MISSION The hotel’s challenge: to attract a younger market with a brand new spa. My challenge: to steer my 4-year-old daughter through the silk and silence to Reid’s exclusive, new “parent and child” dual spa experience.

USP Do you need to ask? Reid’s Palace is one of the world’s historic luxury hotels, a throwback to the days when Prime Ministers (Winston Churchill stayed there after the war) and European princes waltzed gracefully at black-tie dinner dances in mirrored halls and took tea together in soft sofas overlooking a sparkling Atlantic.

A hotel like this would simply never be designed today, with its expanse of soporific public areas and whole exquisite rooms dedicated exclusively to reading, or billiards, or taking tea, or bridge. The amount of space alone, and the quiet, makes it deeply relaxing. The staff cannot be faulted: they somehow guess what you are about to want before you have even fully formulated the thought yourself.

AMBIENCE In the most luxurious hotel, in the best spot in Madeira’s capital Funchal, with fabulous views over the Atlantic, the small, candlelit spa is as plush and hush as you would expect. Each treatment room has its own balcony, with a bed for post-massage relaxation, and the fabulous sea views you also enjoy from the swimming pools (one salt water, one fresh) on the terrace. The double massage room grandly has its own hot tub on a private terrace as well.

EXPERIENCE Gorgeous. A really great massage. Dubious though I was about trying the combined mother and child treatment, I needn’t have been. My daughter was asleep, bottom in the air, within 10 minutes of her “Nangfa, Angel Bliss for Children” (50 mins; €80) beginning, and woke up 40 minutes later complaining that it was boring.

My treatment, a “Samunprai Thai Herbal Heat Energizer” (75 mins; €130), combining, yes, herbs, heat and a Thai massage, was blissful – and I am very fussy about massages. The masseuse was so good I went back for an excellent sports massage (30 mins; €40) the next day. Treatments are expensive but worth it. Kids get their own gowns and slippers.

FOOD Didn’t try most of it – I ate out around Funchal instead; Reid’s restaurants are too grown-up for young children. Good buffet breakfast. A child’s portion of steak and chips arrived via room service on a heated trolley, with a silver hat, silver cutlery and a vase of flowers. It’s that kind of place. It was delicious.

IN-CROWD Elderly English couples with just a touch of the Hyacinth Bouquets, a soupcon of Eurotrash and a splash of Russian bling. Despite the fact they can boast that a member of All Saints (a popular girl band) has visited, the clientele cannot in all honesty be described as anything other than old, as evidenced by the wheelchair permanently stationed in reception, although families do visit during school holidays and there is a “fun club” for children aged 3-9. The hotel is no place for screaming kids. Absolutely not.

WALLET WATCH Four-night spa package including flights, breakfast and a four hour Botanical Indulgence treatment (herbal bath, body scrub, banana leaf with papaya and aloe vera wrap, lunch, aromatherapy massage, normal price €325) at £1,154 per person, available until 20 Dec 2007 from Prestige Holidays (01425 480 400). Ask their local rep Isabel Borges for restaurant recommendations around Funchal. Other packages available from 2008.

Example treatment prices: Thai clay body mask with head massage 90 mins, €130; tropical fruit and flower facials, 60 mins, €100.

NEED TO KNOW Reid’s Palace Spa, Funchal, Madeira (www.reidspalace.com)

For more than 225 independent spa reviews log on to timesonline.co.uk/goodspaguide

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