Spas: Seychelles, Malaysia, Oman and Thailand

We're starting to tire of the Identikit spa experience. What is the difference between a hot-stone therapy in Hua Hin or Hampshire? No, the future of the spa is in going native.

The pinch-yourself location of the Seychelles' private Frégate Island, teeming with native flora, makes the Rock Spa the ideal place to plunder nature's remedies. All the treatments are carried out using face and body products made with locally grown coconut, aloe vera, crushed cashew nuts and cinnamon. The just-opened Majestic Malacca spa village in Malaysia draws on the healing remedies of local Peranakan culture, while Middle Eastern hammams will be de rigueur at the Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay in Oman (below) when it opens in April. The Erawan, on the Thai island of Naka Yai, meanwhile, will be able to lay claim to its own on-site Thai massage school when it opens in March. Aoife O'Riordain '

For more information go to www.fregate.com, www.majesticmalacca.com, v