All smiles in Lanzarote

Jul 13 2011

SURREPTITIOUSLY I eyed Yolanda Zapaterra’s chocolate truffle, which was waving at me from an elegant zen white plate. Yolanda didn’t want it. She wasn’t going to eat it. She blithely ignored it as she chatted. How could she do that? Resist, when it was so patently calling “come and get me”.

I tried not to look. I was supposed to be being good, re-energising my chakra, calming mind and spirit, respecting my body. But the dark chocolate devil was sorely testing my willpower. I focused instead on the shot of warming red cactus liqueur with which we were also each presented. Yum.

This was a curious way, indeed, to end a spa treatment. I’ve had massages, facials, seaweed wraps and the like in the past, but the post-treatment advice has always been to lie in a darkened room to “recover”.

Luxury chocolate and alcohol has never once figured in the “let’s all detox” equation. I must say this new, decadently alternative approach by the health and beauty spa at Lanzarote’s NH Hesperia hotel is a winner.

I had an aloe vera body massage – more gentle and relaxing than the Swedish or aromatherapy massages, neither of which, I noted on the spa menu, involved a chocolate supper. I definitely made the right choice.

Lanzarote, the eastern-most islands in the Canaries archipelago, has a museum devoted to aloe vera, which it cultivates widely for use in lotions and potions. Its use in massages was a speciality of our hotel spa and lived up to the preamble of being a totally chill-out experience.

NH Hesperia hotel guests can enjoy the entire spa area, where relaxation is the name of the game, as fellow journalist Yolanda and I discovered.

The indoor hydrotherapy pool is not really intended for swimmers. But active types needn’t despair: the hotel has three other luxurious pools outside. The spa one has in-built power showers and submerged jets from which additional water blasts out to pummel the body. Other facilities include hot tubs, aromatherapy showers, a steam room and sauna.

There were also two long, narrow pools filled with water to about 15in deep. One had hot stones along the bottom. It was easily long enough for two people to lie down in, one at each end. So we did, oblivious to strange looks flashed in our direction, until a kindly spa professional informed us it was a walk-through foot spa.

When it comes to unwinding, NH Hesperia offers the full works. It has a five-star listing, is spacious, friendly and comfortable. Nestling in a sheltered cove with its own beach, four restaurants, three bars including a poolside one, and spectacular views, many guests enjoy stress-busting holidays here without ever venturing out of the hotel.

But for those who like to explore, it is perfectly located within easy walking distance of the pretty marina town of Puerto Calero, a 15 minutes drive from the capital, Arricife, and the airport.

Because Lanzarote is so small no tourist attraction is more than an hour’s drive away and roads are blissfully congestion free.

Lanzarote survived a series of 18th century volcano eruptions which covered it in molten lava. It still bears the blackened scars, especially in the bleak but striking terrain of the 51 acres Timanfaya national park surrounding the volcano crater.

At Timanfaya you’ll see the famous fire devil motif by Lanzarote-born 20th century artist Cesar Manrique. He also designed a giant crab sculpture at Los Jameos del Agua, a house built into a cave where he once lived, now a museum and visitor centre occupied by tiny albino crabs.

Few crops will grow due to the inhospitable terrain, but islanders have developed a line in fine wines, with each vine grown in a mini ‘crater’ surrounded by a semi-circle of black stones to protect it from fierce winds. So unique is the system that Lanzarote is nicknamed “the vineyard of the impossible.”

As most food is imported there is a wide range of eateries, but for local specialities try mojo sauces sold in souvenir shops and on market stalls, along with cactus jam. Like NH Hesperia’s aloe vera massage with chocolate truffle and cactus liqueur, it is unusually appealing.

● Rooms at Hesperia Lanzarote (00 34 8280 80800 www.hesperia.com) from 80.85euros a night. Monarch Airlines (www.monarch.co.uk) ex-Manchester toLanzarote one-way from £45.99, including taxes and charges – luggage extra