One major plus that the Grand Millennium’s new spa has going for it is its punctuality in opening. For example, some of the city’s other new five-star hotels (which we won’t name to protect the innocent) have been promising they’d have their own decadent spas within weeks of being launched, yet months later their promise of a plush retreat is still in the pipeline.
By contrast, the very second the Grand Millennium Al Wahda had rooms ready for the public, the first guests to step over the threshold were able to book massages, facials and a host of other luxurious treatments to help them unwind from the strains of city life at the Zayna Spa.
And, what with good timekeeping being about as rare as a snowman in this country, the Grand Millennium’s stance was highly refreshing. The spa itself claims to be the largest in the city and is spread out over two floors of the hotel, with 10 different treatment rooms, all of which are named for different languages’ words for ‘beauty’.
Decor-wise, it’s pleasant enough. The interior is far from being the most decadent in the city, kitted out with your usual low-level blue-tinged lighting, clusters of pot plants and water features. While, as for the treatments themselves, prices are on the higher end of the scale, but that’s what you’d expect from a five-star hotel. For example, the Zayna Experience For Men, the marathon two-and-a-half hour session we opted for, cost us a gold card damaging Dhs1,220.
The treatment we had was good, but, maybe lying on a massage table for 150 minutes is too much pampering for one person, as with about 30 minutes to go we’d emerged from a state of bliss and were itching to go home and see what was on the television
Our wonderfully named therapist Godpray started the treatment with about 30 minutes of washing, scrubbing and massaging our feet. Unfortunately, this is the area of our body we hate being touched the most, but we were too polite to ask him to stop. Next, we were slathered in oils and rubbed from head to toe. A very pleasant experience, but if we have one complaint, Godpray could have put a bit more effort into ironing those knotted muscles in our back. Next time, Godpray, more thumb work in the small of our back please.
The highlight of the experience for us, though, was the facial, which, according to Godpray, we were desperately in need of. Apparently we have both dry and oily skin (is this possible?), as well as blocked pores. Thankfully, our therapist went to work on them with an array of scrubs and washes, spending at least 45 minutes refreshing our fatigued epidermis, before finishing it off with a rejuvenating scalp massage.
So, would we recommend Zayna Spa? The answer is probably yes. There are better spas in the city, and ones that won’t cost you many dirhams more for a similar experience. But, with its laid-back ambience, extensive menu and mall-side location, Zayna has a lot going for it. But, best of all, it’s open and ready for business, and that’s half the battle already won.
Zayna Experience for Men, two-and-a-half hours, Dhs1,220 . Zayna, Grand Millennium Al Wahda, Hazza Bin Zayed Street (02 443 9999)
