Girls Only Getaways!

Oh my! Aren’t we are just aflush with lurvely getaways galore! Time to round up your best friends, lay down the ‘to-do’ list for the hubby and kids, and run off for a well deserved holiday. We have a few tempting options…..

Mid-Air Spa

First and nearest is Indigo Pearl, a delicious luxury resort in Phuket, Thailand and one of the most stylish resorts in the world. There’s one great reason to go: Coqoon Spa. Just opened, it’s a cutting edge designer spa. What’s so special? How about a suspended treetop treatment room for mid-air pampering? Designed by internationally renowned designer, Bill Bensley, it’s set amid lush tropical rainforest and uses a banyan tree as the hanger for its signature treatment room! It’s piece de resistance, The Nest (top), is a luxurious spa suite suspended midair and accessed by a flying bridge. Beyond that, Coqoon Spa features six deluxe treatment rooms and an exclusive ‘Coqoon Suite’ complete with private pool, rain shower, steam room, sauna and Vichy shower available for private hire for up to 3-days, and even a spa butler!

 

Treatments here are steeped in Thai tradition, offering Andaman elixirs and Thai herbal spices for in-the-culture rejuvenation, detoxification and total zen out sessions. What’s more, you can avail yourself to custom-designed ‘D-Buk’ spa suites, where spa executives can design individual treatment programmes for you, incorporating diet, exercise, activity, and spa treatments!

More good news: to mark the launch of the new spa. Indigo Pearl is offering the “Coqoon Revival” package available at THB 22,500 (S$935 or HK$75,2300) net until 15 April 2011. You get a 120-minute Detox Body Treatment for two people per stay, two-night accommodation in a D-Buk Suite, and special in-room breakfast, complimentary airport transfer, 30 percent discount on additional treatments and a 30 percent discount on additional nights in a D-Buk Suite.

Email reservations@indigo-pearl.com

Tel: +66 (0)76 327 006

Lara Crofting in Luxury

Our next option: get in touch with your inner Lara Croft! Check in to the Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor Siem Reap and drink in the world famous Angkor Wat, with the ‘Girlfriends Getaway’ package, a luscious 3-night escapade for four girlfriends. It includes spa treatments, gourmet meals, escorted shopping (oh my heaving bosom!) and temple outings at US$1,955 (S$2,490 or HK$15,236) per night.

Picture this: after your leave the respective hubbies and kids at home, you and your friends arrive in Siem Riep and are “whisked from the airport in style by stretch limousine to your private two-bedroom villa at the refined French-colonial retreat where Raffles Butlers offer round-the-clock assistance to ensure the delivery of Raffles’ hallmark style of attentive and heartfelt service”!

On your itinerary are daily Champagne breakfasts, a private cocktail party, two gourmet dinners, including a ‘Royal Khmer’ tasting-menu of imperial cuisine at the hotel’s fine dining restaurant Le Grand, and a private culinary class led by a Raffles chef. Is there more? Can we survive the decadence?! Assault us further with in-villa manicure and pedicures, facial and reflexology treatments, a meditation session and aromatherapy or traditional Khmer massage, a private guide and driver to explore the ancient Angkor Wat, and a day and a night customized shopping tour! And if you are reluctant to go home – who wouldn’t? – take heart that you have a late check out at 3pm.

The ‘Girlfriends Getaway’ requires a minimum three-night stay for four ladies, with a 25 percent discount for subsequent extensions.

For more information, visit www.raffles.com/siemreap

London Laboutin

If you prefer something a little more fast paced, wing off to London and live it up with your gal pals at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in Knightsbridge with its Paint the Town Red’ package. This is put together with Christian Laboutin which means there are shoes on the horizon!

Let’s walk you through it: after check in, you get a mani/pedi nail paint and polish treat by their spa team. Then once you’re ready, hop into a cab for a ride to Christian Louboutin’s flagship London store in Mayfair. Imbibe in complimentary champagne and nibbles while you shop in the private ‘Library Room’ in the heart of the boutique, designed to be invisible to other shoppers through a series of mirrors and Perspex alcoves!

Continue with drinky-poos in the evening with specially-created ‘Paint the Town Red’ cocktails at Mandarin Bar, and get treated to brunch the next morning at Bar Boulud, London (yes, of Daniel Boulud fame)with a bottle of wine thrown in!

The ‘Paint the Town Red’ package starts from £495++ based on twin sharing, and is available until Dec 2011.

Call +44 (0) 207 235 2000 or log onto www.mandarinoriental.com

- Ee Waun