Lošinj’s Habsburg-era reputation as a health resort wasn’t built on spas, but on its air. At the Bellevue, just along the bay from the Boutique Hotel Alhambra, Anna Selby discovers what happens when that legacy is turned into a fortnight of breathing lessons, sea-water massage and very good manners about dessert…
Traditionally, spas have grown up around specific locations because of the particular benefits those locations offer. Think of the many spas across Europe that have highly mineralised springs that burst, ready heated, from the ground and offer relief from arthritis. Then in Hungary and Austria, there are thermal lakes that yield a mud rich in trace elements and essential minerals that act on skin problems like acne and eczema. While in Jordan, it is the salts from the Dead Sea that provide a remedy for joint and muscle pain. On Lošinj Island in Croatia, it’s slightly different. They have their air.
Now, air may seem a little intangible as health benefits go. Lošinj, however, is possessed of an unusual micro-climate – a combination of 2,600 hours of sunshine every year, high air quality and pressure and therapeutic air particles that mix the high salt concentrations of the Adriatic with the essential oils evaporating into the air from the island’s pine forests and plants. The result is air that has proven to be both generally beneficial for health and recuperation and particularly helpful for respiratory problems, healing and even expanding lung function.
It should come as no surprise then that, at the very foundation of the Seatox programme at the Hotel Bellevue, is the breath. So, on my very first morning, I meet Marin, personal trainer and expert on how to breathe. Now, you may think you know how to do this, right? In fact, it turns out most of us have got it all wrong – breathing through the mouth and breathing too shallowly. When you breathe through the nose, however, your heartbeat slows and cortisol is lowered. Get it right, then, and it’s not just your lungs that benefit – you also get less stressed.
It sounds simple but we spend a couple of sessions, gradually getting a little more advanced with the breathing techniques. Some of these are not dissimilar to those you’ll find in yoga and several exercises involve counting and holding the breath in different patterns. Others are more complicated. In the crocodile breath, for instance, you lie face down and breathe so deeply into the belly you aim to raise your lower back, too.
By the second session, we’re on to walking exercises, counting and holding the breath using paces or alternating a few hyperventilated breaths with 20 paces “empty”. All of these we do down by the shore in the early morning sunshine as the water laps against the rocks and the birds sing. Less stressed? Of course, you are.
The Seatox programme itself can last between seven and 14 days and, as the name suggests, this is essentially a detox. There is a combination of massages with high-tech therapies that alternate on a daily basis for maximum impact as well as a range of therapies that use the island’s super-potent sea water, a cocktail of minerals that enhance the function of the detox organs (liver, skin, colon and lymphatic system). So, my first treatment was Voyage to Bellevue, a massage using Voya oils – seaweed is a core ingredient. Given that detoxifying is the aim, this was all about getting the process started by accelerating the lymphatic system.
Lymph is notoriously sluggish and, unlike the circulation of the blood that has the heart to pump it round, the lymph is moved only by gravity. If you want to speed up both the detox and regeneration, you have to get the toxins moving towards the lymph glands situated in the groin, neck and armpits. Counterintuitively, this is not done by a fast, vigorous massage, but rather the opposite, with strokes that are slow and deep, and preceded by skin brushing – everything being pushed along in the direction of the nodes. It is, of course, very relaxing, too – 80 minutes of body and face massage to ease you into the week.
The next day and it’s a very different approach with the Venus Legacy session. This radio frequency machine tones and sculpts the body, though you can also use it on the face to lift the jawline or improve the complexion where it has an overall rejuvenating effect. On the body, though, you can pick several areas – three over the course of an hour – to reduce cellulite, speed up detoxing and improve skin texture.
Day Four and it’s the signature Seatox massage and, again, the focus is on stimulating the lymph but now it’s more vigorous than Day One – on the basis that by now it’s already on the move. So, we’re back to a manual massage, again with plenty of oil, but this time therapist, Alina, brings in some extra aids. There’s a wooden roller that is used to push that stubborn lymph (especially effective on the legs) and a cup that finishes each stroke by lifting up with the skin with a strangely satisfying pop.
No massage or treatment is repeated and the programme is designed to build for maximum effectiveness. There’s another machine – the Zerona, a cold laser that zaps fat cells – and lots more lovely massages. There are hydro-treatments and it is recommended, too, that you make daily use of one of the sea-water pools – there’s a heated indoor one and an outdoor one that gets pretty warm under the summer sun – or, of course, the sea itself. Both pools use the local sea water and it turns out that the Adriatic has significantly higher salt levels than most seas and oceans. And, while it’s not as buoyant as the Dead Sea where you can’t swim but only float, you can indeed feel the difference.
I am dipping my toe into the programme but, if you do the whole thing, you are also given a special diet of five small meals a day. I’m advised, nevertheless, on what I should eat (a light Mediterranean diet) at the various restaurants on offer and this is certainly difficult at times with temptations like the hotel’s own excellent Japanese Matsunoki Restaurant (I don’t resist). At the same time, you have a daily session with Marin who doesn’t do just breathing exercises but a whole range of exercise sessions that he works out specifically for you. And there are more treatments, too, including cryotherapy and medical tests (blood tests, body composition analysis) and a consultation with a doctor. By the end, you should have higher energy levels, more mental clarity, less stress and, if required, weight loss. On the last day, you have a feel-good facial.
And you are going to feel well. The Bellevue is very much a 5* place – a cool, airy, contemporary Italianate space right on the sparkling Adriatic surrounded by pine forest (and so perfect for those therapeutic aerosols!). It’s altogether an ideal spot for a spa and one of the few places I can think of where all you have to do to reap the benefits is simply to breathe.
For more information about Hotel Bellevue, its SeaTox programme and other signature treatments, please visit www.bellevuelosinj.com.
