l TRY the Beyond Bliss Calming Ritual, a two-hour medley of warm-stone body massage, Thai foot massage

and a Visible Brilliance Facial (£114).

Ragdale Hall Health Hydro (01664 434831, www.ragdalehall.co.uk) has doubles for two nights from £498.

RONACHER SPA RESORT, AUSTRIA

If razor-sharp designer decor brings you out in a rash, try this Austrian resort, with log-stacked fires and a warm, welcoming atmosphere. Simone Ronacher, who runs the show, is a great ad for her spa. Slim, bright-eyed and wrinkle-free, she swears by the thermal waters that bubble to the surface in this Alpine region of Austria. So do the rosy-cheeked guests, here to soak in the hotel’s five thermal pools. (Some are alfresco: they’re the most fun, with steam rising before arresting mountain views.)

Inside are saunas, steam rooms, a saltwater grotto, and treatment rooms for every conceivable type of massage, scrub or wrap. Be prepared to bare all: Austrian spas have a tradition of mixed nudity (although nobody will mind if you’d rather preserve your modesty with a towel).

l TRY a 20-minute Hay body pack (£18), followed by a 75-minute Thai massage (£67).

Ronacher Thermal Spa Resort (00 43 424 0282, www.ronacher.com) is a member of Austria’s Finest Spa Hotels & Resorts (0845 101 1818, www.spa.austria.info). Doubles from £210, half board. Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies from Stansted to Klagenfurt from £20.

It’s dark, hot and sticky – but the road to Hell was ever thus. Descend to the underground thermal cavern (pictured opposite) at Grotta Giusti and you find yourself in Mother Nature’s hammam. The minerals in the rocks and the steamy heat (temperatures go up to 35ºC) are said to remedy a host of medical problems. And after 50 minutes, your skin will feel like a baby’s bottom. Verdi called the Grotta the ‘eighth wonder of the world’, and you may well agree, depending on the results. That said, it’s not for claustrophobics (or the fanatically squeamish).

l TRY a very squishy mud treatment, or go for a full-on Detox, which includes peels, facials, massages among the subterranean indulgence.

The Holiday Planner (020 8398 6332, www.theholidayplanner.co.uk) has three nights’ half board including flights from Gatwick to Pisa and transfers from £1,120; and five days’ half board with foThis steely, super-modern hotel is possibly Moscow’s sexiest. And the Quantum Health Club & Spa is one of the best cocoons from the city’s bleak mid-winter.

l TRY the 60-minute Russian Bath Treatment (£157): it’s a super-steamy take on the ritual in bath houses across Russia. A wall of sauna heat, intensified by water on searing stones, makes you sweat as honey is applied. You cold-plunge, then return to the steam to be slapped vigorously with soft, soaked, aromatic sheaves of birch and oak leaves. More sweat, a massage and sweet tea – it’s astonishingly revivifying.

Exeter International (020 8956 2756, www.exeterinternational.co.uk) has three nights’ B&B from £1,375, including visas and flights from Heathrow.

SIX SENSES, PORTO ELOUNDA, CRETE

This 21st-century super-spa delivers much more than an hour’s treatment and a glass of water. The hydrotherapy pool has views over the Elounda peninsula and the vast suite of hammams, saunas and ice pools is shadowed by the striking sculptures of Costas Varotsos, Greece’s answer to Antony Gormley. Treatments are all effective but pièce de résistance is the relaxation area: a galaxy of crystals above an infinity pool and a decadent chaise longue.

l TRY the Cleopatra Bath: a long soak in milk scented with aromatherapy oils (£39).

Essential Escapes (020 7284 3344, www.essentialescapes.com) has three nights’ half board with flights from Gatwick from £950.

TSCHUGGEN GRAND, SWITZERLAND
Designed by master architect Mario Botta, who restored La Scala in Milan, this is one of the most structurally striking spas out there. Carved into the mountainside in Arosa, set over four floors, it has nine striking glass-and-steel ‘trees’ that flood the building with light; the mile-high columns and towering walls of granite create a cathedral-like calm, particularly in the Waterworld hydrotherapy area, which comes with a splendid swim-through to the snowy outdoors.

l TRY its stress-busting Chinese acupuncture massage (£69).

Skitracer (0870 420 5782, www.skitracer.com) has three nights’ B&B from £1,098, including flights from Heathrow.

RED MOUNTAIN, UTAH, USA

This is the high-octane spa of choice for stressed execs. Set within the otherworldly Mojave Desert, it delivers an exhausting 12 hours of complimentary activities daily, from dawn bikes to moonlight hikes. Medical personnel assess your fitness using technology developed for NASA, chefs enhance your culinary prowess at cookery demonstrations, native American card readers will even forecast your future. Here’s one prediction: after an indulgent treatment, you will collapse into an aromatherapy bath drawn by your spa butler as (hopefully) the years ebb away.

l TRY the Desert Rain Massage – a full body massage using bath gel as warm rains shower down from above (£51).

Red Mountain, Utah (00 1 435 673 4905, www.redmountainspa.com) has doubles from £259, full board. Virgin (0870 574 7747, www.virgin-atlantic.co.uk) flies to Las Vegas from Gatwick, from £555; the bus transfer costs £40 return.

UTOCO DEEP SPA CENTRE, SHIKOKU ISLAND, JAPAN

Make-up master Shu Uemura chose Cape Muroto, on the remote Shikoku Island, as the location for his minimalist white spa because of the deep sea waters, said to be the purest in the world. Untouched by light and pollution, the water is extracted from 1,000m below: it’s milky with zinc, selenium and other minerals, and treatments maximise its unique health benefits. Afterwards, there’s a dramatic show from your room of typhoons squalling by: ‘living the sea’, as Uemura calls it.

l TRY an oil massage to relieve pain and de-stress (£50).

Japan Travel (020 7255 8283, www.japantravel.co.uk) has seven nights’ B&B, from £1,428pp, including flights from Heathrow and transfers to Shikoku Island.

MAYR HEALTH SPA, CARINTHIA, AUSTRIA

Identify what’s dysfunctional, then design treatments and a diet to put it right. That’s the aim of this spa-cum-clinic founded on the work of a research scientist, Franz Xaver Mayr. Tailor-made programmes range from Nordic walking to intravenous infusions. It’s bed by 9pm and a ‘milk and bread roll diet’. Departing guests swear they’ve never looked or felt so good. Sounds plausible, despite the starvation rations.

l TRY the Mild Drainage Therapy to rid your body of waste (£19).

360 Travel (020 7439 4319, www.360travel.co.uk) has a seven-night Individual Program, from £3,000 including Stansted flights.

LES FERMES DE MARIE, FRANCE

Ringed by the peaks of a chic ski resort, Mégève, this farm is just as pretty in summer: it’s an elegant chalet with popping hearths. Treatments are very Sound of Music – full use is made of edelweiss and other local plants – even if they’re not exactly going for a song.

l TRY the 80-minute Energetic Alps massage (£93).

Les Fermes de Marie, Mégève (00 33 45 093 0310, www.fermesdemarie.com) has doubles from £100. Easyjet (www.easyjet.com) flies to Geneva from Gatwick and Birmingham from £41 return.