USP The Spa at Butlins is where holiday revellers go for a healthy dollop of Zen. It is a retreat from Bob the Builder’s Yard (out of the spa, turn left) and Qasar Lasers (look for the big warehouse) and as unpretentious as chips and gravy welcoming all shapes and sizes with, fortunately, the exception of anyone under the age of 18. There are over 25 treatments offered from popular facials to chocolate baths and mud and salt massages.

AMBIENCE Open plan with a high roof, floor to ceiling windows and blue mosaic tiles providing a feeling of space and airiness. The swimming pool is large and curvy surrounded by deck chairs and overlooked by a spacious hydrotherapy pool with massaging water cannons. With the exception of the aromatic sauna and starlit steam room with its healing amethyst crystal, there are no intimate corners for the shy to escape out of view or the loved up (what here at Butlins?), once free of the kids, to get cosy. Even the changing rooms are communal (but not unisex) forcing everyone changing, myself included, to hang around awkwardly not wishing to be the first to reveal a thigh. Everyone pads around in the spa uniform - white slippers and a black bathrobe which, along with the squawks surrounding the cold drench bucket, helps to break the ice as everyone hunts for their robes off the pegs.

QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE Visits to The Spa are now divided into three hourly morning and afternoon slots (10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm). This prevents it getting overcrowded as all spa sessions need to be booked in advance, but the downside is that you still have to clock watch even when relaxing. There are currently seven treatment rooms but a refurb next year will bring a further eight. The treatment rooms are off a carpeted corridor each one simply furnished and spotlessly clean filled with soothing pipe music. I opted for the healing stone massage and the sheer calm aromatic facial for sensitive skin. The therapist, trained in all the spa treatments, was incredibly gentle, almost too gentle, I was expecting some pain but the hot stones felt wonderful as they loosened my joints, which had ceased up after four hours on a train. The facial was also fantastic and much needed as I rarely use any products on my face much to the horror of the therapist who was amazed at the speed the hydrating facemask disappeared into my pores.

FOOD This is Butlins and you are not going to starve. There are as-much-as-you-can-eat eateries on every corner. Within The Spa itself, the choice is confined to soft drinks free of charge, alcoholic drinks at a charge and snacks, well, bags of crisps. For heartier meals, most people pop next door to The Front Room where club sandwiches are on offer.

IN CROWD The Spa tends to attract people who are on holiday and so fancy splashing out on a bit of "me" time as opposed to regular spa goers. Some of the people I chatted to were locals on a three-day spa break but most of us were parents having a couple of hours release from the kids. 18-30’s holidays and adult only weekends are also popular visitors to The Spa.

WALLET WATCH A trip to The Spa at Butlins costs £20 per person. On top of this you pay for any of the treatments you are having. These range in price from £10 hand treatments and £20 for 45-minute manicures to £60 for a Hawaiian Hot Mineral Stone massage and a Mud and Salt Poultice massage.

NEED TO KNOW Butlins, Skegness, Lincolnshire PE25 1NJ (01754 614 450; www.butlins.com/spa). Opening hours: everyday 10am – 7pm

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