If you are following me on snap chat and Instagram, you might know that I spent two days in Sofitel Mumbai BKC, for some much needed R&R. When Sofitel first contacted me, I was really excited at the prospect of finally taking a short vacation. All I had been doing since the past one-year was work, work and more work. Sofitel is a French hotel chain under Accor Hotels, and they have a presence in more than 40 countries across the world. They are present in places like Thailand, Australia, Belgium, USA, Canada, Germany, Morocco and many more.
So I arrived in Mumbai on Saturday and they had a pickup waiting for me at the airport. That was to be my first encounter with their ever so polite and welcoming staff. The car was readily stocked with cold water and cold drinks and other refreshments. After a 25-minute car ride I arrived at the hotel, and they had another lovely welcome drink ready for me, while they checked me in.
The room that I stayed in was the Luxury King room, and it was perfect in every sense. The kind of thought they put into the decor, and doing up the entire room was something I really liked. A very Indo-French inspired decor seemed to be the theme, with paisley motifs integrated with the French Baroque style. And the purple color just made it all the more royal!
A quick lunch followed, since I had my first appointment at SoSpa at 5pm, which was what I was looking forward to the most! The Spa, which is spread across 6000sq feet, is definitely the highlight of the property. A steady stream of visitors going in and coming out, told me how popular it was with the guests as well. The Spa manager Mr.Manoj Chauhan gave a tour of the entire place, which included the SoSpa, SoFit – the gym, a salon and a pool area. SoSpa has partnered with L’Occitane for all the treatments that they have. After filling the mandatory form regarding how I would like my treatment to proceed, I went ahead with it.
The SoSpa has 6 treatment rooms, along with a couple’s therapy room. The spa is spread across one entire floor and is a treat to all your senses. I have visited my fair share of spas and till date this has to be my favorite of all! I went for one of their signature treatments – So Exhilerating Body Massage. It is a 90-minute treatment priced from Rs.5000/- onwards. Fluffy bathrobes, slippers and other amenities are provided in the treatment suit. For this particular treatment the oils used were lavender and rosemary. It included oil and a hot stone massage. It was my first hot stone massage and you require a very skilled therapist for this. A blissful ninety minutes later, during which I’m pretty sure I dozed off for a good fifteen minutes, I had a refreshing hot shower and went to the relaxation area. Post treatment delicacies included either green tea or cranberry juice. I chose the cranberry juice and just sank into the comfortable chairs sipping the juice & munching on some cashews and almonds.
Once the treatment was done, I went back to my room, and flopped onto my large comfortable bed. Talking about the room, there was a desk included which is always a must for me. One feature that I really loved was that one of the drawers of the desk was turned into an all-in-one charging point. Each time I visit a hotel, it becomes a challenge to find a charging point for your phone(s). And when you have multiple devices to charge, you hunt around for spots to plug it in, and they are almost always in some corner of the room, which is quite uncomfortable. Here one draw was made to have a port for everything – a plug point, 2 USB ports, audio/video ports, HDMI cable, everything. You pull it open, plug in your charger, and leave your device on the table. Once it is charged, you take your device, push the charger and the wires into the drawer and close it. Simplest solution ever and so effective and efficient. Also leaves your desk look neat and tidy. So many other little features in the room, like the remote controlled drapes, presence of a torchlight made me feel like they really put some thought into designing the entire room.
Finally I ended the day with (dinner) some pizza and pasta in my room!
Day 2 was all about a hotel tour and another relaxing Aryuvedic massage, more on that in the next post. Coming soon!
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