The Spa at Ellenborough Park

Ellenborough Park · Cheltenham, Cotswolds

Our assessment: LSE Selected · 64%

The one thing

The 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.

The verdict

The 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.

The 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.

What 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.

The 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.

Two 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.

The water

Indoors 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.

Outdoors 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.

Treatments

Seven 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.

Elemis 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.

Getting in

Entry 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.

The 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.

Spa days start at £99 per person for Revive & 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.

The 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.

What to know before you fall in love

• The 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.
• There 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.
• The 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.
• Day 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.
• The racecourse sits next door, so the Cheltenham Festival and the big meetings bring noise, crowds and the highest rates of the year.

Best for

Couples, 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.