World Recognition For Tribe’s Kaya Spa
Tribe Hotel’s New Kaya Spa in Nairobi featured in the Condé Nast Traveler Hot List Spas 2011!
Nairobi, Kenya, April 19, 2011 – Condé Nast Traveler has released their 2011 Hot List Spas which highlights the 43 coolest new urban and rural retreats in the world – from Anguilla to Tasmania. Tribe Hotel’s brand new Kaya Spa in Nairobi represents Kenya as one of the year’s top picks as one of only three spas in Africa to be selected for the list.
The 10,000 square foot spa and studio combines traditional and new-world treatments from around the globe. Kaya reflects the mysticism and enchantment of Kenya’s Kaya forests while holding true to the glamorous and sophisticated design of Tribe and the warmth and personality of Nairobi.
The five treatment rooms and rasul chamber offer a variety of spa treatments, from an urban body boot-camp to traditional Thai massages and time-honored healing therapies.
Kaya’s skilled therapists are certified and trained in modern and ancient massage techniques. This includes supplementary skills training from Thai, Italian, South African and American experts in deep-touch therapy and healing, evidence of Kaya’s commitment to providing the best treatments, on par with the world’s most renowned spas.
Tribe Hotel was featured on the 2010 Hot List Hotels for both Condé Nast Traveler (US) and Condé Nast Traveller (UK) – as one of the year’s hottest hotels in the world.
For more information on Tribe Hotel and Kaya Spa please visit http://www.tribe-hotel.com
For media inquiries, please contact: Kelley Coughlan, Ballantines PR
Kelley@ballantinespr.com Tel: 310 454 3080
Please See Text Excerpt Below
According to Condé Nast Traveler:
http://www.concierge.com/tools/travelawards/hotlist/2011/spas/detail/kaya_spa
“Long integral to hotels, spas are now an essential part of a mental health holiday—a rare opportunity to power down. (Hey, you can’t IM during a massage!) This year, our correspondents checked out new spas from Lake Como to Koh Samui, assessing their style, facilities, treatments, and service—and their potential for well, checking out.
Kaya Spa- Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254-20-720-0656
Massages, $58-$127
What: A new luxury spa situated near the pool at Nairobi’s trendy Tribe Hotel, it offers a variety of body scrubs and massages, Dermalogica skin care treatments, and whirlpool tub treatments for two.
The look: Africa’s interpretation of Philippe Starck, with dark walls, locally sourced natural wood floors, and colorful African art.
Who goes: The hotel’s mainly European guests, local expats, and wealthy Kenyans.
The treatment: The Kenya Gold includes a full-body coffee scrub that smells good enough to drink, followed by a stimulating massage. Ask for Wendy.
P.S.: Tips are not expected but are very much appreciated. This reviewer received a follow-up e-mail of gratitude.”
kariuki Kiragu 10:50 on July 21, 2011 Permalink |
An Ageless Gem
I didn’t know about this award till now when I was just posting this review:
I’d heard of the Tribe from my sister Wanjiku Karanja out from Washington DC and wondered why she would go there instead of the more accessible hotels in downtown, Nairobi. This was until my friends and visited on Sunday, July 17th 2011.
at first, the grey, austere external appearance, appears forbidding, looming and uninviting – generally hard but trying to get away with innocent-looking aluminum windows – Like a big, dark frown behind yellow glasses, so one keeps cautious distance from the wall and are relieved as they reach the main entrance…which literally sucks them in, invitingly, with spatial flow.
On entry, African, principally Ethiopian, art works morphing from wall-shelved sculptures onto the floor as utility furniture, ceiling as light fittings and in-between as space partitions and circulation elements grows in an organic way rarely experienced. Serene, subtle yet sparkling.
I excused myself to go look at timeless, wall-hung hung instruments suggestive of griot music, wandered around, drawn form space to space till I met the manager, Ogolla, who was amused when I asked whether this was a hotel or an art gallery. He graciously took me round to the restaurant, pool side, gym, conference room, boutique, roof top bar, reception and reception bar. In all these functions, the spaces flow into one another, subtly connected or disconnected, depending on how you look at it, by sculptural walls, furniture, glass, mass and light. Doors are there only when absolutely necessary.
The entire place is on a small site and, giving an intimacy balanced out by vertical spatial crescendos and asymmetrical horizontal movement as well as the exhibition and utility artwork including seats, table, counters, floors.
Even the lift shaft, a 3 storey black menhir, is a piece of art in the main atrium, tying together the 4 floor levels in a giant, graceful dancer’s sheer balancing of contrasts….then he scale dwindles sharply and one notices the pinpoint multicolored lights winking within the dark, velvety lift walls.
Cheeky, really, a smile.
My guests from Los-Angeles Lauren Segal of Next Aid, Jay and his son Jonathan Heit, a child star from Hollywood said they’d simply never seen a place like this – so simultaneously integrated and divergent, it defies definition.
Yet the materials are simple, granite, glass, curtains, concrete, aluminum and timber.
The unexpected, domestic touches like the book shelves in the reception bar, the stepping stones across the pool, the intimate, almost hidden staircase down to the restaurant, the lair-like side entrance into the gym, all scaled down within the sequentially exploding space.
These are not so much detailed but arranged in unusual formats, keeping the senses alive but relaxed – in a dalliance with irony that evokes intimacy, like flirting, so the whole environment seems to talk, knowingly, to you.
It won’t grow up, it won’t age, it won’t change. We like it as it is.
There is little doubt that the staff’s calm and pleasant demeanor is derived form being permanent occupants of such lovely, crafted spaces – like the people who live in greenery.
It is no surprise that the designer, Mehraz Ehsani, taught me all the architecture I know and practice, and with that came nostalgia.
Maybe I am biased but this hotel, should be part of the syllabus in architecture schools, globally.
Kariuki Kiragu
kariukikiragu@gmail.com
Travelinga 02:15 on January 4, 2012 Permalink |
I love the Tribe! I stayed there in October 2011 and it was so amazing. I blogged about it (blog posted Jan. 4, 2012) and posted some pics from my stay. The pictures on your website are true to form and not photostock photos. My friends can’t believe that such a luxurious hotel exists in Nairobi! The Tribe has certainly set the standard not just for African hotels, but all hotels internationally. No wonder it is highly recommended by Kiwi Collection.