USP You’ll want for nothing at the Mandarin Oriental Spa, and if you do you’ll get it instantly. A destination spa in the middle of a city where the only thing absent are real live geishas.

AMBIENCE Located on the 35th floor with views over Upper Manhattan onto the Hudson River the spa has a luxurious feel with a subtle Oriental design of Asian artefacts, bamboo flooring, Chinese furniture and gold-leaf millwork that sits happily alongside a contemporary New York style. The Thai yoga suite is the most beautiful room richly decorated with gold leaf and dark teak wood.

Guests are encouraged to arrive 40 minutes before their treatment and have a dip in the vitality pool followed by ten minutes in the amethyst crystal steam room where you can choose between fog, land rain and tropical rain settings.

The private VIP spa suite with its fireplace, elevated bath, dual massage beds and a huge Chinese kang bed, where at least four people could roll around in, can be booked by couples or mothers and daughters.

There are six treatment rooms and "his" and "hers" relaxation lounges. You can finish off your day with a few laps in the 75-foot indoor pool on the 36th floor.

EXPERIENCE After filling out a consultation form I exchanged my shoes for plastic sandals and was given a meditation bag containing toothbrush and paste, deodorant, hairbrush and a razor. I slipped into the softest robe I’ve ever worn and sipped mountain berry tea while I waited for my therapist in the Oriental Tea Lounge with its views over West-side Manhattan.

The spa’s signature treatment is the Vitamin Infusion Facial, which my therapist told me reverses sun damage and also helps with wrinkles, acne and rosacea. She started off by cleansing my face with a citrus cleanser and then a glycolic – mild Alpha Hydroxy Acid – was used to exfoliate my skin. This is one step away from microdermabrasion and would allow all the good stuff to penetrate my epidermis. She didn’t use any steam treatments to open my pores because “steam would compromise the integrity of the vitamins”.

My nose and chin were then extracted of impurities. Getting someone else to squeeze your blackheads is very popular with Manhattan ladies worried their face is never clean from city grime. I couldn’t imagine it to be a very pleasant job, but she didn’t seem to mind. She didn’t spend too long on this because I suffered more from dryness than “congestion”.

A pure collagen face mask, “like having gold on your skin”, was left on for 20 minutes and felt quite bizarre. I suspected I looked like Michael Myers from Halloween, but while new elasticity was taking hold she massaged my arms, hands, legs and head. I felt all the stress drain out of my toes and the whole experience seemed like an orgy of beautiful sensations.

MO generally uses ESPA products, but the Vitamin Infusion Facial is created by cosmeceutical company the Somme Institute, who spent six years studying the efficacy of skincare lines and found that none of them did what they said they would. Its five-step treatment called MDT5 claims to allow vitamins A, B3/B5, C, D and E to penetrate the skin and repair years of sun damage. My therapist seemed convinced that the institute's products have been endorsed by a number of dermatologists at Harvard and Yale.

For a $320 (£160) facial I expected to leave with a new face, and I did. I really could see a marked difference to the tired, slightly haggard complexion that had arrived in Manhattan two days previously. When I returned to the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel, the doorman said I was “glowing”.

FOOD I was offered a raspberry and banana smoothie and a heated neck rest after my treatment. There are fruit bowls in reception and the relaxation lounge. Lunch at the Asiate restaurant, overlooking the Manhattan skyline, is an artistic combination of French and Japanese cuisine including dishes such as Sea Urchin Miso Glazed Salmon with asparagus, Swiss chard and watercress butter; Quinoa Crusted Chicken Breast with fennel and mushroom foie gras or a Buffalo Burger. Bento boxes created by the hotel chef can be ordered in the spa.

IN-CROWD Urbane and rich. Important world leaders attending the UN General Assembly accompanied by dark-suited bodyguards talking rapidly into mouthpieces.

WALLET WATCH The Vitamin Infusion Facial 1 hour 20 minutes – $320. Time Rituals can be booked in blocks of time as opposed to specific treatments starting at $450 (£225) for 1 hour and 50 minutes. An Executive Suite costs $2,400.

British Airways Holidays offer a four-night break to the 5* Mandarin Oriental, New York from £1,602 per person based on departures during October 2007. The price includes return BA flights from Heathrow (which start from £298) with accommodation-only from £1,304 per person. For reservations visit ba.com or call British Airways Holidays on 0870 243 3406.

NEED TO KNOW Mandarin Oriental, 80 Columbus Circle at 60th Street, New York 10023 ([001] 212 805 8800; www.mandarinoriental.com)

For more than 200 independent spa reviews worldwide: timesonline.co.uk/goodspaguide

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