USP The deprivation vacation, also known as the bikini boot camp, is a hard-working holiday designed to tone your body and clear your mind with a strict diet and a sergeant-major exercise regime. This one is down the coast from Rio in a hilly rainforest teeming with exotic wildlife.

AMBIENCE My room smelt like a tramp’s underarm and there were no scatter-cushion comforts: the towels were like sandpaper, and the soaps those bright-pink, credit-card slithers that could disappear indefinitely in a fold of flesh.

EXPERIENCE Every day I was forced to get up at 6am and exercise hard for eight hours. After breakfast, we’d climb into our kayaks and paddle through clear water to the start point for that day’s hike. Those gruelling trails were rewarded by lazy recuperation on spectacular beaches, or deeply therapeutic twilight massages. By day seven, I had lost 3lb and felt fitter, more flexible and generally more positive. It was the best holiday I've ever had - and I specialise in luxury travel.

FOOD We were forced to survive on detox rations - no meat, no caffeine, no alcohol, just 1,500 beansprouty calories a day. Worse still, there was communal dining – and I’d rather have my nails pulled out with pliers than do small talk.

IN CROWD Davina McCall and Ashley Judd have worked on their red-carpet figures here until they added up to a perfect 10. Our small group of six comprised smart New Yorkers in their 30s and 40s.

WALLET WATCH Seven days at Body & Soul Adventures start at £1,092, including meals, activities and transfers. Trailfinders has flights to Rio de Janeiro from Birmingham, Manchester, Heathrow and Gatwick, from £555.

NEED TO KNOW Body & Soul Adventures (020 3002 0936; www.bodysouladventures.com); Trailfinders (0845 058 5858; www.trailfinders.com)