Snake massage, Israel
Looking for a romantic Valentine's surprise for your partner? Book a last-minute flight to Israel and head to Talmei Elazar, for a massage at Ada Barak's Carnivorous Plant Farm and Spa. As your loved one lies down and prepares for a blissful pampering session, an armful of wriggling snakes will be dropped on to their naked body. They're soothing! Honest ...
• Around £44, +972 4 637 3473
Cryotherapy, Finland
The usual spa experience involves heating and cooling the body, then repeating until suitably invigorated. Now you can take the cooling element to the next level with cryotherapy, which involves sitting in an icebox. Haikko spa in Porvoo, Finland, boasts a super-cold chamber (-110C) – just don't spend more than a few minutes in there, or you'll risk hypothermia and death.
• Doubles in the spa's hotel from £99, cold room around £25 for up to three minutes, haikko.fi
Beer bathing, Czech Republic
There's nothing more relaxing than sinking into a deep, hot bath ... of beer. At the Chodovar Brewery in Chodová Planá you can soak in mineral water mixed with dark beer, said to have medicinal benefits. No bubble bath required – beer foam does the job.
• Doubles in the on-site hotel from around £48, 20-minute beer bath around £20, chodovar.cz
Orgasm hotel, Sweden
Devote some time to your sex life at Venusgarden, a "love hotel" in Scania. It's owned by an orgasm coach, and the rooms all come equipped with sex toys and erotic pictures, plus a copy of the owner's best-selling book, Orgasming More. One room has a mirror above the bed and another has a swing.
• Doubles from £150, venusgarden.se
Chocolate facial, Pennsylvania
The founder of Hershey's, the largest chocolate company in North America, opened a hotel in the 1930s which is still going strong today. It's based in the town named after Hershey himself, and a stay isn't complete without a visit to the Chocolate Spa for a gooey cocoa-based treatment – the new Cocoa Facial Experience is the first edible one.
• Doubles from £164, 75-minute cocoa facial around £108, chocolatespa.com
Sake spa, Japan
The Hakone Kowakien Yunessun hot springs amusement park and spa resort in south-central Japan has the usual water slides, hot tubs and saunas. However, it also has pools for bathing in sake, green tea, wine and coffee – and occasionally even ramen noodle soup.
• Around £15 for entry into the spa resort, yunessun.com
Solitary retreat, Egypt
Peter Owen Jones lived in a desert cave for three and a half weeks while filming Extreme Pilgrim for the BBC. Now you can experience the same physical hardship and spiritual richness on a Sinai desert retreat, led by Jones. You'll trek across the desert, sleep under the stars, wash with a Bedouin herbal treatment and spend a few days alone in self-reflection.
• £850 for a seven-night retreat, excluding flights, starting 1 or 9 March, through Makhad Journeys (makhad.org)
Sound bath, California
The Integratron bills itself as "an acoustically perfect tabernacle and energy machine sited on a powerful geomagnetic vortex in the magical Mojave desert". Visitors flock there for "sound baths", relaxing yet energising 30-minute sonic sessions. You lie on mats in the domed wooden chamber, listening to the music made by quartz crystal singing bowls, the tones of which are supposedly aligned with your chakras (energy centres).
• Around £6 for a public sound bath, more for private session, integratron.com
Fire cupping, Beijing
Cupping is a famously brutal massage technique involving suction. Fire cupping is similar, but with added flames, so there's a risk of burns as well as bruising in the wrong hands. Try it with confidence at the Oriental Taipan Spa – the Chinese Meridian Aromatic Oil Massage includes expert fire cupping techniques.
• From around £38 for an 80-minute massage, taipan.com
Waterfall massage, Canada
Wild spa-ing is all the rage in Thailand – Sankampaeng Hot Springs, near Chiang Mai, is a good place to stand under a waterfall and get thoroughly pummelled. But if you prefer creature comforts, the Willow Stream Spa at the Fairmont Hotel in Banff Springs has three indoor waterfalls that are great for reviving tired muscles after a day's skiing in the Rockies.
• B&B doubles from around £227, plus £44 for use of the spa, fairmont.com
