SpaTech
SpaTech – Special Engineering & Design Consultancy
THE SpaTech presents it Six Senses Spa in Porto Elounda
THE COMPANY:
SpaTech was founded in 2004 by Fotis Kokotos based in Crete, with the aim of building the famous - now - Six Senses Spa in Porto Elounda. Since then, he has designed and executed several spa projects in hotel units and holiday homes, despite the reduction in investment during the five-year period 2009-2014. SpaTech's most recent project was the design of a spa of more than 4000 square meters in a hotel unit under construction in Halkidiki.
THE PLAY:
No matter how glowing the descriptions you may have heard about the Six Senses Spa in Porto Elounda, nothing can prepare you for the real experience. The concept and architecture are unique and the spa services simply indescribable. One could try all day, but only by walking through the heavy wooden doors will one feel how wonderful this spa is. Another world.
The reception area immediately foreshadows what follows: a space with beautiful wooden floors around a pebble lake and glass bridges over the water. On one side a huge window with glass drops, the work of the famous sculptor Kostas Varotsos, while on the other a stone wall that reaches the sky. At the reception desk and the store they wait with a smile and exude a calmness that introduces the philosophy of the place. It is no coincidence that since the first year of operation it won the London Times award as the best spa in the world!
Reception at Six Senses Spa
No matter how glowing the descriptions you may have heard about the Six Senses Spa in Porto Elounda, nothing can prepare you for the real experience. The concept and architecture are unique and the spa services simply indescribable. One could try all day, but only by walking through the heavy wooden doors will one feel how wonderful this spa is. Another world.
The reception area immediately foreshadows what follows: a space with beautiful wooden floors around a pebble lake and glass bridges over the water. On one side a huge window with glass drops, the work of the famous sculptor Kostas Varotsos, while on the other a stone wall that reaches the sky. At the reception desk and the store they wait with a smile and exude a calmness that introduces the philosophy of the place. It is no coincidence that since the first year of operation it won the London Times award as the best spa in the world!
From the reception one can give in to the temptation to continue straight through the large glass door, but it is necessary to pass through the changing room, where a private locker awaits with all the essentials: bathrobe, towels, slippers and much more . Only then does one enter the Tepidarium and - really - it's worth the wait, because the space is breathtaking! Old style marble floors, pumice stone walls, a pebbled river in the middle, and the indoor pool with a view… what a view! The blue of the Aegean shimmers beyond the green of the golf course.
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Oval glass lake
- Suddenly, absorbed in the view, one realizes that the ceiling is actually a huge oval glass pool through which natural light filters through the waves of water. So water everywhere: flowing in the river, flowing in the pool, rippling in the lake, and everywhere outside the windows. A dip in the warm thalassotherapy pool, where the heat opens the pores of the skin and beneficial ions flow into the body, and play with the jets and water cannons, culminating in the bubble beds from where one can enjoy the view of the bay Mirabellou. For many hours of enjoyment!
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Thermal Suite & Ottoman Hammam
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Leaving the lake the experiences continue. The Thermal Suite is next door and offers its warm cabins: a traditional Finnish sauna and a Saunarium, which is milder, with less heat and more humidity, so one can stay much longer and detox comfortably. Ideally, this is followed by a dip in the adjacent frozen pool, but be careful: no matter how hot it is in the sauna, this cold is bitter! After this refreshing dip, it's time for the Calidarium, a cabin inspired by Roman baths that is actually a steam room. Then a special icy shower, then another special rain shower, then a little more heat, then more cold… and on and on. This can last all day! Fortunately, a tranquil relaxation room and lush garden are just steps away, for relaxation and rehydration.
As if the experiences of the Thermal Suite were not enough, a traditional Ottoman hammam unfolds on the other side. In Ottoman culture, hammams began as annexes to mosques, but quickly evolved into institutions and, eventually, monumental complexes. Here at Six Senses Spa, the hammam is an independent area consisting of five rooms: after the entrance hall one goes through the ayaklik to leave one's shoes and then the traditional foot bath to put on the wooden sandals. This is followed by a hot shower and then the sicaklik, the large domed hot room where natural light pours in through colored glass blocks, where the heat and humidity soften the skin as you pour water over yourself with a hamamtasi. When the hamamanasi calls you, you enter the halvet, the warm room, where soaping and kese scrubbing takes place on warm tables. Finally, you pass through the soğukluk, the cool room, for a relaxing oil massage. It is common to rest after the hammam experience and not uncommon to take a nap, which is why the spa offers a quiet relaxation room, the aralik, right next to the hammam. It is no exaggeration to say that this is a divine oriental experience.
Private treatments
One of the best things about Six Senses Spa is that all private treatments are performed on a specially designed floor, completely separate from the baths. It is reached by a masterful circular staircase in the center of which is dominated by the glass helix by Kostas Varotsos. Arriving there, he discovers that through the oval glass pool the swimming pool is visible below, while around it are arranged a multitude of rooms that can be connected in various ways to create couples' areas, thalassotherapy areas and large suites available for the entire day. There are three such suites, all with a view of the vast ocean.
The first consists of the Cleopatra room, with its milk-filled bathtub, the water mattress room for wrap treatments in a warm cocoon, and two double massage rooms with an outdoor jacuzzi for hydrotherapy in the sun. The second also has two massage rooms and an outdoor jacuzzi, but also a private sauna and a private steam room, so that wet and dry treatments are combined in a continuous program. At the top of the pyramid of exclusive experiences is the Grand Suite, which is a miniature spa within a spa, with more than 150 square meters of space. Available for a group of friends who want to enjoy the Six Senses Spas experience in perfect seclusion. This suite can, in fact, be joined with the entire hammam complex, creating one of the largest spa suites in the world.
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Epilogue
- When one comes out of this magical journey, one sees the world with different eyes. Everything seems calm, everything seems peaceful, everything is harmonious. Now that all five senses are balanced, a sixth sense, intuition, triggers the mind to face life with a new perception: that which only the Six Senses Spas experience can provide.
