The mission To head into summer feeling more serene, polished and sharper round the edges, without splashing out a small fortune.

USP A three-storey spa and fitness complex within toddling distance of a great sweep of Blue Flag beach, with all the amenities of a seaside resort at hand.

Ambience Jurmala's seaside location, spring waters and healing mud prompted its development as a fashionable health resort in the late 19th century. Many of its distinctive wooden houses date from this period. The Baltic Beach Hotel, however, is a more recent creation. A huge block originally built for holidaying Soviet bigwigs, it has been refurbished recently, but it is still quite retro and not quite as five-star-looking as its rating suggests.

The spa's three floors include one with a large municipal-lookalike pool, another with a much more stylish series of sauna and seawater pool suites, and a third - a calm and cosy area - devoted to treatment rooms.

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BACKGROUND

• 5 of the best Irish spas

• 5 spas for preen queens

• 5 spas for city pep-ups

• 5 Paris spas

BACKGROUND

• Amberspa, Loch Lomond

• The Carrick Spa, Cameron House, Loch Lomond

• Westin Turnberry Resort Spa, Ayrshire, Scotland

• Auchrannie Spa Resort, Isle of Arran

• The Balmoral Spa, The Balmoral, Edinburgh

South of France Spas

• Le Couvent d'Hérépian, France

• The Sisley Spa, Byblos Hotel, St Tropez

• Fermes de Marie, Villa Marie, St Tropez

• Le Mas Candille, Mougins, France

• The Four Seasons, Provence

Related Internet Links

• Read 280 spa reviews in our Good Spa Guide

Related Links

• Five of the best Baltic spas

Quality of experience The receptionists and therapists were friendly and professional, with much better English than I had expected. I chose a couple of toning body treatments, a facial and two more relaxing options. All were excellent, even the warm bubbling, honey-milk bath with sea buckthorn, juniper and ginseng.

The “mountain lavender” cosmetic massage was even more relaxing: 90 minutes of being gently rubbed with body scrub, soothed with heated muslin bags of lavender flowers and stroked with lotion. Even the “functional” treatments were fun. For the first I was slathered in anti-cellulite clay, wrapped in plastic and enclosed in a space-age pod on a heated, vibrating bed where I listened to New Age music.

After 45 minutes at 45C, I was convinced I looked sharper around the edges. I was even more convinced after a lymph-drainage treatment: cream, more clingfilm and a set of heavy wraps electronically squeezing up my arms and legs.

Products Phytomer, Janssen, Ella Bache and La Prairie; local mineral-rich mud and water; and plenty of herbs, birch twigs, honey and the like.

In-crowd Prosperous local people; glitzy Russians and Belorussians; sleek Scandinavians.

Food The tiny, rather frilly spa café, with more decorative cherubs than a Tiepolo ceiling, has a small menu of healthy snacks. You may be more inspired by the hotel's Caviar restaurant. Many regard it as the best in Jurmala.

Wallet watch A three-night stay costs £439pp (including return flights from Gatwick on Air Baltic to Riga, transfers, accommodation with breakfast, plus four treatments: classic massage, pearl bath, mud application for face and classical manicure and pedicure). Further treatments can be booked through Baltic Holidays; see the price list in English at www.balticbeach.lv . The 90-minute mountain lavender massage, for instance, costs about £40.

Need to know Contact Baltic Holidays on 0845 0705711, www.balticholidays.com

Spa rating £££££

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