Portavadie – a Spa Day on Loch Fyne
A few hours.
The route
Portavadie's spa sits on the shore of Loch Fyne, with a hydro pool, a Scandinavian sauna, a steam room and a relaxation room whose floor-to-ceiling glass looks across the water to Arran.
Book two hours in the spa, add a seaweed bath if you like, then have lunch in the marina restaurant watching the yachts. It's a slow, warm day away for grown-ups, and it's all under one roof.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is The Hollies, 4 miles away. Sleeps 18.
Book Portavadie Spa Experience
Book the Spa Experience at Portavadie online or on 01700 800534 before you go: two hours from £30 for over-18s, with a seaweed bath from £69 (16 and over), at the time of writing; book a table in the Marina Restaurant for lunch after.
The day
Portavadie
Warm water, steam and a hot seaweed bath with Loch Fyne outside the glass, then a long lunch by the marina.
About three and a half hours
Portavadie Spa Experience
Portavadie is on the west side of the Cowal peninsula, on Loch Fyne, beside the slip for the ferry from Tarbert. Its Spa Experience opens every day from 10am to 6pm, and booking ahead is essential. Two hours' access without a treatment is from £30 at the time of writing, for over-18s, with a robe, towels and flip-flops provided and lockers downstairs. Inside are a hydro pool, a Scandinavian sauna, a steam room and a relaxation room looking across Loch Fyne to Arran. The seaweed bath is 30 minutes in a hot bath of hand-harvested Hebridean seaweed and sea salts, from £69, for 16 and over; the spa asks anyone living with cancer, or in remission for under five years, to speak to it first. Afterwards, lunch is in the Marina Restaurant and Bar on the same site, served from noon to 2.30pm every day, with snacks until 4.30pm; well-behaved dogs are welcome in the lounge bar. Booking a table is recommended. With children, the Leisure Experience next door has a toddlers' pool and an outdoor infinity pool in 90-minute slots.
If it rains
All of it is under a roof.
Where to stay
Make it a weekend
