Spa Breaks for 2009

We've just spent a great weekend with some very good friends in Surrey. Our children are of a similar age and even though they haven't seen each other for quite some time, it was lovely to see them greet each other like long lost friends. The children aged six, two five year olds and a 2 year old then took themselves off and played happily together for the duration of our stay. Joy!


It's been two years since we left Surrey and relocated to the South West, so we had a lot of catching up to do. With the little ones keeping themselves entertained, it gave us grown ups the opportunity to converse with each other properly. Anyone who has children will know that any conversation you try and grasp with the little ones around is a little like speed dating. There is so much to say, but with the constant interruptions it is near on impossible to finish a conversation.


With Christmas being just two weeks away, talk inevitably turned to what a dreadful year 2008 seems to have been, and what we can look forward to in 2009. With a year of credit crunch, redundancies and ill health, it seems that we will all be glad to see the back of it.


The conversation drifted on to what our plans would be for Christmas. It seems to me that we spend weeks and weeks building up to what is, quite frankly not much more than a roast dinner. Then when it finally comes round and we are lucky enough to have a few days off work, we decide to spend them hurtling around the country visiting all divisions of the family so that no-one feels left out or neglected. It all sounds pretty exhausting to me!


All this talk of doom and gloom and rushing around, made us think we should do something positive in the new year; organise something to look forward to. The next hour or so was spent huddled around the computer (glass of wine in hand), surfing the internet looking for something relaxing and affordable we could all do together.


We stumbled upon a great looking website which offered one night spa breaks for as little as £70.00 per person. This seems incredibly good value for a city centre spa hotel. (the last time I visited a spa, I think I paid about the same price just for the massage!) We all decided we would prefer to be in the countryside where the price was a little more, but at only £99.00 per person it still seemed very, well….cheap! Particularly as it includes not just your accommodation in a spa hotel, but also dinner, breakfast, lunch and two spa treatments. I know the high street stores are slashing prices to encourage people to buy, but we found it difficult to believe that these amazing looking spa hotels were offering such good deals. So we telephoned the company to find out if the offers were genuine.


To our amazement, the phone was answered quickly by a "real" and extremely helpful gentlemen who explained that not only were the offers genuine, but there were 13 venues throughout the UK to choose from at this price. They also had great deals at other 4 and 5 star spa hotels - I particularly
like the look of the one in Scotland which is situated on its own island! It was settled, we topped up our wine glasses, took out our diaries………and worked on choosing a date.


We will have something to look forward to in 2009 after all….. Happy New Year!!!