Earlier in the month I visited the Kohler Waters Spa at the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews for the very first time. If you read my The Year Of Becoming A Spa Convert blog post, you will know that visiting the first Kohler Waters Spa outwith the US was high on my to do list. So I couldn't wait to make the journey from Glasgow for a relaxing spa day with my Mum.
St Andrews is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes away from Glasgow by car. But we decided to take the one direct bus service, run by Stagecoach, which gets you into St Andrews in just under three hours. And the Old Course Hotel is about a five minutes walk from the main bus station.
It was quite a rainy and blustery day when we arrived. So we were more than happy to get inside and start relaxing.
We were there for a seasonal spa day which included treatments, a light lunch in the spa cafe, full access to the spa facilities and use of towels, robes and slippers.
And here is how our day went;
Start with a dip in the pool
As soon as we saw the 20m spa pool, we simply had to go for a dip before we had something to eat.
Light lunch at the spa cafe
When you first check in you're given a menu of what's available at the spa cafe. And if you've booked in for a spa day, you can pick any one lunch item as part of this. You can then add additional items like cakes, desserts or drinks to this.
Your order is placed so that when you arrive at the cafe at your specified time, it's only a few minutes until you're fed, which was a great system.
There's a choice of salads, sandwiches, wraps and crostinis. My Mum went for the chicken Caeasar wrap, which she really enjoyed. Whereas I was in the mood for something sweeter and went for the cake of the day which was a delicious banana caramel muffin. It was nice to eat something light as we still had our treatments and a spot more swimming to do.
Treatment time
As part of the Kohler Waters Spa day St Andrews package, we had a 50 minute seasonal treatment. Which on this occasion was a back massage and facial. My Mum had never had a facial before, so she was very excited about that. Whereas I was desperately looking forward to the massage after an unexpected morning of doctors appointments and blood tests before we set off for St Andrews.
The back massage exceeded my expectations. With attention also being paid to my head and neck, as well as the sore joints in my wrists. My favourite part had to be when the therapist placed a hot towel over the entire expanse of my back. And then she sealed in that warmth with another towel on top. It felt absolutely incredible!
The facial was fantastic too. It was great that it wasn't a generic facial either. Both me and my Mum had completely different facials, focusing on what we wanted to improve. Hers was all about plumping the skin and signs of aging. Whereas mine was all about hydrating my dehydrated skin and improving skin texture. I had a brilliant but gentle peel applied, using the spa's Comfort Zone products. So much so, that I simply had to purchase it a few days later. Here are some of the great Comfort Zone products that were used as part of our facials;
After your treatment you can spend as much time as you'd like in the Deep Relax room, where you can lie down, recharge and rehydrate.
Explore the endless spa facilities
After such a brilliant treatment, we wanted to explore more of the spa facilities. Which is when we found the one room that housed most of them.
Inside there was an incredible hydrotherapy pool (which had to be my favourite part of the whole spa - think a swimming pool sized hot tub!), sauna, steam room, cold plunge pool, ice fountain and Kohler experience showers.
Relax poolside
Finally we grabbed our books and some magazines and put our feet up poolside. Has anyone else read The Couple Next Door? I got right into it and fully switched off from real life for a good few hours that day.
Apart from taking photos for this blog post, I put my phone on airplane mode for the entire spa day, to truly make the most of it. And I left Old Course Hotel at the end of the day feeling fantastic.
A huge thank you to Kohler Waters Spa for having us. And we already can't wait to return later in the year when the roof top hot tub is open.
Have you ever visited St Andrews? Or do you have any spa days/treatments booked? And what do you think of the Kohler Waters Spa day St Andrews?
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