Colon Cleansing & Detox Retreat in Marbella, Spain Marbella, Malaga, Spain Review

Overall Rating

Close proximity to the UK

Mislaed by Marketing on website. Isolated location with no convenient facilities Watered down and stale juices provided No security The longest two weeks of my life. All guests in a shared apartment

Two years ago i travelled to Spa Samui in Thailand and did a 7 day fasting / cleasning program. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and at the end felt i could easily do a few more days. Last year i decided that it was time for another such fasting / cleansing program but not wanting to travel to Thailand again i searched for somewhere closer to home and found Detox Marbella.
I chose this resort because of its proximity to the UK, because the program sounded well constructed and because the accommodation was described as luxurious and the resort was described as being set in acres of lush vegetation, with several swimming pools dotted around. Indeed the photographs on the website supported this. I decided to book myself in for two weeks and the cost was €1,400 of which i had to send 50% to a bank account in Holland in advance and the rest i had to pay in cash shortly after arrival.

I was astonished upon arriving to find that the scale of operations was much smaller than i had expected and in fact the proprietors simply placed all guests together in one rented four bedroom apartment in a large, unfinished development up a steep winding mountain path which one would not wish to walk up or down. The photographs on the website are of this development, and not, as i had assumed, of Detox Marbella's facilities.

There did not appear to be any consideration towards security, the rooms did not have locks and after two days when a couple finished their program, i found myself sharing an apartment for a couple of days, (and an apartment with no phone and very isolated), with only a man i met for the first time two days earlier. Like all the guests i shared with during the two weeks, he was perfectly pleasant and respectable but it was highly presumptuous to assume that this arrangement would be acceptable to customers. I was not subject to any character checks myself and i therefore think i can assume nobody else was either.

The property has three bedrooms for renting out so at any one time there can be a maximum of 6 people staying there, fortunately it was never at capacity when i was there, if it was i think it would feel overcrowded and there would not be enough room for everyone to sit in the lounge! There was only one bedroom upstairs in the property as the other upstairs room was used as a treatment room for massages. For my first few days i was in a downstairs bedroom, it did not have an en suite bathroom (as was advertised) and as this was a family apartment it was not soundproofed and i was not able to relax or sleep because of noise from other guests watching TV right outside my room. After a few days i was moved to an upstairs room with en suite which was very comfortable, however had i been in the first room for 2 weeks i would have been very unhappy and there was no price differential for a clearly better standard of room.
two weeks were the longest t
The next two weeks were the longest two weeks of my life.

As the apartment complex was up a mountain and i quickly started to feel trapped and isolated as there were no links to the nearest town and very little to do in the apartment itself except read and watch TV. There was a gym for the residents of the complex however going to the gym seemed unwise for people fasting and in any case this too was not easily accessible being down a long, very steep, winding path and the walk back up extremely off-putting.

i did consider killing some time by having a massage however this was cost-prohibitive at €65 which included a mark up of €15 by the proprietor for the use of a room and bed to have massage on!

The program itself was somethng of an ordeal. During my previous fast in Thailand, at no time did i feel hungry and nor did i find taking the herbal supplements and drinks a chore. I cannot even remember how many tablets i had to take at Deox Marbella each day but it was A LOT! in addition there was a foul black drink to take several times a day called drawing powder.

The worst aspect though was the hunger, i felt starving most of the time. This was not helped by the fruit juices we were given which were in fact watered down by about 10 to 1, were made once or twice a day and often ran out. The proprietor would come to the apartment twice a day to make new ones but if they ran out inbetween then we just had to make do with water, which was also quite foul tasting strange as that may sound.

I was also disappointed to find that the promised daily colonics were in fact every other day. I was told that this was because we were given oxy powder instead which was supposed ot have the same effect. Well i can say with some authority having done twice daily colonics in Thailand that it did not have the same effect. Also even if that were the case then why does the plan on the website state that colonics are daily?

I did mention several times that i did not find the combination of colonic and oxy powder effective. In response I had my oxy powder dosage increased gradually up to 11 tablets and after a few days of that i was told that the problem must be that i am "seriously ill". not great to hear at 35 years old!

i continued with the program and kept my mouth shut about many things, mainly because i felt trapped and virtually at the mercy of the owners with no access to a telephone, internet etc. However i did decide to leave a day early and spent my last night in Marbella town.

On the morning i was due to leave and in the couple of days before i was hounded to write in the comments book and indeed and finally i was stood over as i wrote something. i did not think i would be taken to the town until i did!

My comment was along the line of "this was hard work but i am glad i stuck it out" (indeed i was for €1400 euro no refunds given), i then said that i had at least lost a stone and felt more determined. This comment found its way onto the company's website as a "testimonial", i did ask for it to be removed from the site and it was.

I came away thinking that despite the difficulties, i had at least lost a stone. Alas this was not to be, presumably it was just water as within a week i was back to my pre-clense weight (and no i did not go on a fast food binge immediately afterwards)!