Celebrating wellness at the Spa Four Seasons Johannesburg

South African spas are not all created equal. I have experienced some of the best (I’m rather lucky like that), but I’ve also experienced some terrible excuses for spas across the country. Similarly, the general theme for South African spas is a focus on the aesthetic of the human body. Most treatments centre around beauty, rather than a focus on general wellness too.

The Spa at Four Seasons Johannesburg is looking to change this idea and push the idea of a more holistic wellness to its guests following on its opening earlier in the year. I was invited along to the Spa to meet up with staff, chat to suppliers and of course experience some of the spa’s signature treatments, this is a following on from my stay at the hotel earlier this year: I heart Joburg and now I heart the Four Seasons Johannesburg too.

Global Wellness Day is an initiative out of Turkey that celebrates making healthier lifestyle choices that build towards a better approach to general wellness. The focus is on sustainable choices in our every day lives that can make a massive difference to our overall health in the long term. For the first time in South Africa, the movement was celebrated at Four Seasons Johannesburg.

At my visit to the spa, I had both a Terres D’Afrique express facial and a deep tissue massage. During my previous visit, I experienced the Afrique in Harmony Balancing Massage. Both massages were incredible for different reasons, the balancing massage however is particularly unique as the therapist will use hand-carved batons that are applied to various pressure points across the body to release tight muscles and help the body’s own restorative powers do their magic.

The Terres D’Afrique products are an exclusive to this Johannesburg spa, and they are absolutely exquisite! The natural remedies from Africa’s own healing plants are combined with international techniques to create an interesting, and may I say delicious, range of products.

We ended the morning with a lunch overlooking the gorgeous Jozi skyline from the hotel’s Après Spa rooftop lounge, and enjoying an Yswara tea tasting. I didn’t even know tea could be so delicious!

The Yswara teas are blended beautifully and incorporate flavours unknown to me in tea such as whisky, chocolate and pepper. All of the ingredients are proudly farmed across Africa and packaged in the most gorgeous boxes and tins, ready to be consumed by any tea connoisseur. The teas are served and sold at the Four Seasons and Yswara will hopefully open a blending facility in Maboneng in the near future. Definitely a brand to keep an eye on!

I adore the fact that besides loving Johannesburg (see my post mentioned earlier), Four Seasons Johannesburg is dedicated to using and promoting products that are so proudly African in their facilities. It’s an inspiring and unique way to approach wellness, and something I hope we’ll see more of in future.