USP Luton Hoo Hotel is a former stately home designed by architect Robert Adam and landscape architect Capability Brown. The drive to the house through aged oak and monkey puzzle trees in matured parkland implores you to drive slowly to take it all in.

The spa occupies the old stable block, and while this more low-key building has less wow factor than the hotel’s porticoed façade, it is attractive. Buttermilk-painted buildings with racing green doors surround a courtyard with gently bubbling fountains. The courtyard cost £10 million - an estimated £5m of which was spent on the spa - of the hotel's total £60m renovation project.

Although Luton Hoo opened in October 2007, my February visit to the spa was very much still during the "soft opening phase". Membership for Bedfordshire residents was yet to open and I had the place to myself (I visited on a weekday and was told weekends were busier).

The benefits of visiting a new spa go beyond blissful solitude - with just a few months of operation under its belt the spa was spotless – the huge rain-soak showers looked never used and I think I might have been the first person to wear my pristine white waffle bathrobe.

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A Thameside urban retreat with express treatments for frazzled city workers and a mud bath for two

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• inside the £5m spa

What will make this place special even if the wear and tear begins to show through though, is its surroundings: beyond the new landscaping around the spa building, which will look more attractive when the new plants and turf bed in, is sweeping English countryside.

A drawback is the walk, or golf buggy drive to the hotel, which is too long to make a dash for it in a bathrobe, so you need to shower and change at the spa.

QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE Arrival at the spa reception is a little disappointing if you’ve got accustomed to the grand proportions of the hotel. The limits imposed by the building’s Grade I listed status means walls could not be moved to create a reception larger than a stable. That said, I was swiftly processed by an efficient receptionist into the changing rooms – which got top marks.

The lockers had hanging space and a row of comfy stools faced a bench with hairdryers and a large mirror. The afore-mentioned showers were roomy, although with only three of them I wouldn’t want to share this changing room with more than about eight or ten other women. Molton Brown soap was a nice touch but hand cream and perhaps a facial moisturiser would have been a welcome addition.

I’d recommend checking in at least 30 minutes before your treatment to use the swimming pool, whirlpool, saunas and steam room (which was blissfully mentholated), or relax on a lounger by the pool. The floor to ceiling windows look onto landscaped gardens, woodland and tennis courts so you can look onto pleasant scenery, but without the goldfish bowl feeling.

I had the Luton Hoo Spa 5 Senses Facial Signature Treatment (£115 for 70 minutes), which uses organic products that are tailor-made for the hotel and inspired by the plants of an English country garden. I was torn between the extracts of geranium, bay leaf and witch hazel to add to my bespoke facemask because they all smelled so good. I went for a geranium/witch hazel mix, which was freshly fragrant.

The cleanser, toner, scrub, steam compress and moisturiser all had a natural rather than synthetic aromas, and didn’t contain any nasties according to my therapist Becky. Although not all of Luton Hoo’s organic range is Soil Association-accredited (some products contain small amounts of non-organic ingredients), all products contains no parabens, sulphates, mineral oils, or synthetic fragrances, which between them can clog skin and irritate complexions, according to Becky.

As well as leaving my skin soft and moisturised, the treatment was relaxing – it started with a foot soak and there was a scalp massage with warm oil and hand massage while the facemask took effect. The lavender eye pillow also encouraged me to nod off.

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