The spa

Amara sits firmly among Time Out’s top three spas in Dubai – the service is slick and the Moroccan-themed decor understated. With private outdoor rain showers, a palm tree-lined pool, a steam room and a fantastic food menu, make sure to spend the whole day there.

The promise

This two-hour-plus treatment promises to relax you while also firming the skin and promoting the flow of energy through the body.

Step by step

A quick outdoor foot bath kicks off the treatment, after which I move inside for 45 minutes of reflexology. Focusing on the feet and legs, this isn’t diagnostic reflexology, but rather a relaxing massage where the pressure is firm, yet without any wince-inducing moments. While my first leg and foot is worked on, I chat to the therapist about which organ each acupressure point represents. But during the second leg I do something I haven’t done in all my time as a spa reviewer: I doze off.

I wake as the room is prepared for a 75-minute Ideal Carita Facial, an extensive treatment using the Ideal range by Parisian beauty house Carita. After a thorough cleanse, toning, relaxation massage and earthy exfoliation using La Renovateur, a product made primarily from roasted sunflower seeds (the recipe for which is more than 50 years old), a deep cleansing is performed using a Pro Lifting machine, which doesn’t hurt at all, but is supposed to jolt the muscles with an electrical current to firm them.

The facial is finished off with a fantastic lymphatic drainage massage and a face mask accompanied by a hand massage. Once a potion of Carita serums and creams have been applied, I sit outside in my private garden and enjoy a mint tea.

Pros

• Before the treatment, I spent three hours lounging by the pool, making the day feel like a holiday.
• Carita products are high end, and some of the best on the market.
• There were no painful moments in the massage or the facial, and the whole experience was so relaxing I fell asleep.
• The package comes with a free spa lunch.
• The treatment room is huge, and the private outdoor relaxation area unbeatable.
• You get to choose your own relaxing music.

Cons

• There’s no diagnostic reflexology, where you’re told the problems with each organ.
• The package is expensive, although for a full day’s pampering it’s not bad value.
• There’s no full-on extraction involved in the facial.
4/5

The Total Relaxation with Carita package costs Dhs810 for 135 minutes of pampering, a spa lunch and access to the pool and wet facilities (normally Dhs958). Valid until January 31. Park Hyatt, Deira (04 602 1660)