For UHNW individuals who frequently travel, maintain high-stress careers and devote most of their time to their businesses, the luxurious escape offered by a good spa plays a vital role in their wellbeing.
The best spas provide more than just standard treatments. They offer tailored experiences designed to meet specific wellness needs, from relaxation and rejuvenation to beauty and stress management. These spaces are often havens of tranquility, featuring exquisite interiors and world-class service that ensure every visit is an indulgent experience.
Services include massages, facials, detox programmes and body therapies, many of which are personalised to meet an individual’s specific concerns or goals.
Guest at AIRE Ancient Baths in Covent Garden, for instance, can experience anything from a green tea ritual to an earl grey soak and an argan oil massage. Oenophiles can even immerse themselves in a bath of Ribera del Duero red wine and enjoy the detoxifying benefits of the tempranillo grape.
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Those looking for a more traditional spa experience will find solace at The Peninsula Spa and Wellness Centre. Spread over two floors, with a 25 metre swimming pool located in a double-height subterranean chamber, the spa offers a host of services featuring three world-renowned brands: Margy’s Monte Carlo, Subtle Energies and Ricari Studios.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of mental health, spas have increasingly offering cutting-edge therapies centred around long-term wellbeing support and mindfulness. This shift in focus towards holistic wellness has seen the increase in access to cryotherapy, meditation chambers, group mindfulness and specialist wellness consultants.
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The best health clubs & spas: some names to know
The Peninsula Spa and Wellness Centre
- Where: 1 Grosvenor Pl, London SW1X 7HJ
- What: A super-spa worthy of a billion-pound hotel
- Highlights: The pool in the Peninsula’s spa and wellness centre occupies a double-height chamber
Proudly situated on Hyde Park Corner, The Peninsula opened its spa and wellness centre at the end of 2023. A stylish work by esteemed designer and architect Peter Marino, the spa is spread over two floors, with the showpiece a 25m swimming pool located in a double-height subterranean chamber.
The Peninsula offers a UK exclusive on three world-renowned brands: the Swiss-made Margy’s Monte Carlo, which is favoured by celebrities including Naomi Campbell and Princess Charlene of Monaco; Subtle Energies, which follows ayurvedic principles; and Ricari Studios, a luxury longevity and aesthetics brand.
Spear’s enjoyed a Ricari Studios treatment during our most recent visit; the one-of-a-kind experience involves innovative techniques that rejuvenate skin and tissue on both face and body.
Read the full profile on The Peninsula Spa and Wellness Centre at Spear’s 500.com
Guerlain Spa at Raffles London
- Where: 57 Whitehall, London SW1A 2BX
- What: A spa inside one of London’s most luxurious hotels
- Highlights: Treatments designed to soothe and relax
The Guerlain Spa at Raffles London may be a behemoth – 27,000sq ft across four floors – but it is serene, intimate and inviting, raising the bar for what it means to be a hotel spa.
Day guests, hotel guests, residents and members are welcome. The interiors, by Goddard Littlefair, are sleek, gentle and cocooning. Nine spacious treatment rooms are situated along the original Old War Office corridors, and therapists are trained across all treatment types, offering everything from facial sculpting and body scrubs to bespoke programmes.
In true Guerlain fashion, signature treatments are a tribute to the maison’s products; guests are invited to experience the benefits of the famous Eau de Cologne Impériale, which Spear’s was treated to during our most recent visit.
Read the full profile on Guerlain Spa at Raffles London at Spear’s 500.com
AIRE Ancient Baths
- Where: 2-3 Robert St, London WC2N 6BH
- What: Roman-style baths in the heart of London
- Highlights: The salted Flotarium complete with an exfoliation chamber
If you happen to be looking for an Andalusian-themed bathhouse on The Strand, turn in to Robert Street and head into the cavernous world of AIRE Ancient Baths.
The spa is housed in the former wine cellars of Peter Pan author JM Barrie – a celebrated previous resident of the 18th-century Neoclassical building. After a trip down the winding staircase, emerge in the sumptuous changing areas, where the sweet, heady scent of orange blossom – an AIRE signature – is wafting through the air.
Expect to be whisked away into the massage and treatment rooms upstairs; if you are lucky, your treatment will be conducted in Barrie’s former apartment. Experience anything from a green tea ritual to an earl grey soak or an argan oil massage, the latter of which Spear’s experienced on our most recent visit. If you like, you can even immerse yourself in a bath of Ribera del Duero red wine and enjoy the detoxifying benefits of the wine grape.
Read the full profile on AIRE Ancient Baths at Spear’s 500.com
Surrenne
- Where: Old Barrack Yard, London SW1X 7NP
- What: A members-only medi-spa
- Highlights: Technology assisted facial massages
In a basement deep beneath The Emory hotel in Knightsbridge lies Surrenne, a members-only spa that opened in 2024. The medi-spa offers state-of-the-art wellness treatments, such as technology assisted facial massages using FaceGym products, microbiome mapping and epigenetic testing.
The four-story complex, consisting of treatment rooms, saunas, spacious changing areas and a 22m pool, has a sense of luxury throughout, with natural materials covering the walls and floor, creating a quiet sense of calm and warmth in the famously busy part of London.
Read the full profile on Surrenne at Spears500.com
The best health clubs & spas: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each company on The Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically.
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