Start as you mean to go on and kick off the year at the spa. We check in to Harrogate’s newest luxury retreat

Great British Life: Majestic Spa HarrogateMajestic Spa Harrogate (Image: Archant)

You might approach January in an abstemious frame of mind, full of guilt over sausages consumed, wine taken and chocs scoffed.

You may have signed up to a marathon in a tipsy moment of madness at a new year's eve party. The trainers lie in wait and the guilt sets in.

Yes, January exists to consume us with guilt, expectation and inadequacy. Or you can adopt the 'good enough' approach and set yourself the goal of self care, me-time and revival. Convinced?

A good place to hop on board the feel good bus is The Harrogate Spa. Newly opened within The Majestic Hotel, it is primed and ready for an onslaught of wellbeing as the finishing touches are added to this sparkling spa.

Great British Life: Sauna - Majestic Spa HarrogateSauna - Majestic Spa Harrogate (Image: Archant)

Spas and Harrogate go together like gin and tonic and this one is the icing on the cake for the recently refurbished hotel which has undergone a £15m renovation, £5m of which has been spent on The Harrogate Spa.

The spa adjoins the hotel with its own very different character to the hotel's grand and ornate public rooms. It is slick, sleek and calm, light-filled from huge windows and minimalist in style.

Robe and slippers on (the changing rooms have good hairdryers and straighteners), you glide to the pool area with its twinkly-lit ceiling and impressive 12.5 metre indoor pool.

Poolside you can also enjoy Himalayan salt sauna, steam room, Rasul, experience shower and ice fountain. There's a relaxation area overlooking a Zen courtyard area, which is still a work in progress, as was the café area when we visited.

Great British Life: Rasul - Majestic Spa HarrogateRasul - Majestic Spa Harrogate (Image: Archant)

If the active stuff does it for you, there's a very impressive fully equipped gym and studio.

Treatments are from the Espa range and the spa has six treatment rooms in total (two of which are double).

There are also a range of 'signature treatments' and we tried the Espa Restore & Rebalance Ritual which promises to set you up to deal with whatever you need it to.

We're talking a two hour 'relaxation' journey here so there's certainly time to veer off into a zone of your own.

The treatment taps in to the tried and trusted therapies of Thai, Balinese and Ayurvedic which are meant to work with the needs of mind and body. So your therapist will ask if you want to be revived, relaxed or address any particular stresses or skin and body concerns.

You choose oils that are meant to chime with your body's needs and these are the basis of the massage and visualisation 'journey'. The treatment begins with body brushing to slough away all those pesky toxins, get the circulation going and then prepare the body for a smoothing and cleansing salt and oil scrub.

After this you shower in the treatment room and return for colour visualisation. This, as it suggest is all about imagining a favourite colour as the therapist gently and slowly talks you though a journey from head to toe, eventually letting the light/colour 'go'. It's highly relaxing, a bit tricky to describe but very soothing 'in the moment'.

This is followed by a deep, relaxing and thorough massage using warm poultices with those soothing oils. Frankly by the end of this two hour indulgence you're feeling a bit other worldly, definitely revitalised and prepared to take on the world! Or just have a bit of lunch and a lie on the lounger. As resolutions for a year ahead go, self care beats sacrifice! 

theharrogatespa.com