USP The spa equivalent of Bluewater Shopping Centre – great deals on everything you need from a spa and leisure facility - soon to be the biggest spa in the world, apparently.

The spa currently covers 64,000 sq ft but will expand to more than double its size by the autumn. Once complete it will serve both the Venetian Hotel and the Palazzo next door.

AMBIENCE As it stands the spa is functional and efficient and staff refreshingly non-glam, untouched by the Las Vegas craze for plastic surgery.

The wicker themed room where I waited for my therapist doubles up as the relaxation room. With people coming in and out asking questions and a therapist who calls your name from around a corner, it’s anything but tranquil. Wellness slogans adorn the walls and despite the calming incense aroma the spa is more geared towards fitness than relaxation at the moment. A sign for a serenity suite led nowhere.

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However, the spa is in a transitional phase and if the artist's impressions are anything to go on then it will be the first spa I return to to wind down from the noisy excitement of Las Vegas.

One of the most interesting aspects of the new design will be the improved women’s locker room containing a bridal suite that can hold up to 15 people with refrigerated drawers to store bouquets. The groom’s equivalent will provide hot shaves.

At a "blending bar" - available from this month - you’ll be able to customise your own scrub or lotion to use during your treatment.

By the autumn a series of thermal spa cabins will be up and running called the ‘Aquavana Experience’. In the Igloo cabin snow will fall from aurora borealis inspired fibre-optic lights as you sit on heated benches. A Wave Room simulating the sound of crashing waves and a Salt Grotto with sea air pumped into the steam room will also bring the elements to Las Vegas’ hot and dusty climate.

There will be three Experimental Rain rooms, including big drops of water and mango smells for ‘Safari’ rains, and menthol smells and seagull sounds for ‘Arctic Storm’. Fake isn’t a negative concept in Las Vegas, only a fun one.

EXPERIENCE Tackling the 40-foot indoor rock-climbing wall looked far too much like hard work for me. Even a 30-minute session in the Kinesis studio where "yoga meets pilates" sounded exhausting. I could only muster enough energy to lie down on a treatment bed while the lovely Jesse gave me a Deep Tissue Massage.

Jesse had been a therapist for nine years and her background concentrated on the therapeutic massage as opposed to the pampering type. I prefer this because then I feel like something good is actually being done to my body. She asked me if I had any specific areas I wanted her to work with, so I told her I had bad circulation, especially in my legs. Canyon Ranch allows her to tailor the massage to the clients’ needs and what she feels is appropriate.

She laid a hot towel over me to bring the blood to the surface of my body. This way she could massage that little bit deeper. During her initial assessment she found huge knots in both shoulders, but particularly on the side I carry my enormous handbag. She used "trigger point" work on the beginning, then the end and then the middle of the muscles, holding firm to release tension.

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