Our Visit to The Malvern Spa Hotel

The Spa’s Design & Location

The first thing you need to be aware of with The Malvern (if you can’t tell from the photo’s) is that it is not situated on one of Malvern’s beautiful Victorian streets.  It is located in the Lower Howsell area near the big box retail shops in that part of town, the building itself is a contemporary of those shops, being large and rather featureless, you could say it looked a bit Art Deco if your were feeling kind, but does this really matter?  The flip side is that it has ample parking and is well insulated from noises outside, you win some you lose some.

Our Room

As you can see in the photos, the rooms are simple and clean, there is nothing much to write home about from a character perspective, but they do offer tea and coffee making facilities and a free bottle of the local spring water.  The highlight of the rooms and arguably the most important feature on any stay such as this are the beds, which are large and very comfortable, full marks here for a good nights sleep!

The Hydro Facilities

Appart from the Kelo Sauna, one of the stand out features of The Malvern was its unusual but well thought out dual aspect hydrotherapy pool.  Half inside half outside there were plenty of places to settle down to a good buffing by the H2O.  Our favourite part of the pool was the top end outside with the counter current machine, its like a water treadmill, you keep swimming, but you stay planted on the spot, great for backstroke whilst staring at the stars…

The Thermal Facilities

All of the below areas are arranged to the side of the hydrotherapy pool, in the centre a large chalice collects ice dropping from the ceiling, to the side of this there are 4 foot spa seats.

The Kelo Sauna

For us the Kelo Sauna was our favourite part of The Malvern, made using wood found in the Artic Circle (not sure how sustainable that is!) the room was large, but due to the chunky timber, felt cosy, like you were deep inside a cave.  The temperature was wonderful and the secondary outside door ensured that no cold draughts found their way in.

The Salt Grotto

This room focuses on another strand of alternative therapy known as halotherapy (halo is Greek for salt).  The calming and detoxifying effects of halotherapy can support the immune, nervous and lymphatic systems. Additional benefits are reduced stress and headaches, increased energy, and better sleep patterns. Salt ions purify the air and may increase lung capacity and reduce physical ailments for adults, children and athletes. Treatments are recommended to help keep the body healthy during flu or allergy seasons.

The Crystal Steam Room

Like all the thermal spaces at The Malvern the steam room is huge and pretty empty even though the main pool area was busy, the fibre optic lighting is less cheesey than you might think and the large amethyst in the centre that gives the room its name was definitely giving off some healing energy (traditional use of the stone).  Unfortunately the same could not be said of the steam generator during our visit, the room being very much on the tepid side, though this may have been because we used it towards the end of the day.

The Herb Sauna

Unfortunately during out visit the Herb Sauna was out of action pending some maintenance, having a peek in through the door, this area looked far more like a traditional sauna than the unusual and far more authentic feeling Kelo Sauna

Treatments

During our visit we were lucky enough to be able to squeeze in a deep tissue back massage that lasted for a dreamy hour.  The therapists were very professional and set a lovely tone for the experience.  The treatment room itself was decorated and set out really well with atmospheric lighting (very important).  The massage used high quality Elemis products and was intense, we have tried our share of massages and quite often walk away from the table feeling limited benefit, this treatment was different and definitely created positive results.  We left this experience feeling relaxed but also invigorated ready for dinner.

 The Restaurant

Whilst the UK has very much undergone a culinary Renaissance in the past 15-20 years, you can’t always take it for granted that you’ll get something great when you leave our larger cities.  Browsing the menu mentions of Pithiviers and the like makes you think you’re back in a French Brasserie in the 90’s, what is wrong with calling a pie a pie?  Pretension is surely one of the worst traits of any restaurant, particularly when it cannot live up to the bill… Cutting to the chase on this matter, The Malvern’s restaurant actually punched above its weight.  The Pie was not too flacid and the option to have Polenta cakes was welcome by us vegetarians.  The main suggestion would be to include more healthy options on the menu, belly pork and fish and chips belong on a gastro pub menu rather than a health facility, but the team at the Malvern no doubt have to cater to the Rose guzzling masses that we encountered during our visit.  Favourite dishes were actually the deserts that were very good and not that huge which made them healthy choices right?

Final Thoughts

The Malvern is a modern spa hotel that has setup shop in fringes of a traditional spa town, Malvern.  The Look and feel of the place will not be to everybody’s taste and some of the fixtures are starting to show their age already but the facilities are generally very good, particularly the sauna.  From a service perspective, the staff were professional, particularly the massage therapists, but we felt that more could have been done to keep the pool area clean.  There were lots of empty cups and glasses left all over the place, not the zen like environment we had hoped for!  Food wise the quality of the cooking was good, but we would have liked to have seen more healthy choices.  Overall better than expected!