ES TESTS: The London Retreat at Hotel Cafe Royal

You don’t have to go far to find inner peace

Londoners are dogged in their pursuit of wellness. We sign up for sound baths, download meditation apps and have CBD oil subscriptions. We sweat it out in infrared saunas and ‘om’ out our worries at yoga.

But this bitesized selfcare can only do so much, sometimes the only thing to truly restore balance is to head off to a wellness retreat. But who, really, has the time? There’s a solution in the form of Hotel Cafe Royal’s new London Retreat which launched this month.

A five-star hotel in the heart of Piccadilly Circus may not seem like the perfect place to shrug off city life, but wellness junkies in the know have long been fans of the property’s subterranean Akasha spa, which has now partnered with silk sleepwear company Slip, CBD brand The Drug Store and meditation app MEYA to offer time-poor Londoners the perfect retreat in the heart of the capital.

Stay in one of the super-quiet rooms (windows are encased with state-of-the-art triple glazed windows) for one to three-or-four nights and the spa staff will work on a tailored wellness programme for you. Rooms will be kitted out with silk Slip eye masks and pillowcases, complimentary MEYA mediation kits and, following a phone consultation, a bespoke box of CBD products from The Drug Store.

Wellness treats on offer include: 90-minute aromatherapy massage, Valmont facial, restorative yoga (the great kind where you just lie there swaddled in blankets), personal training, and a sleep consultation with the author of The Art of Sleeping, Rob Hobson.

Also on the menu is bone-setting. Akasha is the first UK spa to offer the energy healing therapy by brilliant duo Tai Chi master Andy Mack and his son, Duran. While not exactly relaxing, it’s effective and an interesting one to try for those on the hunt for their next wellness fix. In just twenty minutes, Andy and Duran read your body, work with your qi flow and locate tension points in your back while one of them yanks your legs. Sounds brutal, but it doesn't hurt at all. The idea is to realign and to ease pressure in the back, neck, hips, ankles and other joints - ask them to show you some of their remarkable before and after photos. Duran says you need around three sessions in quick succession to solve serious problems and I'm booked in for my next yanking this week.

Similarly, the spa’s Watsu therapy sounds odd but is as close to a spiritual experience as I’ve ever had. Loaded up with floats you’ll feel as if weightless in a private 35-degree heated pool while pro Steve Karle works on you with a combination of stretching, craniosacral techniques, gong therapy, massage and Shiatsu. Aptly called Poetry in Water, it’s a profound experience and definitely one to pop at the top of your London Retreat to-do list.

Revived and restored, you'll step back into the Piccadilly scrum feeling like you're ready face it all again.

Details

‘The London Retreat’ is available to guests from early March, and can range from one night up to the full experience of four nights. Prices start from £1,100 per person. hotelcaferoyal.com

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