MaltaCORINTHIA HOTEL ST GEORGE'S BAY
While Malta isn't quite Europe's southernmost point, you can't go much further without setting foot in Libya. So topping up your vitamin D is a genuine year-round possibility on the island. Unsurprisingly, spas are big business here and one of the best to combine work and play is the Apollo in the Corinthia Hotel St George's Bay, a big wedding cake of a hotel 20 minutes from the airport. A large conference facility can hold receptions for up to 1,500, and there are two executive floors. The lavish spa offers packages running over four days, or a half-hour blitz when time is short. A Chocolate Body Wrap is the answer if you're craving something sweet, but have overloaded on the Christmas tin of Quality Street.
corinthia.com
BudapestDANUBIUS HOTEL GELLERT
Budapest is built over 118 natural hot mineral springs, something the tourist board promotes with endless pictures of men playing chess while up to their chests in bubbling water. So pack your pawns and check into the Danubius. Its stunning Art Nouveau architecture is tempered by less stunning 70s décor, but you'll have free access to the Gellert Spa next door. It's all marble pillars and vast sauna and steam rooms, and you can have a mud bath or a no-nonsense massage, or skip between 13 pools, some indoors, some out. All offer a different temperature and mineral content, and one even has a wave machine.
danubiushotels.comZurichTHE DOLDER GRAND
This whimsically designed building, with its fairy-tale turrets and wooden balconies, was originally built as a traditional health spa. It commands majestic city and lake views that, on a clear day, stretch all the way to the Alps. A four-year renovation by Foster and Partners has added curved glass wings with rooms featuring every gadget going; even the curtains are operated at the push of a button. The spa is a beautiful, Japanese-inspired space, with 19 treatment rooms and separate male and female areas, each with a sauna, steam bath, aroma pools and blissful relaxation rooms with real fires. And if you're not going skiing this year, get the same glow in the snow paradise room where you can rub yourself with ice.
thedoldergrand.comLisbon CoastTHE OITAVOS
One of the world's top golf courses, the Arthur Hill-designed Oitavos Dunes sits adjacent to this new hotel on the Atlantic coast around a 20-minute drive from Lisbon. Conference facilities include five meeting rooms and a ballroom with space for up to 300 delegates. There are four restaurants and 142 rooms decorated in a white and grey palette, designed to maximise light. But tee, and tea, time aside, it's the vast spa that is (another pun alert...) making waves. Seawater is the unifying factor behind the treatments, which make use of seasalt, algae and seaweed to scrub, polish and help detoxify skin.
theoitavos.com
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