USP This is playboy territory – on a lavish scale. The hotel interior is "camp (as in effeminate) safari" - not what you might expect from a luxury hotel in sanitised Geneva.

AMBIENCE Jacques Garcia has designed a characterful but comfortable spa that successfully merges clean lines, white leather seats and dark wood. It is one of the world’s most indulgent spaces in which to chill. As well as an outdoor pool overlooking the lake, the spa boasts an indoor pool, hammams, steam rooms, saunas and 17 treatment rooms.

EXPERIENCE Spa treatments here can be customised specifically for your body. “A Quality Life” age-prevention programme pulls in cash-rich, body-aware punters. We were only there for the weekend so we just basked, let our brains unwind, and beautified ourselves. When we weren’t indulging in heady Balinese body massages, which left our skins rich with jasmine oil, pounding our bodies on the high-tech Technogym equipment, sipping fruit cocktails on loungers, or plumping our skins with rich La Prairie facials, we were out on the lake.

FOOD The spa food was the best in the hotel: light, fresh and healthy (imaginative salads, giant prawns, light crab, fruit mousses) but utterly delicious.

IN CROWD The clientele is distinctly cool, cosmopolitan and wealthy.

WALLET WATCH A two-night package at La Reserve costs from £740 for a two day beauty and relaxation package, including B&B, lunch, facial, massage, body treatment, manicure and pedicure, to £2,128 for a lakeside suite, per person, excluding flights.

NEED TO KNOW For more information, call 00 41 22 959 5959 or visit www.lareserve.ch

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