpg?v=1786552336"},{"product_id":"the-cowshed-spa-at-soho-farmhouse","title":"The Cowshed Spa at Soho Farmhouse","description":"\u003cp\u003eSoho Farmhouse (Soho House) · Great Tew, nr Chipping Norton, Cotswolds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eGold\u003c\/strong\u003e · 81%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSoho Farmhouse has done something nobody else in Britain has thought of and sunk four private stone bathing tubs into its lake, so you soak at 38°C in water thick with mineral salt while the surface of the lake sits an arm's length away at shoulder height. Each tub has its own canopy, its own cold shower and a telephone for ordering a cocktail, and nobody is within earshot. People book the Cowshed for this alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe estate takes cars away at the gate, which turns out to be the first good decision the place makes for its guests. A hundred acres of Oxfordshire lie between the gate and the Farmyard, crossed by bicycle or on a milk float, past the boating lake and the kitchen gardens and the stables, and the journey does its work, because by the time you arrive you are moving at the speed of the place rather than your own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe architecture is farm, being barns and whitewashed huts and timber cabins, all done with enormous care and no reverence at all. The spa itself sits in the Farmyard, and it is lovely, but it is not the reason people cross the country to come here.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe reason is the Lazy Lake. Bathers choose their salt, Epsom or magnesium flakes or Himalayan, and settle in, and the heat closes over the shoulders while the lake goes on being a lake in every direction. On the bank sit three circular sauna cabins that pair infrared with rock tower heaters, so the heat arrives from two directions at once and settles into the muscle rather than sitting on the skin, and alongside them a steam room and an ice room where the air feels solid for the first three seconds and then simply clarifying. The Wellness Barn nearby keeps four ice baths for the brave, ten minutes for ten pounds, and people come out of them grinning.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe whole circuit is outdoors, and that is the design rather than an oversight. Rain improves it and winter improves it more. Phones and cameras are banned around the lake and the ban is genuinely kept, so the soundtrack is water and the odd cabin door and a lot of people not performing for anyone. Then there is the Boathouse, where a 135ft pool runs from inside a barn straight out into the open air and stays at 35°C all year, so a January swim starts indoors and ends under the sky with steam rising around your head.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe treatment list goes far deeper than a countryside property has any business going, from Cowshed's own botanical range all the way to the Lazy Lab's doctor reviewed blood diagnostics, and the mood through all of it is sociable and unbothered rather than hushed. It is a countryside club rather than a temple, but in a tub in the lake with the light going it is as still as anywhere in England.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Lazy Lake runs in timed two hour slots, with a cold shower at every tub and the sauna cabins, steam room and ice room on the bank all included in the two hours. The Wellness Barn keeps four ice baths at £10 for ten minutes, and the Boathouse pool is open to ages 15 and up. Day beds sit out over the water, some treatments are given on sheltered decking in the open air, and each tub has a telephone for ordering food and drink without getting out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is no hammam, no experience showers and no indoor thermal circuit. What is here lives outdoors, depends on the weather, and is extraordinary.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThirteen private treatment rooms plus four mani pedi chairs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Lazy Lake experience is £70 a person for two hours, or £105 with the Omorovicza upgrade and a private lounge. The Moor Mud Ritual is the headline at £325, being two hours of Omorovicza full body work with a mud wrap, sound healing and copper gua sha. Cowshed's Signature Massage starts at £90 for 30 minutes and £150 for the hour, the Bespoke+ facial is 90 minutes from £200, the Omorovicza Performance HydraFacial is 90 minutes from £290 and the Rejuvenate \u0026amp; Sculpt face and body ritual is 90 minutes from £265.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe massage menu goes far deeper than most hotel spas bother with, from Swedish and deep tissue through to Brazilian lymphatic drainage, reflexology and reiki. Mothers to be are looked after properly from twelve weeks, anyone living with or beyond cancer can book through the Jennifer Young range, which is a quietly wonderful thing for a spa to offer, and the menu reaches into Ayurvedic technique, facial sculpting and buccal massage as well. The therapists work with Cowshed's own botanical range alongside SkinCeuticals, Omorovicza, The Light Salon, FaceGym and Dimple Amani's Ayurvedic techniques. Ask for a female or male therapist when you book and they will sort it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Lazy Lab is its own world of hyperbaric oxygen from £110 an hour, a red light bed from £70 for half an hour, and IV infusions running from an Express Mini at £190 up to NAD+ at £875. Body Brilliant blood diagnostics start at £250 for seventy or more biomarkers and reach £1,595 for the three hundred marker longevity panel, each one reviewed by a doctor and turned into a personal plan.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a private members' club and there is no day pass at any price, so it is worth being completely clear about who can actually get through the gate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSoho House members have the spa as part of membership and can bring up to three guests any day of the week, and a guest can book treatments so long as the member is having one too, which means a non member genuinely can spend the day here without a bedroom. Anyone staying the night is in, with 114 bedrooms and cabins across the Piglets, Farmhuts, studios and riverside cabins. Soho Friends membership at £100 a year opens the House and the spa during a bedroom stay. That is the full list, and a Cowshed gift card, valid here though it is, confers no right of entry on its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMembers and Soho Friends book through the Soho House app under Wellness or at spa.cowshed.com after signing in, and guests of members should call 01608 691000 or email healthclub.farmhouse@sohohouse.com. A card secures the booking, with 24 hours' notice needed or the treatment is charged in full, and the Lazy Lake wants booking a long way out as peak weekend slots go close to a month ahead.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa and the Lazy Lab run 10.00 to 20.00 daily with the lake bookable across the same hours, weather permitting. The gym opens 06.30 to 22.00 and the House itself 07.00 to 01.00. The Health Club is 16 and over throughout, with 16 to 18s treated with parental consent, the Boathouse pool is 15 and over and the Teeny Pool belongs to the under 15s. Robes are provided, and phones, cameras and laptops stay in the locker.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn getting about, there is an accessible toilet in the spa, accessible changing and a passenger lift at the Boathouse, two blue badge bays and an accessible milk float on request from reception. The Lazy Lake sits on a small island reached by a footbridge and the main square is pebbled, so do call ahead if step free routing matters to you and they can plan the day around it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe public cannot book this spa. Entry needs Soho House membership, an invitation from a member, or a bedroom booking with Soho Friends, and there is no day pass at any price, so this is the first thing to settle before any plans get made.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe thermal circuit is outdoors and depends on the weather. In the cold and the rain that is the whole joy of it, but it is not a guaranteed wet weather retreat.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBook a long way ahead, because four tubs in timed two hour slots means peak summer weekends go close to a month out. Weekdays are a much calmer place.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe spa is 16 and over even though the House around it is built for families, so expect a clean split between the family end of the estate and the quiet end.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA gift card is not a ticket. Cowshed cards are redeemable here but the membership or the bedroom has to come first.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCouples and a romantic night in a cabin, two or three friends who will book the lake and stay in it all afternoon, and visitors from abroad who want the most distinctive thermal experience in the British countryside.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54407610401109,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-18285437.jpg?v=1786537127"}],"url":"https:\/\/luxuryspaescapes.com\/es\/collections\/spas-in-the-cotswolds.oembed","provider":"Luxury Spa Escapes","version":"1.0","type":"link"}