19 of the best luxury spas in the Mediterranean

From Monaco to Bodrum the Mediterranean is full of hotspots that attract some of the largest private superyachts and the most expensive luxury yachts for charter. Thankfully, the Mediterranean is also home to some of the world’s best spas. So after a long week of socialising at some top Mediterranean party destinations, hop off your yacht and enjoy a spot of pampering.

1. The Opium Health Spa, Elysium Hotel, Cyprus

From a bright and contemporary reception area with a Grecian mosaic at one end, stroll down the stone-floored corridor to the vast indoor pool, which is surrounded by comfy loungers and lies adjacent to a Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room, perfect for an afternoon of relaxation after a stint in the fully-equipped gymnasium. Opt for a Pilates class with the charming in-house personal trainer to help improve your posture and core strength.

For the main pampering event, retire behind a curved wooden wall into the Balinese styled relaxation lounge, a quiet spot to enjoy a cup of herbal tea and a book before your treatment. Begin with an ESPA full body Balinese massage and enjoy 80 minutes of muscle unravelling by way of warm essential oils and hot stones — be sure to say what pressure you prefer, though a stronger massage will leave you feeling light and extremely relaxed. To add to your experience, opt for a restorative mud wrap to leave your skin feeling smooth and rejuvenated.

Best by boat: Superyachts up to 110 metres can moor at the Limassol Marina on the southern coast of the island.

Wrapped around a bay in Northern Greece with a marina for yachts up to 33 metres at the centre, the Sani Resort has five spas (with just a golf buggy ride between each). There is an extraordinary amount of treatments and wellness options for guests to try, all boasting luxurious products by Anne Semonin.

Guests at Sani Club can head to the beautiful Club Spa to unwind with a range of treatments, including Thai massage, Mediterranean salt exfoliation and Indian Shirodhara, among many others. Additionally, there's a couple's suite where you can enjoy a treatment with your other half. Bright, light and airy, this is an elegant space with both indoor and outdoor relaxation areas alongside thermal offerings.

The resort's newest hotel is the stunning Sani Dunes, which features the D spa. Here, guests can partake in the latest cryotherapy treatments, Xerolipo Bodysculpting, Opera LED therapy and a sparkling pink quartz exfoliation body scrub, among an expansive list of relaxing therapies.

Guests staying at Sani Asterias can enjoy an exclusive-use and fully-equipped spa, complete with two private rooms with steam baths and a couple's suite – this VIP-only spa is just one of the reasons to visit Halkidiki this summer.

Resplendent on the 43rd floor of this slick beachfront hotel — just one floor from the top — the views of the city from 43 The Spa are staggering indeed. The treatments are spine-tinglingly good, too. Kick-start the proceedings with a circulation-boosting whirl around the circuit of vitality pools, steam rooms and ice fountains. Then switch the chromotherapy mood lighting to a soothing blue before you sample the wickedly indulgent spa treats from Natura Bissé, Spain’s most innovative skincare brand. Everything here looks tempting, but if you sign up for only one treatment, make it the 43 Sea Experience. The therapist uses deep-tissue chiropractic techniques followed by pressure manoeuvres with small sea shells. It’s so relaxing most people struggle to stay awake.

Best by boat

After completing an €80 million development in 2014 a further expansion is underway at OneOcean Port Vell in Barcelona, which can accommodate yachts up to 190 metres. Its central location makes it perfect if you are planning to spend 24 hours away from your superyacht in Barcelona.

This glamorous beachfront resort is the first phase of an audacious plan to turn a little-known but spectacular pocket of the south west Peloponnese into a rival for Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda. Explore Messinia’s secret islets and hidden bays on board the hotel's yachts, Carmen Serena and Carmen Fontana, with local crew recounting the area’s ancient myths and legends from the deck. The spa also references Messinia’s fascinating history. Its indulgent olive-oil treatments were inspired by techniques described on centuries-old clay tablets discovered at the nearby Palace of Nestor. They outlined the ancient Greeks’ bathing rituals, elements of which have been incorporated into signature treatments. These include Nestor’s Baths, a hydro massage in a therapeutic bath, using herbs from the spa garden, and the Healing Massage Remedy by Hippocrates that combines therapies described by the father of western medicine with cutting-edge methods.

Best by boat

Kalamata Marina, about 20 miles away by road, accommodates small superyachts, but if you moor in one of the quiet coves near the resort you can zip straight back to your yacht to explore the beautiful western Peloponnese coast when you are all spa-ed out.

Located on the north coast of the Bodrum Peninsula, a destination that’s currently sizzling hot with superyacht owners, this resort is a great choice for families. Rooms are big enough for bounding, the restaurant has a sweet shop, there’s a dedicated children’s pool, playgrounds and the MiniMO Panda Club, which will entertain your four to 12 year olds. If you book the VIP sea-facing apartment, which features its own hammam, sauna and spa pool, you might even raise a smile from that sulky teenager. The luxury spa offers a myriad of treatments using olive oil, local pumice stone, honey and herbs from the resort’s organic garden. If you venture out for some adult time, head for the grand, white marble hammam. A Turkish delight: you’ll be laid on warm stone, brushed with soft muslin until you’re heaped with cloud-like piles of bubbles, gently scrubbed and massaged. You might even forget you have a family.

What have we here? A spa with its own dock, so you can rock up, tousled from a turn around the lagoon, and hop straight on to a treatment bed. Built on a private island, on the grounds of a former hospital for respiratory disease, JW Marriot’s GOCO Spa Venice has fast gained a reputation as one of the best luxury spas in the Mediterrean. Clean, white lines, porthole windows and outdoor decks looking across to St Mark’s Square make it the ideal retreat from the crowds and velvet brocade stuffiness of old school Venice. QMS Medicosmetics is at the helm with its famous skin-brightening oxygen facials and collagen-boosting formulas. Guests can detox in the hammam, with its lung-cleansing salt wall, tone up in the aqua tonic pool with massage jets set to key metabolism-boosting points or wind down with alfresco yoga in the herb garden. It is the perfect place to end a luxury yacht charter in Venice or to recover after the Venice Film Festival.

There’s no better place to avail yourself of age-defying know-how than at this sexy space-age Saint-Tropez bolt-hole. Add in the country’s first Crème de la Mer spa and you have an unbeatable formula. The skincare brand’s success is centred around its Miracle Broth, made from sea kelp treated with light and sound to intensify their potency. The results can be astonishing. The food here is all about stripping out unnecessary sugar and fat. Don’t worry: that tastes a whole lot better than it sounds in dishes such as celeriac mousse followed by coffee parfait.

Helicopter in

Port de Saint-Tropez, just north, accommodates 100 visiting yachts, but those over 70m must drop anchor out of port. Helicopter facilities are at La Ramatuelle.

Rocco Forte, who built Verdura, is one of the world’s leading hoteliers and this is one of the Mediterranean's best spas. Forte has also represented Britain at the World Triathlon Championships and looks 10 years younger than his 70 years. How does he do it? Verdura’s anti-ageing Vita Health programme is overseen by Forte’s personal physician, Dr Nyjon Eccles, an integrated medicine expert who will customise treatments according to your test results. Yachts can moor just off this rugged stretch of coast and ask for masseurs to come on board. On land, the glamorous spa flows from an impressive gym and workout studio, to a vast hammam and alfresco hydrotherapy pools that overlook cypress-studded hills.

Helicopter in

Anchor and take a helicopter in to the resort’s helipad. This coast boasts beaches, olive groves and ancient history, so stick around for post-spa cruising.

The nuns moved out a century ago but they still ring the church bell on your arrival at this heavenly spa hotel. Perched high on the cliffs at Conca dei Marini, overlooking the Amalfi Coast, the old convent is set among herb gardens that cascade down towards a wonderfully dramatic infinity pool; the perfect spot for eyeing the superyachts in the bay below.

In keeping with the ecclesial feel, treatments use Santa Maria Novella’s healing herbal creams and balms, originally made by Florentine monks for Catherine de Medici. The vaulted treatment rooms, in the old wine cellar, are cool and quiet. There, you can enjoy a herbal body scrub, nourishing bee pollen facial or maybe an Aloe Coulis body wrap that takes the sting out of sunburnt skin with manuka honey and ice poultices. Amen to that.

Built from scratch in 2011 in the style of a traditional whitewashed village, this place is pretty enough for French Vogue to book it as a backdrop for fashion shoots. Staff welcome your bambinos with open arms at one of the Med’s best kids’ clubs. Furthermore, it doesn’t close until 10pm, so you can park the progeny and enjoy a gaping, guilt-free window to hit the spa. Expect acres of buttermilk marble, flickering candles, soothing pools, toga-clad therapists and top-notch treatments (Aquann, the saline float tank, is one of the best legal highs available).

Best by boat

The 318-berth Cala Ponte Marina from Camper & Nicholsons has recently opened, just down the road.