The overpowering fort-like wooden gates belie the warmth and soothing waiting inside The Palms Spa — a lovely stone-paved portico with plenty of greenery and many vertical gardens welcomes you… to another large door!
But there’s plenty that needs to be walled and shut off from the bustling Nandidurga Road — traffic, noise, pollution, chaos. The hushed golden yellow interior is the beginning of the unwinding experience here.
A crisp spa menu lets you pick from a range of experiences, explained in detail. Many beckoning words and phrases vie for your attention — mandarin and mango, relax, relieve stress, complete detoxification, exfoliate, shea butter, supple, pomegranate body mask, radiant skin, stimulates circulation…
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The Spa’s partner Zahan Umrigar and his wife Anutha have handpicked the 60-minute aromatherapy massage as it best encapsulates what the Spa has to offer, they say. This is their first branch outside Mumbai.
Whisked into a spacious massage room, Thai masseuse Julie takes over. Almond oil mixed with a light essence of lavender is used in this gentle massage that employs neuromuscular therapy to relieve tension and stress. With a great sense of purpose Julie works her way from neck to toe, kneads out knots of stress and tension, twisting, flexing, tapping, polishing, applying the right amounts of pressure, in her trained moves, and finally, literally gently pulling stress out of the toes. Julie then makes the all-essential Thai move — she gets up on the massage table and across, to maintain a sense of symmetry and to be able to apply the right pressure, she says later, as she gives the shoulder and lower back a final deep-pressure kneading.
And then it’s a whole journey back towards the neck, the face and the head. The legs are crossed over to give the spine its full twist. The massage tapers off with the final tugging at your tresses and the built-up stress, and finishing off with the crowning ‘tapping’ of the head that signals the end of the massage.
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Or so you think, till you are seated up gently, and bent and plied with more stretches and moves that add the finishing touches to the massage before you are packed off to the pre-set steam sauna.
The Palms Spa checks on most good spa factors – ambience, courtesy, comfort levels determined before massage begins, communication during massage, complimentary steam, pricing, cleanliness.
The spa offers Balinese, Thai, detox herbal compress, sports massages and more, as well as body polishes, facials, and various packages like the jet-lag package and executive spa for men etc. Their Matrix Rhythm Therapy is meant to heal and restore muscle and tissue tone. Treatments start at Rs. 1,200.
The Palms Spa is at 10, Nandidurga Road, Benson Town. Call 41170555/41130555.