Spa Days in Blackpool: the 5 Best, and Which Are In Town

Search for a spa in Blackpool and you get two very different sorts of result mixed together, which is why so many people book the wrong one. There are health club spas inside the town, which are perfectly good for a treatment and a swim and are a short walk from the promenade. And there are destination thermal spas, the kind with a hydrotherapy pool and a heat journey and a robe you live in all day, and every one of those sits between eight and forty miles inland.

Knowing which you are buying is most of the decision. Below are five places worth the money across Blackpool and Lancashire, what each one actually has, and how far you will be driving.

The short version

Staying in Blackpool and want a treatment plus a pool: Bannatyne on Rigby Road.

Want a proper thermal spa and can drive 15 minutes: the Spa Hotel at Ribby Hall Village, Wrea Green.

Want the best in the county and will drive an hour: the Woodland Spa at Crow Wood, Burnley.

Want somewhere smaller with a view: Stanley House, Mellor, in the Ribble Valley.

Want a treatment-led day near Preston: Elements Day Spa at Broughton.

1. The Spa Hotel at Ribby Hall Village, Wrea Green

The nearest destination spa to Blackpool by a distance, at Ribby Road, Wrea Green, PR4 2PR. That is roughly eight miles inland, about 15 to 20 minutes from the promenade, which makes it the realistic answer for anyone staying in Blackpool who wants a full thermal spa day rather than a treatment room.

It sits in more than 100 acres of countryside between Preston and Blackpool, and it is adult-only, which is unusual in this part of the world and is precisely why people go. The thermal offer is built around what the spa calls its Aqua Thermal Journey, a sequenced set of heat experiences rather than a single sauna and steam room. The hotel’s restaurant, The Orangery, holds two AA Rosettes, so the lunch is not an afterthought.

The credential worth knowing is that Ribby Hall has won the Good Spa Guide’s Best UK Day Spa award in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Four consecutive years is a strong signal on a spa day specifically, as opposed to the hotel around it.

Spa days are sold to non-residents. Because it is adult-only, this is not the one for a family pamper day, but it is the obvious ribby hall spa day booking for a couple or two friends.

2. The Woodland Spa at Crow Wood, Burnley

The best spa in Lancashire on most measures, and the furthest from Blackpool at around forty miles, so budget an hour each way.

It sits on the edge of Burnley at BB12 0RT, in the Crow Wood Resort grounds. The spa itself is a day spa, which matters: unlike a hotel spa where day guests share the facilities with residents, this was designed around people arriving for the day. Loungers run both indoors and outdoors, and the thermal offer is a heat-and-ice circuit rather than a couple of rooms.

The awards are the most convincing of any spa on this list. It holds the Good Spa Guide’s Best UK Hotel Spa 2025, a World Luxury Spa Award 2025 as global winner for Best Luxury Thermal Area, and TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice and Best of the Best for 2026, which you can see listed on the Woodland Spa’s own site. A global thermal award is a real thing to have won, and the thermal area is the part of a spa day you spend the most hours in.

Worth booking well ahead. It is the spa people in this county book for birthdays.

3. Stanley House, Mellor

About thirty miles from Blackpool, near Blackburn at BB2 7NP, in the Ribble Valley.

Stanley House is the smaller, quieter option, and the thing it has that the others do not is the view. Its hydrotherapy pool is outdoors and looks over Ribble Valley countryside, which is a different experience from a hydrotherapy pool in a glass box. The thermal bathing suite runs to saunas, steam rooms and salt therapy, and treatments use Temple Spa products. Food is at Fred’s Brasserie rather than a formal dining room.

It holds the Good Spa Guide’s Best Boutique Spa award from 2023 and a five-bubble rating, and “boutique” is the right word: if the appeal of a spa day for you is a smaller room and fewer people rather than the largest possible thermal circuit, this is the one on the list to look at. Details are on Stanley House’s spa page.

4. Bannatyne Health Club and Spa, Blackpool

The answer for anyone who does not want to leave town. Bloomfield Central, Rigby Road, Blackpool, FY1 5EP, a short walk from the town centre and the promenade.

Set your expectations correctly and it is a good option. This is a health club with a spa attached, not a destination thermal spa. What you get is a 20-metre swimming pool, a sauna, a steam room, a spa pool and a lounge area, plus treatment rooms using Elemis alongside Bannatyne’s own products, with OPI for nails and Lycon for waxing. There is a café bar. It is open to non-members, so you do not need to be a member to book a spa day.

What you do not get is a heat journey, an outdoor pool, or the all-day-in-a-robe atmosphere. If that is what you are picturing, drive to Wrea Green.

The other in-town option in the same category is the spa at the Village Hotel on the outskirts of Blackpool, which is also a health club with treatment rooms rather than a destination spa.

5. Elements Day Spa, Broughton, Preston

About twenty miles from Blackpool, inside Delta Hotels by Marriott Preston on Garstang Road, Broughton, PR3 5JB.

This one is treatment-led rather than thermal-led, and it is honest about that. There are three treatment rooms, the facials are ESPA, there are nail and make-up stations, and there is a relaxation room looking onto the gardens of a restored Victorian building. If what you actually want is a good long massage and a facial rather than five hours of heat rooms, this is a better use of a day than paying a destination spa for facilities you will use for an hour.

One thing to check when you book. The pool, steam room, sauna and Jacuzzi belong to the hotel’s leisure club, and access to them is an add-on to a treatment booking rather than something automatically included. Confirm what your package covers before you arrive, because turning up expecting a pool day and finding you booked a treatment is a common and avoidable disappointment.

What “spa day” means in Lancashire, and how to book well

A few things that are true across all of these.

The word “spa” is doing a lot of work. In the UK it covers everything from a hotel leisure club with a sauna to a purpose-built thermal circuit with nine pools. Nobody is lying to you, but a listing that says “spa day from” a low headline figure is usually a treatment plus pool access, not a full thermal day. Read what the facilities list actually says before the price.

Ask about the thermal suite specifically. Not “is there a spa” but “what is in the thermal area”. A hydrotherapy pool, a sequence of heat rooms and somewhere to lie down between them are the three things that make a day feel long and worth it.

Check the age policy before booking for two generations. Ribby Hall is adult-only. If you are planning a mother and daughter spa day with a teenager, that rules it out and you need to ask the others directly, because policies differ between the pool, the thermal suite and the treatment rooms at the same venue.

Weekdays are a different product from Saturdays. The same spa on a Tuesday is quieter, cheaper and easier to book, and at the larger venues the difference in how busy the thermal area feels is substantial.

Consider an evening package. Several Lancashire spas run twilight sessions that give you the facilities and a treatment for a few hours after work, which is often the best value in the whole category. We cover the format in twilight and evening spa packages.

Bring less than you think. Robes and towels are usually provided at the destination spas and often not at the health clubs, which is worth a phone call rather than an assumption. Our guide to what to wear to a spa day covers the rest.

If you are willing to widen the search, spa hotels in the North West takes in Cheshire and Cumbria, and spa days in Manchester is an hour from Blackpool by train.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a proper spa in Blackpool itself? There are health club spas in Blackpool, most notably Bannatyne on Rigby Road, which has a 20-metre pool, sauna, steam room, spa pool and treatment rooms using Elemis. There is no destination thermal spa inside the town. The nearest is the Spa Hotel at Ribby Hall Village at Wrea Green, roughly eight miles inland.

What is the best spa in Lancashire? On awards, the Woodland Spa at Crow Wood near Burnley. It holds the Good Spa Guide’s Best UK Hotel Spa 2025 and a World Luxury Spa Award 2025 as global winner for Best Luxury Thermal Area. Ribby Hall has the stronger record on day spas specifically, having won the Good Spa Guide’s Best UK Day Spa award four years running from 2022 to 2025.

Which Lancashire spa is closest to Blackpool? The Spa Hotel at Ribby Hall Village, Wrea Green, PR4 2PR, at about eight miles. Elements Day Spa at Broughton near Preston is around twenty miles, Stanley House at Mellor around thirty, and the Woodland Spa at Burnley around forty.

Can you do a spa day without staying overnight? Yes, at all five on this list. Ribby Hall, the Woodland Spa, Stanley House, Bannatyne Blackpool and Elements all sell spa days to non-residents. The Woodland Spa is a dedicated day spa rather than a hotel spa, which means the facilities are designed around day guests rather than shared with residents.

Are Lancashire spas adults only? Ribby Hall’s spa hotel is adult-only. The others are not blanket adults-only, but age rules vary between the pool, the thermal suite and treatment rooms even within one venue, so check directly for the specific facility you want to use rather than the venue as a whole.

What is a pamper day in Lancashire likely to include? Typically a robe and slippers, access to the pool and thermal facilities for a set number of hours, one or two treatments, and lunch or afternoon tea. What varies most is the thermal element. At Ribby Hall or the Woodland Spa it is a full heat journey; at a health club it is a sauna and steam room. That single difference is what separates the price brackets.

Is a spa day worth booking on a Saturday? It is the most expensive and busiest day, and at large thermal spas the difference is noticeable in whether you get a lounger. Midweek costs less and feels calmer. If a weekend is the only option, book the earliest slot of the day, which is consistently the quietest part of a Saturday.

How far in advance should you book? For the Woodland Spa and Ribby Hall on a weekend, several weeks, and longer around Christmas and Mother’s Day. Midweek at any of the five is usually available at shorter notice, and last-minute availability does appear when packages go unsold, which we cover in last-minute spa breaks.