you are here: 2009 spa guideCradle Mountain Lodge
Northern Tasmania is dramatic and mysteriously beautiful. Stay here, at this splendidly secluded lodge, on the edge of one of the country’s most stunning national parks and revel in pristine wilderness walks, streams, wildflowers, meadows, mountains, horse trails, fly-fishing and peace perfect peace. Your back-to-nature cabin is eco-cool and cosy – open fires and a hot-tub on your private verandah. And the spa is a true oasis where your feet are ritually scrubbed and then massaged with sweet frangipani oil. There’s an icy plunge-pool area (with plates of fat little fruits and cold Arras pinot noir/chardonnay on hand), sauna and steamroom and naturally good Elemis treatments ranging from fennel and birch peels to ginger and lime scrubs and oxygen facials. Don’t miss the Enchanted Walk before breakfast – which is undemanding enough for the unfit – and you might come across Percy the platypus.
Tasmania, Australia
Double, from £200.
UK reservations Abercrombie & Kent (tel: 0845 618 2200).