Welcome to the ultimate wellness playground
THE BODYHOLIDAY BEACHSIDE HIDEAWAY IN ST LUCIA IS THE PERFECT PLACE TO SWITCH OFF AND UNWIND, SAYS
AS FAR as A-list wellness resorts go, BodyHoliday in the Caribbean has quite the pedigree.
The original St Lucian sanctuary has been bringing zen to its wellheeled clients for the past 30 years, playing host to celebrities like Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman.
Built into a secluded beachfringed hillside near the popular Rodney Bay, the privately owned all-inclusive resort enjoys yearround sunshine.
And with a world-class spa, golf academy and water sports centre on site, there’s an equal amount of adventure and indulgence to soothe stress. Think of it like the ultimate wellness playground you’ll never want to leave.
Not your average resort
It’s easy to be sniffy about all-inclusives, but BodyHoliday doesn’t feel like your regular resort where you’re fighting tooth and nail with other guests for space.
It has just 155 rooms in total, which range from simple but comfort-friendly garden rooms, to luxury oceanfront views with squishy king-sized beds and sweeping balcony views out to the Cariblue Bay, where you can lazily watch fisherman bringing in the day’s catch.
If you’re looking to splash the cash and want to make like the wellness elite, check into one of BodyHoliday’s sprawling Junior Suites set in a split-level villa (there are three in total) further up the hillside. What you enjoy in privacy, you pay for in a thigh burn though: you’ll need to hike your way up a number of meandering wooden steps to get to and from the resort.
A 360-degree wellness experience
One thing to know about BodyHoliday is that they focus on treating guests using a blend of Eastern and Western philosophies.
The Barnard family, who own the property, believe wellness has four pillars: diet, exercise, restorative beauty and relaxation. As such, you’ll find everything from a stateof-the-art, CrossFit-style gym, to a purpose-built ‘Ayurvedic’ pavilion in the wellness centre. (In case you’re not up on your wellness trends, Ayurveda is an ancient Indian healing system which promotes balance between the body and mind by using holistic practices.)
The all-inclusive rate generously includes a daily 50-minute spa treatment, so I started each morning with a soothing massage, facial, body scrub, body wrap or a hydrotherapy treatment. Their abhyanga massages are particularly fantastic – a therapist slathers your body in hot oil and massages any knots and tightness from tension areas.
There are additional treatments you can pay extra for too, including reiki, osteopathy, acupuncture, Thai massage and hypnotherapy, and on-site, you’ll also find a specialised skin clinic with Skinceuticals and Thalgo treatments, nail, hair and make-up services, and an infra-red sauna.
The option to set your ideal holiday pace is definitely one of the resort’s main draws, if like me, you hate having to do admin. Ahead of your stay, simply log-on to the BodyHoliday website and choose your treatments and activities. A handy tablet in each room shows your daily itinerary.
One of the more interesting offerings at the resort is the BodyScience clinic, a high-tech concept that uses a combination of DNA testing, 3-D heart-mapping, iridology and Ayurvedic techniques to help you feel your best.
Analysing an array of personal data and diagnostics, the in-house doctors use your results to suggest a bespoke health programme that’s tailored to your needs, whether that’s a specialised diet, nutritional supplements, body treatments, or meditation and yoga. (Prices start from about £2,060, additional to the price of a stay.)
A feast for body and soul
If you’re on a total wellness cleanse, BodyHoliday can help set you on the right path, with immunity shots and healthy salads available from the Wellness Cafe for lunch.
The relaxed Cariblue restaurant has a virtuous a la carte dinner menu that’s marked with gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan and Ayurvedic choices, so it’s easy to eat well throughout the day.
Thankfully, there are no caloriecontrolled menus or punishing juice diets.
One of my favourite spots was I-TAL, a farm-to-fork private dining experience that’s set in a wooden treehouse high up in the lush hillside jungle. I-tal is the name for the Rastafarian vegan diet, believed to improve energy and our connection to the universe.
Usually, guests can forage for their own food in the gardens and help to cook up their dishes under the tutelage of chef Julienne, but with Covid restrictions still in place, you simply need to turn up and tuck in.
Getting out and about
As well as blissed-out relaxation, you’ll want to roll up your sleeves and get involved in some adrenaline-pumping adventure too.
All activities are included, meaning you can do as much or as little as you fancy and you won’t be stung with a hefty bill at the end of your stay.
There are fitness classes throughout the day, ranging from gentle sunrise yoga out on the hotel’s wooden jetty to high-intensity HIIT sessions in the gym. One thing to note is that the hotel has monthly ‘themes’. I was there in ‘Solo’ September where the classes were super interactive and designed to bring solo travellers together.
You can try your hand at land sports like archery, golf, tennis and cycling, as well as pool volleyball and aqua fitness. What’s great about BodyHoliday is that they make use of the incredible beachside location with an ASAaccredited sailing club, where you can learn to sail, race and crew in the Caribbean sea. Plus, there’s also a PADIcertified scuba school. Each guest gets a complementary diving lesson, and for an extra cost, you can take a full diving course.
St Lucia has some incredible dive sites; from reef dives to underwater wrecks. We spent a day enjoying a boat trip from the resort to a spectacular marine park at the base of the famous Piton mountains in the south, which is renowned for its tropical marine life, including parrot fish, trumpet fish, sergeant majors, Moray eels and sardines.
What’s truly great about BodyHoliday is the sense of community – it’s luxury without pretension. In a climate where one in six people take solo holidays, the resort is a safe, friendly and welcoming place to spread your wings and ‘find yourself,’ meet other friendly people or simply enjoy some time away to reflect. With the Caribbean ocean lapping your toes, the sun beating down on your skin and no place to be except for a massage table or a beach lounger, it’s hard not to leave feeling restored.
Thankfully, there are no caloriecontrolled menus or punishing juice diets
ZOMBIES, vampires and werewolves all found a welcoming home in the Hammer horror films.
They promised a scary night out at the movies for cinema audiences and there was always some evil lurking in the shadows and a damsel in distress in need of rescuing.
The London-based production company was founded in 1934, but focused on making a string of hit Gothic horror films from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involved classic horror characters such as Baron Victor Frankenstein, Count Dracula, and the Mummy. Produced in the early days of special effects and on “minuscule” budgets, they still managed to thrill audiences.
The Curse of the Werewolf in 1961 was its only werewolf film and gave Oliver Reed his first starring movie role. He was paid £90 a week to play the cursed Spaniard Leon and it is said he used to enjoy giving motorists a fright by driving home after filming still wearing his make-up.
Many famous acting stars made their names in the Hammer movies. Sir Christopher Lee appeared as Frankenstein’s creature in the 1957 film The Curse of Frankenstein and a year later was getting his teeth into the title role of Dracula. Peter Cushing played Dr Frankenstein in the first movie and vampire hunter Van Helsing in Dracula. Their on screen collaborations would lead to a life-long friendship between the two actors.
Christopher Lee, who stood 6ft 5ins tall, later said of his role in Frankenstein: “I was asked to play the creature chiefly because of my size and height which had effectively kept me out of many pictures I might have appeared in during the preceding 10 years.”
Peter Cushing also appeared in several Hammer movies over 20 years, often playing the character battling an evil nemesis. He said he approached every role seriously and remembered of The Curse of Frankenstein “no-one had any idea it would be successful. It took the world by storm.
“The whole thing cost £65,000. You wouldn’t be able to get a lead actor for that today”.
The horror flowed on with films like
Plague of the Zombies in 1966. The Mummy’s Shroud came out the following year and warned “Beware the beat of the cloth-wrapped feet!” as a Mummy went on a murderous rampage killing archaeologists.
The budget wouldn’t stretch to a location shoot in Egypt. The cast and crew settled for the less arid Bray Studios in Berkshire. Christopher
Lee’s stunt double, Eddie
Powell, played the Mummy.
The Vampire Lovers in 1970 saw Ingrid Pitt play the female vamp. She later admitted it was hard to stop giggling on set because every time she tried to bite her co-star Kate O’Mara her fangs fell out into Kate’s cleavage.
Valerie Leon, best known for her Carry On films, got the chance to scare film audiences in Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb, which also came out in 1971. She
played a reanimated Egyptian queen.
British star Glynis Johns appeared in 1973 movie Vault of Horror – an anthology of five stories – in a segment called The Neat Job.
By the mid-70s Hammer’s gothic horrors had started to fall out of favour.
The studio’s last major horror film would come just three years later with To the Devil a Daughter in 1976.
It featured Honor Blackman, Denholm Elliot and the return of Hammer regular Christopher Lee as a rogue priest heading a cult.
Christopher passed away in 2013 at the age of 93. The star once said: “I’ve always acknowledged my debt to Hammer... They gave me this great opportunity, made me a well-known face all over the world, for which I am profoundly grateful.”
The original studio’s last film was a remake of Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, shortly before liquidation in 1979.
But in a twist worthy of any of its best films, the Hammer name rose from the grave in 2007, when the iconic brand was purchased by Dutch producer John de Mol, going on to have horror hits with The Woman in Black and The Quiet Ones.
Long may the Hammer scares continue!
MARION McMULLEN