C-Side Spa at Cowley Manor Experimental

The one thing

C-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.

The verdict

C-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.

Inside, 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.

The 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.

The 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.

Four 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, from a facility pass up to a full day, with local members swimming alongside residents.

The water

Two 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.

Heat 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.

Treatments

Four treatment rooms plus an express and nail bar, running on Biologique Recherche and Oskia. The Cowley Ritual is the flagship at 90 minutes, and the Cowley Mindful signature massage runs 60 or 90 minutes. The Biologique Recherche High Performance Facial is 75 minutes and starts with a proper dermo cosmetic reading of the skin rather than a guess, the Oskia Signature Nutri Glow is 90 minutes, and Muscle Melt is the one to book after a long drive with your shoulders somewhere near your ears.

Therapists work across deep tissue, lymphatic drainage, Indian head massage and reflexology, with an Oskia Mother to Be treatment for twelve to thirty six weeks.

Getting in

C-Side is genuinely open to non residents, with more ways in than most hotel spas offer. Recharge covers the facilities from 11am to 3pm, Twilight Spa runs Monday to Thursday evenings, Half Day Spa and Half Day PM split the day, and Daylight Spa is the full stretch with a 90 minute treatment and lunch. Pool Bar Access covers 6 to 8pm with a robe and towel, ticketed over 18s Late Night Spa evenings run on selected dates, and membership is open in Bronze, Silver and Gold tiers.

Hours 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.

Robes, 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.

What to know before you fall in love

• The 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.
• The 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.
• Relaxation 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.
• The 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.
• Alcohol 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.

Best for

Couples, 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.