A few weekends ago my sister and I went to Clarice House in Bury St Edmunds for a day of relaxation and pampering to celebrate her 30th birthday.

I booked our package through Spa Seekers, which was fine and I got an awesome deal, but what wasn’t mentioned, at any point, was that our package didn’t include robe and towel hire, so whilst I would recommend both Spa Seekers for the deals and Clarice House for the loveliness I will say now you need to make sure that your package includes everything you assume it would.

Our package included an hour long massage, 30 minute facial, 30 minute manicure and 30 minute pedicure, as well as lunch and use fo the facilities. Pure bliss.

As we were told to arrive for 8.45am and there was nearly 2 hours worth of driving to be done before we arrived I also booked us in for breakfast, I really wanted this to be a treat for the birthday girl.

On arrival we were just shown to the bar, no names taken or anything like that, so we had a word with the bar staff and explained we were booked in for breakfast at 8.30am but we needed to check into the Spa at 8.45am and they sorted everything out for us whilst we enjoyed some fabulous scrambled egg and smoked salmon, yummy.

Next we went back to reception to start our spa experience and were again just popped into the bar to wait. When we were seen we were given the news that we didn’t have the robe hire included and that it would be an additional £10 each to hire a robe and towel for the day, but don’t worry we would get to keep the spa branded bag we didn’t need nor want and the free flip flops. This minor but quite expensive detail did spoil the day for us, we couldn’t get over it, like we could spa without a robe and like it is worth £10 to hire, HIRE, a robe and towel. There was also the fact that I wanted to spoil my sister for the day, so I couldn’t make a fuss and now she felt obliged to pay for her robe and towel, it is not what I wanted. Even now, three weeks later writing this up, I am still really annoyed by this.

We were given a schedule of our treatments and our lunch booking that was very well thought out and really nicely spaced out. With our massage before lunch, then a facial after lunch, a nice break and the manicure and pedicure scheduled at the end of the day before we left.

The treatments were some of the best I have ever had and I am well versed in the world of spa. With attentive and talented therapists our hour long full body massage was wonderful, they checked what kind of pressure we liked (firm) and if we had any problem areas (shoulders and tension) and then set to work. My sister and I may be very different in many ways, but when it comes to a good spa and treatments we are in sync. Both of us left with a firm telling off about the tension we were carrying and instructed to rest and drink water then try and steam away the tension! But it was wonderful, really wonderful.

They also swung my sister to the delights of a facial, with very sensitive skin, she has been put off with previous poor experiences, but our wonderful therapists talked her through the products, tested them on her and ultimately left us both with lovely skin and even more relaxed.

Lunch was also amazing, two courses of our choice and my darling little sis treated us to a glass of fizz each. Perfect. I had the soup of the day to start and we both had the veggie enchiladas for our mains. We were impressed with the vegetarian selection and the size and presentation of our meals. Delicious.

With lovely newly refitted changing rooms. A nice pool area and plenty of places to sit and chill out I would go back to Clarice House a heartbeat! Delightful. I will just be checking that my robe hire is included.

This is not a review I was asked to do, I just wanted to share my experience with you all.