The Body & Bubbles Package is a good reason to visit Waterloo Place's new Yu Spa

It starts from just under £50

Yu Spa

Edinburgh’s Waterloo Place is the place to go for buses and coach tours, Howie’s restaurant and Old Calton Cemetery.

However it’s now also the location of an under-the-radar spa, which is pretty handy, if you’ve just been up nearby Calton Hill and your muscles have been tested.

Apex Hotel launched this space last year, and, until the end of September, this Edinburgh branch and the one in Dundee are offering a Body & Bubbles package, with prices at the Capital’s venue starting from a reasonable £49 Monday to Thursday, or £64 Friday to Sunday. It includes a 25-minute Yu Spa Back, Neck and Shoulder Massage, as well as a glass of non-alcoholic fizz from Cornish company, Wild Life Botanicals.

Yu Spa swimming pool

There’s also use of the facilities, so I arrive an hour and a bit before my treatment, though you can hang out for as long as two hours. I get into my white bathrobe, head down to the spa and broil myself in the steam room, with its twinkly star lights, and the sauna.

Their swimming pool is rather cool-looking - modern, and Bauhaus-esque, with hydrotherapy along one end, if you press a button

I’m there in the morning, just after hotel check-out time, so it’s peaceful and I can hang out on the loungers in sweet silence. I only wish I’d brought a book.

When it’s treatment time, I head to the relaxation room to meet my therapist Rachel. She takes me into a huge Duo Room, with heavy curtains and two therapy beds. I ask for firm pressure, and she deploys some Elemis oil and their Instant Refreshing Gel, which contains arnica and camphor.

I could never have guessed how strong she would be. Rachel is a machine, who obliterates every crick in my neck, and the knots around my scapula, using hands and elbows. However, I do appreciate that she uses a softer sweeping pressure, after each harder stroke, so it never gets too sore. Although this is only a 25 minute massage, no second is wasted.

After this part of the package, I’m taken to the relaxation room, where I get my Champagne glass full of an ice-cold and rose-coloured drink. Apparently, it contains five herbs and eight vitamins and minerals, and it tastes a bit like kombucha.

Now that I’ve had my bubbles, I feel that Waterloo Place is a destination for more than just buses.

The Body & Bubbles package is available at Apex Waterloo Place Hotel (23-27 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh (0131 523 1819, www.apexhotels.co.uk) and Apex City Quay Hotel, Dundee (01382 309309, starting from £59), from now until the end of September.