For Our Anniversary: Next Stop - The Island Spa, Newport Mall, Pasay

For Ain and I, one of the best ways to celebrate an occasion or to simply bond with each other, is having a massage together. There's no better feeling than getting rid of all that tension in our bodies, feeling all our muscles relax and having such restful sleep afterwards. No wonder that for our special day, we would be much excited to go to a spa!

But not just to any spa's, not at all! We specifically chose one that's special, cause this special day definitely merits a special place.

I've always been fond of getting massages since my older sister, who studied as a physical therapist in college, would practice massage techniques on me. And because her normal massage pressure, I have grown to love the "heavy hand."

My lifetime quest for a pretty good establishment and my favorite masseuse has not yet seen the end but I've collected a few favorites along the way. Forgive my musings before I finally get to my point but I just wanted to share a few more experiences of mine.

While I was in college, experiencing all the stress of an orphaned and self-supporting student, I just had to have my guilty pleasures sometimes. And so I did. My sister recommended an affordable spa to me then, which I enjoyed even on my own most times. That was the first and dainty branch of Wensha Spa in Quezon City. Back then, if I remember correctly, they were offering a full body massage for only Php199 inclusive of buffet food and drinks as well as the use of the common shower area and jacuzzi. It was indeed a pretty sweet deal! And that's when I met Pinky, the love of my life masseuse! 

After how many years, Wensha Spa finally opened a grander branch in Pasay City. We were then living and working in Makati City so having a branch of my favorite spa nearer to my location was an exciting event indeed! We saw, we had a massage, we ate, we enjoyed the amenities and I was elated to find out that my girl, Pinky was stationed in Pasay City too! But eventually, the amenities started becoming tattered with overuse, the crowds came in (and crowds they were too!), food became limited and the prices went up.

After all that came to be, we started trying out other spa's and even tried home-serviced massages until a friend of ours recommended the Island Spa along Makati Avenue in Makati City. Their price range was above that of Wensha Spa's but below that of The Spa or Suriya Spa or the likes. 

Their dainty but comfy and classy spa provided a relaxing atmosphere. The massage therapists were, if not the best in the metro, at least well-trained for their jobs. They didn't have a jacuzzi but they had a pretty clean area (one for each gender) which holds their lockers, changing rooms, toilets, shower stalls, dressing area with washing basins, well-lit mirrors and several items such as baby powder, baby oil, cotton buds, lotions, hair combs and brushes placed inside a sterilizer as well as a steam room for everyone's use.

Inside their massage rooms (their massage room options are: couple rooms which have dividers from the other rooms so you could request for them to open the divider when you're, say a group of 3 or 4 going together, and this bigger room which can hold up to eight at a time, if my memory serves me well). The couple rooms are basically decorated - just a small space that would fit two massage beds with some room for the massage therapists to go around, a wall-mounted 20+ inch flat screen TV, a small bedside table and dim lighting.

Just above the spa is a huge KTV. And there are times that while having our massages inside our private rooms, we could hear all the ruckus created by the people upstairs having the time of their lives. That is, even over the soothing music being played by Island Spa.

And, every after service, they rub you with these wet & hot towels to remove the remnants of the oils used on your body - making you feel gloriously clean and relaxed. Also, we won't forget the wonderful tasting ginger tea that they serve us while we stay in our rooms and watch TV for a while. Oh and yeah! I almost forgot, they have free wifi inside the premises!

It's no wonder that we would be so excited to try out their new branch located in Newport Mall, Pasay City as soon as we heard about it! Sure, we tried it out in December 2012 together with a couple friend of ours but we haven't tried it yet with just Ain and I. So, we made it a point to try it out for our 7th anniversary for a special feel on a special occasion.

And we were not disappointed!

It was our fault that we didn't call in earlier for a reservation. (We'll make sure to do so the next time!) We got there at around 5pm and were informed that the next available time is at 7pm for those standard rooms and 10pm for the special rooms. Since we're feeling tired, we had to choose the earlier slot this time. We just got some snacks and went shopping a bit to kill some time first. We came back at the spa a few minutes before 7pm. We were actually willing to wait for a few more minutes but were happily surprised to find out that our room was already available for us. Yipee! We can start our relaxing time already! 

We were ushered to our beautiful room, welcomed by the normal soothing music that Island Spa usually plays in the background. The rooms look way classier than the rooms in their Makati branch. These rooms were more spacious holding two massage beds that could be adjusted into seats allowing you a relaxing feel while you watch on their bigger flat screen TV's mounted on the wall, a 2-seater sofa on the side, two wardrobe cabinets where you can keep your clothes and personal effects, a dressing table with the mirror surrounded by yellow shaded light on the sides and a safety deposit box under it.

When we changed into their signature robes which were neatly folded inside the room, we opened our room's door and found the lady who ushered us there, to be waiting right outside to escort us to the common bathroom. (As mentioned above, we chose the basic room cause we simply can't wait until 10pm anymore. But if we were okay to wait, we could have gotten the rooms which have their own shower and toliet inside or even the ones which have the shower, toilet AND hot tub in it!) So, off we went to have a shower in the common bathroom. It had a washing area with a big mirror on the wall, two toilet cubicles and a shower room with a Vichy shower (the one mounted on the wall with water sprouting from above and on the sides) installed in it. There's also a wardrobe cabinet just outside if in case you prefer to just changed into your robes after the shower instead of before, like we did. There's also available lotions, powders and whatnot on top of the washing area.

After our cleansing and relaxing shower, we went back into our room. It was only just a few minutes of checking in on Facebook, using the free wifi, before our massage therapists arrived! 

And so, we start enjoying our massage. i was worried that I got a petite lady as a therapist and that she might not have much pressure to satisfy me but she was actually pretty good too. Both of the therapists asked us if the pressure were enough and mine even adjusted to my request for harder pressure on my shoulders. I was in bliss!

We were rubbed with hot towels after the massage, were served with our favorite ginger tea and asked to sign the therapists' service slips. After a few minutes of watching TV while sipping tea, we started dressing up and got a call from the front desk, checking if we were ready to check out. We confirmed and stepped out of the room to pay at the front desk.

We were both happy, relaxed and ready for another year together! Haha!

To summarize my experience (at this particular time):

Service: GREAT
Value for Money: GOOD (this branch offers more expensive services than that of their branch in Makati but the place looks so much greater too. It's just that when I get massages, I think of paying for the massage and that the amenities are just wonderful add-ons)
Amenities: GREAT

Location/ambiance: GREAT
Over-all Experience: GREAT
Would I go back there again? Yes, but only for special occasions (I would rather visit their more economical branch in Makati more often)

For more details on Island Spa, Newport Mall, Pasay and Makati (in order) see the links below:

https://www.facebook.com/IslandSpaRW

https://www.facebook.com/islandspa