About eighteen months ago I visited Whittlebury Hall Spa for the day with my Mum. We had a marvellous time and it really was somewhere I wanted to revisit.

Well the opportunity came up when I was invited to the Hen Party of a work colleague, Sarah-Louise. I was thrilled to have been invited and promptly paid my money and marked it down in my calendar.

The date eventually rolled around and I packed my little case, filled the car with wine and set off for the hour long drive to the Spa.

Stunning flowers in Reception

Arriving around 11am, I checked into the reception, where they took my case from me and promised to deliver it to my room.

Reception

I took my swim bag and Kindle through to the Spa and entered the luxurious changing rooms to get ready.

Pure Luxury

The rest of the party had already arrived and were in the saunas and whirlpools. I met with them all and decided that the whirlpool was the first place I wanted to be.

Swimming Area

The bubbles and high power shower jets soothed my neck and back muscles and I could feel my stresses melting away. Sadly I had not slept well the night before and I was shattered!

Ewa Michalak St Tropez bikini

Moving through into the main swimming area, the sun was shining through the windows and it was just glorious. The pool area is designed with roman style columns and frescoes and is very relaxed. I parked my stuff on a relaxing curved lounger and got ready to chill out.

On went the earphones and I brought up my book on the Kindle.

Earphones on

To be fair, I didn’t last too long. Apparently a couple of the ladies came over to see if I wanted to go to another part of the spa with them. But I was fast asleep!

I woke about an hour later and felt much better. It was almost time for lunch so I got myself ready and went to find the others.

Lunch is a buffet affair, with many options including healthy and vegetarian. I started by having a look at all the different foods and then made my decisions which to try.

Buffet style

There was pulled pork with tacos, rice, jacket potatoes, cod with tomatoes and even butternut squash and sweet potato ravioli. Cold meats, Mackerel and pulses were also in abundance and I tried one or two of them.

Dessert was fruit salad which I didn’t have as I was full from the main course.

Fruit Salad

As part of our deal we had a treatment booked in the afternoon, our evening meal and a lovely twin room which I was sharing with another colleague.

Twin Room

The room was fantastic. Twin beds, Jack and Jill sinks and a great shower.

Jack and Jill

Power Shower

One of the best things about Whittlebury is that they have a quiet area. This is filled with sections which are closed off by voile curtains. Inside each section is a heated waterbed with a thick duvet. It is dark and relaxing and so quiet.

Or it should be.

Heated Waterbeds and Duvets…

Sadly, I popped myself into one of the beds to have a little relax and in the section next door were two women who wouldn’t know the meaning of the word quiet. They laughed, cackled, gossiped, moaned and generally made a fuss.

I did the normal British thing of sighing and hmphing loudly, all to no avail. Eventually I found myself leaving this beautiful haven as I was feeling far from relaxed. In fact I wanted to throttle the pair of them with my earphone cord!

Luckily we had a treatment as part of our package.

Doric Columns

My treatment was a back massage, which I really did need as I was struggling with chronic pain issues and I was hoping it would help a little.

To say it helped is an understatement. When I came out of the room I felt like a completely new person. My chronic pain had diminished and I was loose and happy.

I went back into the spa area and hit some of the saunas and solariums before it was time to go to the room and get ready for dinner.

Showering and washing my hair, I debated on what to wear for dinner. It is quite a posh place, so I thought maybe the Olive Voodoo Vixen gown, but taking advice from my colleague Kim, I decided that may be a little too warm and went for my Pin Up Girl Clothing dress in lime and pink.

Pin Up Girl Clothing

Matching a flower in my hair, I was all set to dine and party.

We congregated in one of the rooms where there was an abundance of prosecco and rose and the party really started. Well. started in a genteel way! Apart from the sparkly penis straws and sweets!

Ladies who Spa!

Dinner was included in the cost of the stay, however you could upgrade a few dishes and I decided to do this.

An Evening of Fun

My starter was Tea smoked duck breast, prune and lime puree, marmelade brioche with a warm duck ragu.

Main Menu

The starter came and it was out of this world. The ragu on marmalade brioche was hidden under a glass cloche. It looked too pretty to eat. But tuck in I did and it was amazing!

Duck two ways

I had upgraded on the main course which was a 28 day aged slow cooked beef fillet, smoked butter mash, tenderstem broccoli, sweet onion soubise and a warm cheddar cheese and potato custard.

Main Course – Delicious!

I have to say it was probably the best main course I have ever had in my life. The beef melted in your mouth and all the flavours really blended together. I could have eaten it twice over, it was THAT good!

Now, dessert was included but I was so full that I didn’t think I could manage it. Then I saw the menu.

Desserts

I literally struggled to choose between the first four desserts but finally settled on the Creme Brulee, as it is one of my top 3 favourites,

I have to say, it really didn’t disappoint and I was totally satisfied when it came to the end of the meal. I literally couldn’t eat another thing.

Creme Brulee

I was ready for bed, but this is when the real fun started.

During the course of the meal I had been conscious of a table of men opposite who kept staring at us. Like literally all through the night. They couldn’t stop watching what we were doing.

I mentioned this to chief troublemaker, Joanna. First Mistake.

Chief Troublemaker

Joanna simply got up and went over to the table. A lively discussion followed and she handed all of the men a penis straw and told them they were some of the rare chosen few.

When she returned to the table, she divulged that they were at a training course for Volkswagen. Well, that got another of our party Kim up and striding over there!

The Special Lady herself

She was having an issue with her VW and wanted to know what they could tell her. Big mistake.

They told her a tall tale, hoping she would fall for it and roped in a couple of other people to try and make it seem like it was true. Kim, being pretty savvy didn’t believe them!

We left the dining room and went down to the bar area.

This is where we were totally outnumbered. Our group were the only women in the whole room. Totally dominated by men AND the decor which was a tribute to Silverstone and the motor racing community, we felt a little out of place.

Several of the ladies went upstairs to replenish the glasses, leaving four of us in the bar including the bride to be.

Selfie with the Bride to Be

A pleasant gentleman by the name of Chris came over and asked a few questions about the wedding, what we were doing and if we had a good time. Chatting away with him, we didn’t realise how our evening was going to change.

Before we know it, 3 Scottish fellows came over asking about the wedding and what we were all doing there. For some reason we decided to pull a prank and tell them Chris was our gay best friend and he had come for some spa pampering with us.

Well, they just couldn’t believe it.

However, Chris was AMAZING.

Not only did he go along with the prank, he embellished it completely. TWO hours later and he was Julian who had spent the day having a manicure and a back massage. He loved to chill out with the ladies and that is why he had come on the hen night.

By this point, the whole of the bar thought he was called Julian and he was getting drinks left, right and centre!

What was even funnier is that he was due to be on a course with 90% of these people in the morning, who all believed he was called Julian!!

Of course, we had to get a selfie with him as he had totally made our night. I can’t remember when I have ever laughed so hard!

The Epic Julian (Chris)

Eventually we went upstairs to bed. On the way though we may have decorated some French designers laptops with sparkling penis stickers (and a bit of the surrounding hotel)

Some of the party were ready to sleep, however 4 or 5 of us were ready for more so we all hit one room (the coolest one) and had a few more drinks.

Around 0130 we decided to hit the hay and I have to say that the bed was amazingly comfortable. The only issue I had was that the room was tropical!

A bit tipsy…..

It was only the next day that we realised that the central heating was on full at 24 degrees and that was why we were melting!

We had arranged to meet at breakfast which was a fabulous affair.

There was everything from full English, to prunes, yoghurts, pastries, granola, cold meats and more.

To try and soak up some of the alcohol I went with the full English which was amazing.

Breakfast!

Eventually the parties split up as several had to go to work or had other activities to do.

Breakfast Time

Luckily the amazing Kim (my roomate) had come with alcohol testing kits which the drivers took to make sure they were totally safe to drive. What a great idea after a heavy night out!

The last thing I did before leaving was collar one of the ladies into taking some photographs of me. They had a vintage style telephone and it was too good an opportunity to miss out!

London 2147, how can I help you?

I got home mid morning and wished I could have taken a long nap. Sadly I had an exam to revise for the next day, so I put my learning head on and spent the next 9 hours going through my sign language training.

Finally I would like to say thank you to all the ladies for making this experience a fun, amazing time. I can’t wait for the wedding and the chance to get everyone together again!

Till next time,

Txx