USP Apart from its great setting, in a former wool warehouse sitting on Finger Wharf in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo district and overlooking a marina and the Sydney city skyline, Spa Chakra’s stressed body magnet is Bradley Moffitt. Bradley is a former ballet star who irreparably tore an Achilles tendon during a performance of Swan Lake and retrained as a massage therapist. Ballet’s loss is Spa Chakra’s gain and the power he used as a ballet dancer has been refocused into the deep tissue massages he gives. Just don’t mention Billy Elliott.

AMBIENCE Many of the treatment rooms have floor to ceiling windows with views of Sydney Harbour, although not of the Harbour Bridge or Opera House. And because the glass is two-way, you will want the blinds down when your treatment begins unless you fancy an audience. The eight dry and two wet treatment rooms are plain but functional, are equipped with ubiquitous tealights and filled with soft music - lyricless so that you are not distracted by the words - from a Bang & Olufsen surround sound system.

EXPERIENCE They take a long time getting to know you at Spa Chakra. On arrival, each visitor must fill out a questionnaire covering everything from whether you would walk or take a taxi from the supermarket if you had six heavy bags, to the proximity of your house to electric power lines. Luckily, the 15 minutes that it takes to complete are occupied with a foot bath. This combination of cleansing, exfoliation and massage gets you quickly in a relaxed state of mind. The spa recommends a long, lazy splash in a hydrotherapy tub before any of its massages. Hundreds of warm water jets pummel your weary body into submission before you give yourself over to the attention of Bradley. He paid particular attention to my neck and shoulders, which had been previously tortured by my regular hunching over a laptop. An hour later and he declared that I would be “walking on air”. He wasn’t wrong.

FOOD The redeveloped Finger Wharf has some of the best recently opened restaurants in the city, including celeb Italian hangout Otto and Aki’s, a contemporary Indian. Spa Chakra works with its next door neighbour, the upmarket China Doll restaurant, on two special dishes – an ocean trout salad and a chargrilled chicken salad designed specially for the spa.

IN CROWD The spa gets many customers from Taj’s Blue hotel, which is part of the same redevelopment of a former wool wharf. The hotel is the preferred hotel for stars passing through the city. On my visit, the boys from Westlife were in the lobby. Russell Crowe is also a neighbour - he owns a swanky apartment at the end of the wharf although staff won’t let on whether he’s a regular visitor. Other visitors include stressed out Sydneysiders wanting to escape the central business district a five-minute cab ride away.

WALLET WATCH Queen for a Day, including 60 minutes hydroptherapy, 60 minute massage, spa facial and spa foot therapy costs A$850 (£340). The popular jet-lag treatment, ideal for freshening up after the long flight from the UK, includes all of the above bar the facial and costs A$420. Massages and facials start at A$140 (£55).

NEED TO KNOW Spa Chakra, Suite 2, 6 Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo, Sydney, Australia (+61 2 9368 0888; www.spachakra.com)

For more than 200 reviews of spas worldwide visit Times Online's Good Spa Guide

Times recommends

• The three best routes to the Med
• How to cash in on your holiday money
• 10 tips for the perfectly packed suitcase