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‘Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside. I do like to be beside the sea!’ That’s exactly what health conscious crowds living in Bahrain will be singing after the opening of the island’s latest luxury spa.
The Thalassa Sea & Spa was officially launched last week with a VIP cocktail reception within the Sofitel Bahrain Zallaq’s multi-million dinar hotel complex.
Newly-appointed Tunisian manager Dr Zeineb Tatar has been showing guests around the five-star facility and has a team of hydro-therapists, masseuses, beauticians and healthy food experts by her side.
“Thalassa are treatments based on seawater and sea products,” explained Dr Tatar as the waves of the Arabian Gulf lapped gently on the beach close-by. “The sea contains all the trace elements, minerals and vitamins that are vital to the balance of our bodies.”
The seawater used in the spa is taken from the deep waters of the open sea, filtered and then heated to 33C to promote the relaxation of muscles and stimulate the blood flow, which its advocates say allows for the active ingredients to be absorbed by the body.
The complex, the first of its kind in the region, covers 2,000sq/m and features 14 treatment rooms – six dry rooms and eight wet rooms – massages and wellness programmes, plus pilates and yoga studios. Facilities include a seawater hydrotherapy pool, a freshwater pool, saunas, steam rooms and a hairdresser for men and a beauty salon for women will open shortly.
Some hospitality sector observers questioned the location of the Sofitel on the island before its opening earlier this year, being a good half-an-hour drive from central Manama and the sometimes infuriating ‘small island’ mindset. Senior hotel executives, however, believe this may prove to be one of its strengths as expats and Bahrainis, alongside visitors from neighbouring Gulf States, seek the ideal getaway from the hustle and bustle of work and home.
Calls are already being made to snap up the three-day beauty breaks on offer alongside the everyday facial and marine experience of scrubs and wraps.
Thalassa sea and spa is the forerunner of thalassotherapy in France. A popular pursuit in France since the 1960s, the Aquitaine nowadays is a prime destination for pursuit of thalassotherapy. Thalassotherapy, translated to mean seawater cure, was promoted by a Tour de France cyclist who healed from his injuries by seawater in his home of Brittany. Today, there are numerous thalassotherapy treatment centres in the Aquitaine, which has become a bit of an epicentre for the practice.
Treatments are catered to each visitor, and can be used to address any number of ailments or just go for the sake of relaxation, a noble cause indeed. A new trend has been combining spa treatments with upscale accommodation and gourmet restaurants, although most allow for booking of just therapies without overnight stays.
The late Louis ‘Louison’ Bobet was the first great French rider of the post-war period and the first rider to win the Tour de France in three successive years, from 1953 to 1955.
He had a succession of businesses after he stopped racing but he became best known for investing in and developing what was then the little-known seawater health treatment.
He had used it when recovering from a car crash and opened the Louison Bobet Centre beside the sea at Port du Crouesty at Quiberon. He died of cancer the day after his 58th birthday in 1983.
However, the benefit of seawater was heralded well before the champion cyclist bestowed its virtues.
Thalassotherapy (from the Greek word thalassa, meaning ‘sea’) may well be an unproven medical use of seawater as a form of therapy but Dr Richard Russell’s efforts have been credited with playing a prominent role in the populist ‘seaside mania of the second half of the eighteenth century’.
Russell (1687 – 1759), a British physician, encouraged his patients to use a form of water therapy that involved the submersion or bathing in, and drinking of, seawater. The contemporary equivalent of this is thalassotherapy, although the practice of drinking seawater has largely discontinued.
In thalassotherapy, trace elements of magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium, and iodide found in seawater are believed to be absorbed through the skin. The effectiveness of this method of therapy is not widely accepted as it has not been proven scientifically.
The therapy is applied in various forms, as either showers of warmed seawater and application of marine mud or of algae paste. This type of therapy is also common in the Dead Sea area.
THERE is nothing quite like a massage to unwind before a whistle-stop trip back to the UK visiting friends and family.
It’s the sort of break you need a holiday to recover from and just the thought of manic motorway driving in the harsh winter is enough to send shivers down your spine.
You need a cool head and the good lady wife Kathryn and I enjoyed just the boost we needed before packing our bags and getting the children ready for the journey ahead.
We both sampled a 30-minute detoxifying wrap (price BD35) a treatment which aims to help your body and mind process and eliminate some of the harmful toxins due to our demanding lifestyles.
A paste consisting of focus algae and essential oils specially designed for an immediate sauna effect is applied as you lay cocooned on a warm table as the therapist gently massages your head. There is only one word to describe it … bliss.
Kathryn followed this up with a 20-minute underwater shower (BD25). As she soaked in a bath of seawater she received an underwater massage of the body with a jet of water directed by the hyro-therapist. Apparently it’s perfect for crushing cellulite (not that Kathryn has any I’ve noticed, of course) and relaxing the muscles.
I went for the 20-minute Affusion Shower (BD25) where warm droplets of seawater fell like a fine rain on my outstretched body as the therapist gave me a toe to head massage. The multiple micro-massages stimulated the skin’s nerve endings and helped improve circulation, according to the notes I received. It also featured sedative and relaxing effects which my snoring can vouch for.
- Stan Szecowka
