British GQ - 04.2020

still can’t decide whether it was a good

or bad idea to embark on my trip to

the Sha Wellness Clinic – a glistening

modernist beacon of health and wellbe-

ing on Spain’s sun-soaked Costa Blanca

• on the back of a Saturday night rager.
  I chose to book my trip, you see, for
  the last week of November, a period
  when – in the heady world of men’s
  lifestyle journalism, at least – Christmas
  party season is already in full swing.
  Suffice to say, my 7am flight to
  Alicante – Sha’s nearest airport – did
  nothing for my hangover. Nor did the
  fact that when I finally arrived at the
  hotel, I remembered that this wasn’t just
  an average spa weekend I was embark-
  ing on, but rather a full-blown medical
  experience designed, in the words of the

clinic, to “improve and notably lengthen

[...] health and wellbeing through the

fusion of natural therapies, mainly orig-

inated from millenarian eastern wisdom

with Western techniques.”

All fears were quickly mitigated by

the gracious white coat-clad staff who

greeted me with a chorus of chirpy

“holas”, the ritzy blanched surrounds

and the fact that the clinic – which

boasts some 93 sparely decorated guest

suites and a state-of-the-art treatment

centre – is perched in a picturesque

spot overlooking the Mediterranean

Sea, in the shadow of the hulking Sierra

Helada mountains.

Where other clinics tend to put spa

programmes and/or fitness offerings

at the core of their treatment regimes,

the focus at Sha, perhaps unsurprising-

ly, is food – all of which is vegetarian;

with no dairy, sugar, caffeine or alcohol

served. Short of being miserable and

mean, however, the dishes served up

at Sha’s only restaurant are delicious.

Once my body had recovered from the

initial shock of being denied merlot

Between the sea

and the shadows of

Sierra Helada,

chic Sha Wellness

specialises in

tackling sleep and

stress-related issues

Sha Wellness on the Costa Blanca puts food at the heart of its healing mission

Story by Teo van den Broeke

Best for rejuvination

A taste of

TRANQUILITY

04-20WellnessShaNEW_3542608.indd 136 12/02/2020 10:21

138 GQ.CO.UK APRIL 2020