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Peebles Hotel Hydro, Peebles - 4 bubbles
Peebles Hotel Hydro could lay claim to being one of the first spas in the UK. We were invited to try their new Cademuir Suite, which brings spa services to your own private treatment room within your bedroom.
Was it easy to book?
First impressions?
How did they welcome you?
What happens next?
Which treatments did you have?
What were the treatments like?
How did you feel afterwards?
What happens afterwards?
Was it worth it?
What else could you have?
What do you wish you'd known before you went?
Any special features?
Who do you think would like it?
Why did you give the spa this rating?
Would you go again?
Was it easy to book?
The staff were all helpful and friendly when it came to organising a stay and a treatment for us. I took my spouse, but it was just me having a treatment.
First impressions?
Peebles Hotel Hydro is an enormously imposing red-roofed building. It's perched on a hillside and set in 35 acres of woodland overlooking the Tweed Valley. As you drive up through the grounds, the size of the place is impressive. We parked right outside and went up the grand red-carpeted stairs, past some extremely large and ornate floral displays, to Reception.
Everywhere is clean and tidy, but the hotel does have something of an air of faded Victorian elegance, overlaid with the feeling that sometime in the 1970s, someone popped in and introduced some elements of Butlins. Next to the Reception desk was a board announcing organised children's play activities, and a sign-up sheet for the tennis courts. There's also an interesting display recounting the hotel's history. The Peebles Hydropathic Company first opened its doors to guests in 1881, offering water cures. The current building (the first was destroyed in a spectacular fire) dates from 1907. The treatments from 100 years ago are alarming and electrical. We're pleased to report that the emphasis these days is very much on pampering, and you don't have to have any electric shocks.
How did they welcome you?
Politely and efficiently.
What happens next?
We were taken through to our room. The Cademuir Suite is in a small private corridor behind a door for which you need a key card. This means that the room is nicely quiet, as no-one is going to be wheeling trolleys up and down that corridor.
The rest of the hotel may be in need of a good refresh, but the decorators got to this room first. It's not huge, but they have packed in an enormous bed, a TV, a DVD player, two loungers and a table. There's a separate dressing room with a large mirror, a fridge, and your robes and slippers in a wardrobe. This dressing room has two doors leading from it - to your bathroom and to a private spa treatment room. The stone bathroom is great: underfloor heating, two showers, two sinks so your toothbrushes don't get in each other's way, plenty of fresh, clean towels, and products including body lotion, and a large bath. The water is very soft - it comes from the hotel's own supply (you are warned that sometimes it may appear brownish after rain or melting snows as it dissolves tiny quantities of peat on its way down the hillside). The spa treatment room is small, but has a treatment table and twinkly lights in the ceiling.
The room has a gorgeous view across the gardens and river to the trees and hills beyond. It's enough to lift your heart and soothe your mind just to look at all that greenery swooshing about in the breeze. There was a tray of fruit in our fridge so we had some tea and fruit and just lounged in our loungers for a while.
As my treatment was not until the next morning, I decided to explore the Hydro. This is in a separate annexe, reached by a corridor from the ground floor.
The gym: This is a very large and light room divided into two, with aerobic machines in one half and resistance equipment in the other. You can walk, cycle, or pretend to be cross-country skiing, then tone up after your workout. It wasn't too busy, so I was able to have my choice of machine. The gym is unsupervised, so beware if you are a beginner, as there is no-one around to ask questions of.
One thing I didn't like was the elderly-looking ceramic water fountain. It reminded me of being back at school.
The gym is functional rather than luxurious, but you can have a good workout.
The pool:The first injunction you meet when going into the pool area is to take off your outdoor shoes. These you leave on a wooden shelf. The changing rooms are small, and feel like changing rooms at the municipal baths.
The pool is a good size but is very much a hotel swimming pool. There are families splashing about with children, as well as some serious swimmers taking their daily dip.
The sauna and steam room: These are to one side of the swimming pool, either side of the whirlpool. Both are larger than they look from the outside. The sauna was a bit of a disappointment as the door wouldn't close properly, no matter how hard I tried. The gentleman I disturbed with all my door-related activity told me it had been like that for the three days he had been at the hotel. (He was a frequent visitor, he told me, so the door obviously didn't put him off. He visited the hotel for his health.) However, both the sauna and the steam reach suitably high temperatures, which is excellent.
Dinner: Dinner at Peebles Hotel Hydro is not a casual affair. The hotel's information booklet requests: "In deference to our lady guests, may we please suggest that gentlemen wear a jacket and tie." This is obviously to maintain the high-toned elegance of the dining rooms with its silver service food presentation. Yet the height of the elegance was a little toned down by seeing bottles of ketchup at the waiting stations, however. The view from the large, high windows is panoramic, and the food was fresh and delicious. There is a good choice of dishes on the menu, and vegetarians are catered for.
Nighty-night: The bed had the most cushions I have ever seen on a bed. When we took them all off for sleeping, it looked like we had had a fight in an upholstery shop. The bed was soft and comfortable. And because no-one could go past our room, we had a very quiet night's sleep.
Breakfast: There is a buffet where you can help yourself to cereals, fresh fruit and cooked breakfast items, including kedgeree. You can also order porridge and poached eggs. When I got back to the room, the therapist was already arranging things in the treatment room. When all was ready, she knocked on the door and I went through in my robe.
Which treatments did you have?
I had an Dead Sea mud envelopment.
What were the treatments like?
The mud envelopment was about as messy and as fun as you'd expect. First, you put on paper knickers, then your therapist exfoliates your skin, then she slathers mud all over you. After that, you get wrapped in clingfilm so the minerals of the mud can do their good work on your skin. While I was being mineralised, my therapist gave me a head and shoulder massage so I could be relaxed as well as beautified.
After a while, she helped me off the treatment table and walked me through to the shower. I was a bit worried about walking through the carpeted dressing room, imagining a trail of muddy footprints, but she pointed out that I didn't actually have any mud on the soles of my feet.
When you're all clean, your therapist smoothes you off with moisturiser (Spa Find, which I love), and you're done. This spa treatment is a good mix of ancient (slathering yourself in Dead Sea mud has been on the beauty menu for centuries) and twenty-first century pampering.
How did you feel afterwards?
Soft as a peach.
What happens afterwards?
It was great to just walk back into my own bedroom. If you wanted, you could have treatments in the beauty salon, too.
Was it worth it?
The treatments are extremely good value and the Cademuir Suite is worth the premium you pay.
What else could you have?
The beauty salon offers treatments by Spa Find: exfoliations, wraps, eye treatments and facials involving Dead Sea mud and seaweed. You can also have a variety of massages, including a Hawaiian hot stone massage, which has to be worth a trip to Peebles all on its own, and complementary therapies including reflexology and Reiki. Look good from top to toe with manicures, pedicures, waxing, and tinting, and visit the separate hair salon to have your locks looking luscious, too.
There are some day packages, as well, so you could go with a friend and make the most of the facilities.
What's mainly on offer at Peebles Hotel Hydro, however, is activity, for adults and children. A playground! Mountain biking! And enough horse-riding, pitch'n'putt and tennis going on to make sure you sleep soundly after all that fresh air.
What do you wish you'd known before you went?
To bring my spouse's tie. To buy him a tie, actually.
Any special features?
If you're a fan of treatments and fresh air, the Cademuir Suite is the place to stay. Lift you head from the pillow, see the view, relax... Another special feature I would point out is the customer service. The staff were unfailingly helpful and polite, not only to us but to everybody.
Who do you think would like it?
The Cademuir Suite is ideal if you are the sort of person who prefers to have a spa treatment completely in private. The therapist comes to you.
The rest of the hotel is old-fashioned, which is just how its loyal customers obviously like it. If you have a young family, there's plenty to keep them occupied with a playroom, table tennis, and organised games and activities. There are family rooms with adjoining bedrooms for the children, and a children's high tea which means adults can enjoy their dinner in peace. Some of the older guests obviously enjoy the pool, too, and the fact that is it a short walk to the town centre and shops.
Why did you give the spa this rating?
We gave Peebles Hotel Hydro 4 bubbles because we loved the Cademuir Suite and the private treatments. It doesn't provide a lounge-around-in-your-robe all day spa experience, though you certainly could go in your robe to the Hydro and back. But the Hydro is more basic health club than spa. If it's a full spa experience you're looking for, this is not the place for you. If fresh air and fun you're after, you're in luck.
See more on how we rate the spas
Would you go again?
I would, but for the Cademuir Suite, not the Hydro.
We visited Peebles in June 2007
See also:
* Contact Details for Peebles Hotel Hydro
* Mud, Hammams, Rasuls and Serails
* Will they make me eat healthy food at a spa?
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