TRAVEL: DEALS OF THE WEEK: POST-MILLENNIUM DETOX SPA BREAKS

If you're worried about going cold turkey after Christmas and the millennium celebrations are all over, and you want one last moment of unfettered indulgence before the January blues set in, head to a health farm. A couple of days "in detox" may get the next millennium off to a (relatively) healthy start.

Lucknam Park

Lucknam Park (tel: 01225 742777), voted the UK's best spa hotel last year by readers of Conde Nast Traveller, and set in 500 acres of parkland just outside Bath, is offering a special detox break for the post-millennium period. A room in the grand Palladian mansion will cost from pounds 220 per person for dinner, bed and breakfast based on two people sharing a double room and including two one-hour detox treatments in a separate house in the woods, to the sound of birdsong. You can also wallow in the swimming-pool, sweat out all the poisons in the sauna, steam room and gymnasium - or just go for a quiet, contemplative stroll in the traditional walled garden.

The Belfry

The Belfry (tel: 01675 470033) in North Warwickshire is offering a special pounds 99 per person Detoxifying Spa Break, for post-millennium fatigue, between 4 and 31 January subject to availability. The price (based on two people sharing) includes dinner, bed and breakfast and an aqua spa treatment. Following a fitness assessment, the dreaded fat test and a healthy lunch, you'll spend the afternoon in the spa in a detoxifying algae wrap. The one-and-a-half-hour treatment starts with skin-brushing and exfoliation, then a massage using detoxifying essential oils before the application of warm algae. While you're "cooking", a 25-minute scalp treatment will leave you delirious. The next day you get to experience the aqua spa, the first of its kind in the UK - the ultimate bio-thermal treatment which works on lymph drainage (a two-hour treatment would normally cost pounds 40). The aqua spa is a separate complex offering state-of-the-art saunas, aromatic steam rooms, a hydrotherapy pool and warm-air bathing. To cool down there are programmable showers, bucket showers and even an igloo.

The Sanctuary

Should you prefer, you can wallow in mud. If you've only a day to spare, head to The Sanctuary (tel: 0171-420 5151) in London's Covent Garden. The unique women-only day spa has just introduced the Turkish rasul. Developed from ancient Arab bathing customs, it combines organic mud packs with a herbal steam bath to cleanse and exfoliate. In a specially designed steam chamber, up to four people sit on large heated seats and rub mud all over each other's bodies. Shots of steam then blow through a bed of dry herbs and as the body starts to perspire, the muds absorb waste and toxins from the body. The treatment is finished with a "tropical rain shower" and an application of The Sanctuary's body moisture spray followed by a short period of relaxation. Treatments start at pounds 25 per person for a group of four. A day's membership at The Sanctuary costs pounds 58 and includes use of all the facilities (sauna and steam room, relaxation room, swimming pool and whirlpool and 20 minutes on an automatic massage chair).

Grayshott Hall

Until the end of January, Grayshott Hall, near Hindhead in Surrey (tel: 01428 604331), is offering a fourth night free for every three-night stay. Single rooms start at pounds 540, double rooms from pounds 480, and detox treatments, for example the lympathic drainage or herbal wrap, start from pounds 35. Included in the price is a daily steam treatment and a 40-minute full-body massage.

Ragdale Hall Health Hydro

A traditional Victorian manor house in the heart of the Leicestershire countryside, Ragdale Hall Health Hydro (tel: 01664 434831) is advocating "more me time", "less stress", "more pampering", "more exercise", and "a healthier diet" as the catch phrases for the new millennium. They have put together a set of five, three-night Healthy Option packages. You can choose between the Focus on Fitness, Healthy Start, Total Pampering, Stress Buster and New You. The New You package includes a facial, manicure or pedicure, a body exfoliation to help your skin recover from the ravages of over-indulgence, and a full-body massage and make-up. You also get a body plan to take away with you so you can keep your new- millennium resolutions. Available throughout 2000, prices start at pounds 312 per person for three nights.

St David's Health Spa

St David's Health Spa (tel: 01222 313083) in Cardiff is offering a detox package for pounds 125 per person per night (minimum two-night stay) to relieve the (self-inflicted) stresses and strains of the festive season. St David's Spa strives to restore the balance between body and mind with treatments using blended organic essential oils and water enriched with minerals, salt water and seaweed. Included is dinner, bed and full Welsh breakfast in a superior "king" room, a hydrotherapy bath, detoxifying jet blitz, detoxifying algae wrap and an E'SPA aromatherapy facial. The first 10 callers will also be upgraded to a master suite.

Skibo Castle

The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle (tel: 01862 894600), in the Highlands of Scotland, is organising a special Ladies' Spa Week, to help kickstart the new year, from 17 to 21 January. The programme will include a combination of dietary advice, workouts and beauty treatments. Throughout the week, trained Clarins therapists will demonstrate how to use the latest beauty products and offer a range of complimentary treatments including the Clarins custom-made prescription facial.

If you're feeling particularly energetic, a series of power-walks and aerobic work-outs has been devised to burn off the excesses of the party season, while for the more sedentary, talks on nutritional matters and fashion shows will take place during afternoon tea. Prices per night are: pounds 400 for a guest single room, pounds 580 for a guest double room, pounds 300 for a member's single room and pounds 380 for a member's double room, including all meals and drinks, and unlimited golf on the Carnegie links as well as other selected sporting activities.

Champneys Health Resort

After the excesses of the millennium, Champneys (tel: 01442 291111) has a New Year, New You detoxifying package to flush out the toxins. Set in 170 acres of Hertfordshire parkland, the resort offers a choice of 100 treatments and therapies and 25 complimentary daily activities and classes. The detoxifying package for two nights is at a special rate of pounds 515 per person. Included is accommodation, all meals, a heat treatment and massage, an Interslim treatment and a Champneys marine experience - the ultimate relaxing and detoxifying face and body treatment.

Stapleford Park

If you can wait until March to detox, Stapleford Park (tel: 01572 787522), a country-house hotel and sporting estate near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, will be running a two-night Relax, Detox & Revitalise package when weary house guests will be pampered by resident spa therapists. The package, which costs pounds 295 per person (double occupancy) or pounds 400 (single occupancy), includes dinner, bed and breakfast, a consultation and beauty treatment from the spa's top-to-toe collection, and an opportunity for further treatments later in the break with unlimited use of the Carnegie Clarins Spa, which includes pool, sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi and gym.