. Sweeping sea views This sublime shoreline is where I find myself later that afternoon, gazing at the glittering Atlantic while my two-year-olds make sandcastles beneath a sun brolly. My husband, meanwhile, has rented a surfboard and is catching waves — his turn for some child-free){kind=link}
I’M lying in a darkened room, unable to move or open my eyes – it’s pure bliss.
My body has been scrubbed with hand-harvested sea salt and sand from a local beach, smothered in chocolate-like carob, then wrapped like a sweet in shiny plastic and doused in orange oil.
I smell good enough to eat.
Lucia, my spa therapist, tucks me in with a towel. “Now you’re in your cocoon,” she whispers while massaging my brow. “Soon, you will emerge as a butterfly.”
She’s not far off. I may not have grown wings, but I feel beautifully bright and new as I flit out of the Serenity Spa at Pine Cliffs Resort in the Algarve.