Bandung’s five relaxing spa experiences

By Icha Rahmanti

Sources Jakarta Post 

While it's hard to get bored in Bandung, with its wealth of food and shopping spots, you can get tired after a long-day visiting the city. For those of you who seek lavish ways to sooth your fatigue, Bandung offers some spa experiences that are not to be missed.

Here are The Jakarta Post Travel's picks of the top five spas in Bandung.

The Lammar’s Spa 

Avid spa addict Teta Halim always tried spa treatments wherever she traveled, before finally turning her big family mansion in Cipaku area into The Lammar’s Spa.

The establishment's opulent interior, with its combination of gold, purple and red shades, will appeal to your senses the moment you enter the lobby. This ambience continues throughout the 37 spa rooms. While they differ in styles and sizes, all the rooms are similarly lavish.

Popular treatments here include the Toraja Rejuvenating Ritual, which uses Toraja coffee as a key ingredient, and the Romantics of Lammar, which is specially designed for couples.

One of the newest treatments on offer is Red Wine Splendor. The 150-minute treatment, priced at Rp 855,000 (US$ 87.32), consists of the Thalasso Foot Ritual, a grapefruit body scrub, a red wine body massage, a grapefruit body mask treatment, a face massage and finally, a truly pampering bath in sparkling red wine.

The Lammar's Spa: Jl. Setiabudi 256A, Cipaku 

Opens daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. 

Edelweiss Spa, The Papandayan Hotel 

The Papandayan Hotel's Edelweiss Spa has its own niche.

It has separate steam rooms, saunas, whirlpools, Jacuzzi pools and relaxation lounges for men and women, which makes it ideal for small group treatment. Their massage boards are bigger and wider and more comfortable than what I normally find in other places.

Ask for spa therapist Dewi to get one of the place's best massages.

The 75-minutes Royal Body Treatment is a great offer. For just Rp 325,000 (excluding taxes), you will be pampered with a series of treatments, claimed to be derived from the classic rituals of a Javanese royal palace, including a skin scrub, a relaxing dip in the Jacuzzis and the steam room or sauna.

Edelweiss Spa: The Papandayan Hotel, Jl. Gatot Subroto 83 

Opens daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Prior booking is mandatory if you are not staying at the hotel. 

Gracia Spa Lembang

The moment you enter the final stretch of road leading to Gracia Spa, you will see refreshing tea plantations on both sides of the road, where inhaling the rejuvenating fresh air feels like you have already embarked on the first part of Gracia's spa therapy.

What Gracia lacks in treatment options, it makes up for with an awesome natural hot spring, which is the highlight of the whole Gracia Spa experience and is reportedly popular among Japanese and Korean tourists. In addition, the place also offers reflexology treatment.

Taking a dip in the hot spring is really fun and relaxing, especially during the evening, when the air in Lembang can get chilly.

The hot spring water therapy is especially recommended for families, as parents can enjoy a relaxing time together with their children.

Gracia Spa: Jl. Ciater Blok Dawuan, Ciater, Lembang 

The hot spring opens daily 24 hours, entrance fee: Rp 45,000 (adult) / Rp 25,000 (child) 

Martha Tilaar Salon & Day Spa 

The place's best-selling treatment is the Ginger Gold Treatment. Priced at Rp 388,000, the two-hour treatment offers a series of the usual spa treatments with a twist – all the products used have ginger as a key ingredient.

The body masking will make your skin sparkles with glittery gold and the bathing in the tub is just exotic, with the foamy warm water mixed with dried ginger and spices.

You can also try one of the steam boxes, designed like the ones from ancient Javanese royal beauty treatments.

Martha Tilaar Salon & Day Spa: Jl. Ciumbuleuit No. 83 

Opens daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Booking is closed after 7 p.m. 

The Spa, The Trans Luxury Hotel 

The moment you set foot in the The Trans Luxury Hotel's spa, which is rather obviously named The Spa, you will be greeted by the sweet musk of burnt aromatherapy oil and a bronze water bowl filled with floating flower petals.

The golden Balinese-style metal carving ornament instantly gives the place a traditionally-chic-yet-sumptuous feeling. 

The Spa hosts nine treatment rooms, including the huge Royal Couple room. The Spa manager, Ni Luh Suliati, said the place's most popular treatments were the 60-minute Dream Time Massage and the 150-minute Royal Bliss. The prices are Rp 325,000 and Rp 750,000, respectively.

The Dream Time Massage mixes Javanese and Balinese massaging styles, while the Royal Bliss is a combination of a Dream Time Massage, a choice of jasmine lavender body scrubbing or body masking sessions, and a relaxing bath in a couple-sized whirlpool.

Aside from the lavish interior atmosphere, the small details scattered around the place also makes The Spa even more satisfying.

Such details include the bells used to mark the beginning and end of a treatment, the bath salts used in foot treatments and relaxing baths, and the relaxing aromatherapy oil below the massage boards.

The Spa: The Trans Luxury Hotel, Jl. Gatot Subroto 289

Opens daily from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Quality: Being located at a shop house on Jl. Ciumbuleuit doesn't stop Martha Tilaar Salon & Day Spa Bandung from giving you the best service.

Award-winning spa: Having just celebrated its first anniversary, The Lammar's Spa has won several awards including one from the Tourism and Creative Economy Minister.

All about ginger: The Ginger Gold Treatment is Martha Tilaar Salon & Day Spa's most popular treatment. Ginger has the ability to smoothen the skin and is also great as antioxidant and detox agent

Exotic bath: The Martha Tilaar Spa's Ginger Gold Treatment offers a series of the spa treatments with ginger as a key ingredient, including a bathing in this tub, where the foamy warm water mixed with dried ginger and spices.

Bigger. The massage board at Edelweiss Spa The Papandayan Hotel is bigger and more comfortable than the average massage board use in other spa. (Photo courtesy of The Papandayan