A spa morning at Guildford Harbour Hotel & Spa

While a full spa day (or several days) is a thing of beauty, being short on time doesn't mean going without a little rest and relaxation. Opting for a morning, afternoon or evening spa experience is a wonderful way to supercharge your time off. Here, Harry from the Spabreaks.com team talks about a spa morning at Guildford Harbour Hotel & Spa.

A team spa day

Four of us (myself, Suzannah from the Commercial team, Natalie from the Accounts team and Tanya from the Sales team) visited Guildford Harbour Hotel & Spa on a Thursday morning to experience their Refresh Spa Morning package. It included a 30-minute treatment, £20 allocation towards lunch in the HarBar, and three hours use of the spa facilities between 10am and 1pm.

When we arrived, we filled in our consultation forms so they could tailor our spa treatments to us, decide what time we wanted to have lunch and to collect our towels, robes and slippers. We then set off for the changing rooms before meeting in the hydrotherapy area.

Relaxing in the hydrotherapy suite

The spa at Guildford Harbour Hotel & Spa is not huge, but it has everything you need to relax and prepare for your spa treatments. There's a hydrotherapy pool and a plunge pool, a sauna (which I think could seat around eight people), aromatic crystal steam room (which was scented with eucalyptus), and an outdoor 'Champagne pool', which is like another hydrotherapy pool, complete with submerged seating and stress-relieving water jets. A lovely feature of the spa is that you can watch the world go by outside as it's surrounded by glass, but it's darkened so no one outside can see in. The weather was on our side during our visit, but I imagine that even in the rain the outdoor pool is rather lovely.

Spa treatments at The Guildford HarSpa

The spa treatments were absolutely amazing.

I had a back, neck and shoulder massage as well as a leg and foot massage. You have a scent test at the start where you choose how you want to feel at the end of your treatment and they match the products to your wants and needs.

They use Temple Spa products, and I opted for a relaxing massage, which included their AAAHHH! Cooling Balm on the legs and feet as well as the DRIFT AWAY massage oil on the back. The latter contains lavender and I wanted to get home and sleep after my spa experience, so that was perfect. The treatment also included a scalp massage, which was the most heavenly thing in the world.

Next time I will definitely upgrade to a 60-minute treatment.

Lunch in the HarBar

The £20 allocation that's included for lunch actually covers quite a lot, and portion sizes are generous. I had a veggie burger, Suzannah had a vegan burger and the others had chicken burgers. We also got a side of chips, but you could choose to have a dessert or a coffee. There were two ladies at the next table having the afternoon tea and that also looked amazing, so that's another option. The food was great, and the environment was nice to sit in as well, as you have a view of the hydrotherapy area (screened off), and it's a nice place to watch the world go by.

Top tips for a spa day at Guildford Harbour Hotel & Spa

We all had a lovely time at Guildford Harbour Hotel & Spa. It was a great opportunity to relax in the middle of the week and leave feeling refreshed (as the package name would suggest). We had a great time as a group of friends and colleagues, but there were quite a few young couples there and I can absolutely see how it's a good destination for a romantic spa day too.

My top tips for a spa day here, or anywhere, would be:

1. Bring your own flip-flops, particularly if your feet are on the larger side. They do provide them, but they are one size fits all - personally I feel more comfortable wearing my own.
2. When you've finished using the thermal suite, shower off before heading to your treatment so you can leave all their lovely products on your skin afterwards.
3. Leave some time after lunch to just sit and watch the world go by - I'm always exhausted after a massage, so it's nice to take a moment before you head off to whatever you're doing next.