THE SPA AT SUN VALLEY LODGE, IDAHO, USA

A brand-new spa was added to the iconic Sun Valley Lodge when it was renovated in 2015, ensuring visitors could be pampered from head to toe after a day on the ski slopes in winter, or a day hiking, biking or golfing in summer. The spa is truly spectacular; even the reception area-cum-shop is gorgeous, with clever gas fires acting like pieces of art on the walls and divine winter fashions and outdoor wear proving hard to resist. Escorted up in the elevator, we emerge to beautiful views over the huge heated pool, before heading into a change room to don robe and slippers. Suitably attired, I wait in the elegant ladies’ relaxation lounge with a hot herbal tea and a good magazine, before my therapist appears, levitating me into our treatment room – one of 15 in the 1858 sq. m complex. I am treated to the 50-minute Signature Massage, with my magician, sorry, masseuse, teasing, smoothing and unknotting my tight muscles with the perfect amount of pressure and rhythm. Stumbling out of the room in a happy daze, I study the spa menu while lolling about in the women’s lounge area, planning what to do next.

With a full service salon, yoga studio, enormous gym, steam room, sauna, hot tub, pool and café, and pages of other massage treatments to choose from, I decide I could stay here, in the spa, for a week. But alas, the snowy delights of Bald Mountain await outside, vying for my attention. Is there any better way to spend a day? I don’t think so. sunvalley.com/the-spa