Time For Two At Ikatan Spa
I’m sure you’ve heard the quote, the couple that plays together stays together? What about the couple that spa together? John Caruso reaps the rewards of a spa treatment designed for two, nestled in the idyllic Noosa hinterland, a short drive from Hastings Street.
For many of us, life is an endless routine of eat, sleep, work, repeat; interspersed with moments that hopefully bring joy, pleasure, and happiness. Often you need to break from the grind and spoil yo’self! For me, getting a massage is one of those things. Although, let me say, calling it simply a massage, doesn’t do it justice. Not when we’re talking about the kind of indulgent treatment on offer from one of Noosa’s premier day spas, Ikatan Spa.
Tucked away in lush tropical surrounds on Grays Road, Doonan, just seventeen minutes from Hastings Street, Ikatan Spa is a multi-award-winning destination, including scoring the Best Spa gong internationally four times!
For me, visiting a place like this seems an extravagance, however, as I’ve mentioned, once you get a ‘taste’, it’s one of those experiences that you feel you should have more often. There’s a desire to make these commitments to yourself a necessity, reasoning that what’s good for the body is super good for the mind and all things Zen will flow on effortlessly from there.
Speaking of keeping things Zen, the missus, who puts this whole thing that you’re holding in your hand together, does experience moments of, how should I put it, un-Zen, chaotic seismic shifts, so the opportunity to bring her along to a couples treatment would mean peace and tranquility for all of humanity. Or at least, for the Carusos! Happy wife, happy life – right?
The ‘Lokasi for Two’ treatment had a nice ring to it. Lokasi means location in Indonesian, and Ikatan is THE perfect location to be together with the one you love. A week out, and even though I wasn’t across the exact details of what the experience would offer, I couldn’t help but stop and ponder what our Saturday afternoon session would be like. I had this wave of calm and relaxation flow over me and a smile from across my face whenever I thought about it, or maybe, it was the thought of being kid-free. Perhaps a little from column A and a little from column B.
With our phones switched off, we breathed in the greenery and calm of the tropical gardens while sipping a herbal tea, defragging and settling the grey matter. The Lokasi experience starts with a 30-minute Asian head massage with your feet up on a footstool in the garden room. Have you ever had a head massage before a haircut and it’s felt so good that you’ve drifted off to sleep? Well, it’s like that, but even better. From the garden room, it’s a short stroll to a lemongrass scented, candle-lit room with two tables where you change into the disposable underwear and slip between the sheets on the massage table.
For the next 60 minutes, you’re in the hands of the well-trained specialists that make up Katrina and Nick’s Ikatan Spa team. There’s no thought of work, bills, kids or even what’s for dinner, you simply capitulate and hope it never ends. We took advantage of the opportunity to upgrade our treatment to include a dry body scrub and the missus added in some anti-ageing oil for the ultimate indulgence and relaxation. We were in heaven!
Back out in the garden room the missus and I are sitting, reflecting on the ‘journey’, book-ending the experience with something from Ikatan’s food menu, enjoying a glass of wine and a craft beer and contemplating when we can do it all again. Whenever ‘life’ feels like a hamster wheel, treat yourself and your better half to one of those ‘every now and then experiences’ more often. Why not? You’ve deserved it, right?
