USP Billed as Wales’s first purpose-built 5-star hotel, every room and suite (there are 132) has views or balconies overlooking Cardiff Bay, while the spa to one side of the hotel is state-of-the-art stuff.

AMBIENCE St David's is encircled by a yuppie dreamland, with glass and steel apartment buildings, shopping malls, waterside cafés and bars, and the new Welsh Assembly. The building resembles an extraordinary glass version of a ship’s prow.

EXPERIENCE A huge menu of body and beauty treatments includes such esoteric ones as Tui Na — a massage of traditional Chinese medicine in which the therapist not only uses strokes to ease the muscles but also pinches and pummels the body. Hydrotherapy pool has pressure jets from ankle to hips and aqua beds where you can just lie under the water and be gently massaged.

FOOD Tides Grill restaurant provides local fish fare.

IN CROWD Cardiff's smart set and corporate types trying to relax from long workshops.

WALLET WATCH The spa has a number of full day packages from £95. Also on offer are overnight spa breaks which include dinner, bed, breakfast and lunch, full use of the spa facilities and a treatment from £210 per person.

NEED TO KNOW Havannah Street, Cardiff, Wales (0870 4606040; www.thestdavidshotel.com)

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