Following its award of ‘Best City Spa 2023’ earlier this month, we took a trip to Hope Street Hotel Spa to see if it’s deserving of its title
Hope Street Hotel, located in the city’s Georgian Quarter, has been named the Best City Spa of 2023 by the Good Spa Guide Awards after receiving a staggering number of consumer votes crowing them with this year’s title.
The Good Spa Guide Awards celebrate the best in spa excellence and spans the entirety of the UK, recognising the important role that spas and wellness centres play in nurturing good health and wellbeing.
A tranquil space where you can relax and unwind, escaping the madness of everyday city life
The spa at Hope Street Hotel has been acknowledged for its impressive facilities including a 15-metre long indoor swimming pool, outdoor courtyard vitality pool and jacuzzi, thermal journey experience, Rasul, hammam and seven treatment rooms.
The spa opened back in 2021 following extensive renovations and extensions made to the hotel and its grounds.
General Manager of Hope Street Hotel Fiona Creed shares her and her team’s gratitude towards those who voted for them.
“We are delighted to be crowned Best City Spa, the team in the spa pride themselves on offering all of our guests a tranquil space where you can relax and unwind, escaping the madness of everyday city life,” she said, adding, “To win this award is a credit to all at Hope Street Hotel who work really hard everyday to help create special moments for all our guests.”
Caitlin Dalton, Director of The Good Spa Guide, said: “We were delighted to receive a record-breaking 412,526 consumer votes in the Good Spa Guide Awards this year - confirming just how important our much-loved spas are for our health and wellbeing.”
We were invited down for a 2-hour thermal journey and lunch to try out the spa for ourselves.
On entering the hotel it’s clear that a lot of care and consideration has been taken to make each customer’s visit feel luxurious from the very beginning. The main reception area is light and airy with high quality furnishings and calming artwork throughout.
After being greeted, we made our way down to the spa reception where we checked in for our booking and received a robe, towel and flip flops as well as a wristband for accessing doors and lockers.
The changing rooms are spotless, very well maintained, and play soothing music to get you ready for the ultimate in a tranquil experience. There’s showers with toiletries as well as GHD hair dryers and straighteners for freshening up after your visit. There’s also a swimsuit drying machine to avoid your bag getting wet. Once ready, we were given a short tour of the spa facilities available. We were then left to enjoy our experience.
Immediately drawn to the outdoor vitality pool, we quickly clambered in and were pleasantly greeted by warm, bath-temperature water. Jets and spa feature settings can be turned on at the side of the pool and operate on a short timer allowing you to choose from wall jets, volcano and jacuzzi settings, or simply lie back and float in the peaceful still waters. The outdoor pool sits inside the courtyard with the hotel walls surrounding it for added privacy.
Despite not wanting to move from the warm and inviting waters we hopped out to continue our thermal journey, stepping into the Himalayan salt sauna - complete with a soft ambient glow from the salt wall and ion-infused air to aid better breathing. My partner who suffers with asthma was particularly fond of this area of the spa and said it helped his lungs feel somewhat clearer.
We journeyed on to the experience showers, designed to use water, lights, different fragrances and temperatures to expand the senses. The rainfall setting was particularly pleasant and varied from tropical storms to cold winter mists. The ice bowl and water drench are both designed for the braver visitors, giving a quick, cold shock, initiating your flight or fight responses and breathing life back into you.
The indoor swimming pool has a reflective ceiling panel above giving the illusion of waves overhead. It’s a much cooler temperature than the outdoor vitality pool, but not unpleasant in the slightest and you very quickly acclimatise.
The herbal sauna and aroma steam room use herbs, spices, and natural essences to rejuvenate your body and open your pores. Great for short periods at a time. Water is readily available to keep you hydrated throughout the entire stay as saunas can be an intense amount of heat that your body often isn’t used to.
Those looking for something a little stronger than water to sip as you lounge on the heated seats in the Tepidarium can enjoy poolside drinks service including prosecco, wine and other tipples.
We had one last lounge in the outdoor vitality pool (the highlight of our visit) and changed back into our clothes ready for lunch with a glass of fizz. The lunch package comes with two courses, or you can opt to add a third for an extra £5.50.
Dishes consist of light and refreshing meals including sun-dried tomato hummus with flatbread and penne Arrabbiata. I chose the buffalo mozzarella with pesto and cherry tomatoes along with the goats cheese flatbread as my main. My partner went for the tomato bruschetta and a chicken caesar salad - all of which was made with fresh ingredients and served in perfect portions, not too heavy or stodgy.
We left Hope Street Hotel & Spa feeling incredibly relaxed and replenished from our visit. The ‘Just spa’ packages start from £80pp with signature treatments ranging from £150-£240pp.
Book your visit at the Hope Street Hotel website. Hope Street Hotel, 40 Hope St, Liverpool L1 9DA
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