You wouldn't imagine you'd find a Thai-style Hotel in the midst of Spain's most popular holiday coast, the Costa Blanca, however one of the best things about the Barcelo Asia Gardens Hotel and Thai Spa is that it feels as exclusive and remote as an authentic Thailand spa, and yet it's only 20 miles from Alicante airport.
This treasure trove of Thai-style architecture is set within an acre of lush gardens, nestling in the Sierra Cortina mountains, between Valencia and not far from Benidorm.
Everywhere you go around the 300-room complex you can hear water. The idea being that the sound of water gently relaxes you and melts away stress to allow only tranquillity. The gardens were built before the completion of the hotel, in 2002, which gives you a feeling that the gardens have their own life and have been growing beautiful flowers since well before the tourists arrived.
Going on holiday as a single parent can often be met with difficulty - nobody wants to talk to you by the pool and at meal times people avert their eyes, yet here we were taken aback at how friendly both the staff and other guests were.
My daughter joined in the Kids' Club activities with relish, as soon as she could and was very reluctant to ever leave and hang out with me. Although it did give me a valuable couple of hours to read or even sip a glass of wine on my own at one of the many terraced bars, I did end up missing her.
Our room had every luxury you could imagine, from two huge plasma screen televisions (which we didn't even get a chance to figure out how they worked), an Ipod dock and a balcony and bathroom with both wet room shower and bath.
There are seven swimming pools throughout the landscaped gardens, three of them heated and one with a replica of the face from the Cambodian Hindu Temple, Angkor Wat, as a backdrop, giving you the feeling you really could be deep in an Asian rainforest. The gardens are one of the most spectacular things about the hotel, jasmine flowers, rhododendrons, camomile plants, bonsai trees
and palm trees all jostle for space amongst the ponds within which goldfish swim.
Another charming aspect of the Barcelo Asia Gardens is its adjoining Spa, situated in the basement of the hotel. The clinic is overseen by Chinese medicine expert, Dr Roberto Carlos Solis Carini, here you can be diagnosed and treated for any ailment. Dr Carini has had a stream of celebrity clients visiting him, from Naomi Campbell to Bruce Springsteen. After a brief consultation, where my tongue was examined and he felt the pulse in my wrist, I was recommended for a traditional Thai massage and had my body deftly pummelled and pushed into shape by a tiny but very strong Thai lady, named Rattanaporn. She ran up and down the spine of my back with her bare feet — but it was remarkably painless afterwards.
The treatment room itself is like an Eastern palace, and you can sit outdoors on a wind-blown massage bed in one of the seven outdoor stilt houses, and have the scent of the mountain air sweep through, which I did for my next treatment.
The masseuse, Susanna Boateng from Austria, gave me what the Doctor prescribed, a Shiatsu massage (often favoured by Madonna, he said). Susannah had such a kind and sympathetic nature I almost fell asleep whilst she worked on my body and then did a fantastic treatment on my ears — rubbing her hands together and then gently placing them over my ears. She also advised that I should always go to bed before 10pm — to give the liver a chance to recuperate fully.
Afterwards I felt energised and refreshed, and ready to go and find my five-year-old daughter who had been whiling away the morning at the Kids' Club in a rehearsal for a Peter Pan show that night.
The Kids' Club is open all the year round, and has a full team of nine staff. Cleverly it is also situated right at the bottom of the gardens, so no noise can be heard for quite some distance.
Although the hotel offers a seven-day detox programme, don't expect to leave here much slimmer than when you arrived, as it could be hard to resist some of the food on offer. With three à-la-carte restaurants, and a well-stocked buffet with ever changing food and drinks, you'll be spoilt for choice. Langoustines, fresh sea bass and deliciously tender steaks can all be cooked right in front of you at the Udaipur Buffet restaurant, while if you prefer a more formal evening, the All Black restaurant has a no kids policy and requires a bit of dressing up.
There is also an Asian restaurant, Koh Samui, where we tried the most delicately spiced Green Curry. We loved the buffet breakfast with its traditional Spanish fare, including Pan Con Tomate (garlic, tomatoes and fresh bread) and many other treats including Serrano ham, eggs and the chocolate fountain (either white chocolate or dark), ideal for dipping strawberries.
When our time drew to a close at Barcelo Asia Gardens my daughter and I were sad to leave, we didn't even notice that we had not once ventured away from the hotel complex. This is a perfect spot for families, whatever their numbers, to enjoy some unwinding time in a safe and relaxed environment.
Barcelo Asia Gardens, Glorieta del Fuego s/n, Area del Parque, Tematico, Terra Mitica, 03502 Alicante, Spain (+34 902 10 10 01; barcelo.com). Room rates start at £144 per room per night.
