USP A year-old, light and roomy spa – with excellent wet facilities - thoughtfully conceived and not too over the top in its décor.

AMBIENCE Although the feel is that of an exclusive gym the facilities are as smart as most five-star hotel spas. The downstairs pool area is warm and full of natural light with loungers around the 18-metre pool, a Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, aromatherapy room, a couple of multi-jet monsoon showers and a table full of the weekend papers. It has an equally spacious café/reception area.

Upstairs there are eight treatment rooms (each named after zones near the owner Sir Peter Michael’s residence in the Californian wine valley), a relaxation room with an outdoor terrace overlooking the golf course and a waiting area with two massage chairs. The hotel has elegant bedrooms with flat screen TVs and Italian marble bathrooms.

EXPERIENCE I came to experience the anti-blues Aquasun mineral treatment - "a virtual holiday treatment which recreates the key beneficial elements of a beach holiday". Right from the off there was a snag: it might have been the first week of January (a time statistically proven to be more miserable than most other weeks in the year) and howling gales outside but I didn’t feel blue.

Still, in the name of research, I forsook the full body massage and dunked myself in a hot Aquasun bath full of salty minerals and dried rose petals instead. At the press of a button a "sun canopy" of a dozen UV strip lights is lowered above you.

This is a tense moment in which, despite its presumed safety, it is almost impossible not to imagine torture and the incompatibility of electrically powered light, water and the human nervous system - I was planning my escape by rolling out over the side of the bath.

Left alone for about 30 minutes I wondered: would the therapy still be effective if I closed my eyes? Do I really look like that naked (in the concave reflective mirror behind the UV strip lights)? Under the light the water turned a sort of pale algae colour; the light canopy hummed like an industrial air extractor, and when I pressed the bubble-making button the ordinary sized bath seemed to shake and rumble like a volcano. Most unsettling.

To top it all off I went blind. Well, momentarily, when the bright lights at which I’d staring for half an hour clunked off with no warning. This is the most popular treatment I was informed later - which I found hard to believe given the wonderful wet spa facilites dowstairs.

I struggled, too, with the massage chair – a leather contraption in which it was impossible to relax as its mechanical pistons probed you.

The treatment I needed was the one that is supposed to improve my golf swing – not my mood swings. The next blustery day as we putted on the sixth green I popped into the shelter of the spa for an Indian head massage from the not-long-out-of-college but polished Fiona.

After a few minutes getting the head, arms and knees in a comfortable "prayer-like" position in the massage chair Fiona chopped at my neck, ruffled, twisted and pulled my hair (to stimulate new growth) using Espa’s energising oil for 30 minutes - perfect timing to rejoin my golf partner on the 11th.

FOOD AND DRINK The spa serves hot and cold drinks and light snacks – I had a melon and mango smoothie poolside. After pre-dinner drinks in the bar, with roaring fireplace and high-timbered ceilings, the hotel’s WinePress restaurant offers some delicious combos on its dinner menu – including beef shin with sea bream and lentil jus, and lamb stuffed with apricots.

IN CROWD Berkshire babes; pregnant mums; excited couples like kids in a playground. Joanna Trollope is doing a book reading and there’s comedy on Monday nights.

WALLET WATCH Aquasun mineral treatment costs £32 for 30 minutes; an Indian head massage is £35 for 30 minutes. A Holistic One Night Spa Break is £179 per person (Single Room Occupancy £199). A half-day spa Relax for four hours is available Monday to Thursday for only £60 per person and includes a 30-minute Clarins Absolute Radiance Facial and tea.

The popular holistic treatment is £99 per person during the week and £115 Friday to Sunday - a Full Body Hot Stone Massage, a Deluxe Foot Ritual, a healthy Spa Lunch and hour relax and then a choice of ESPA Salt & Oil Scrub, Indian Head Massage, Aquasun Mineral Treatments; followed by a fruit sorbet and a product gift pack. Individual treatments start from £30 and there’s a good range of men’s treatments including golf ones.

NEED TO KNOW The Donnington Valley Hotel and Spa, Old Oxford Road, Donnington, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 3AG (01635 568169; www.donningtonvalley.co.uk)

For more than 240 independent spa reviews log on to timesonline.co.uk/goodspaguide

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