Business, pleasure and health: Dolce La Hulpe

There can’t be many hotel spas that can claim to have been an IBM training centre in past times, but then Dolce La Hulpe isn’t most spas. First of all, it’s primarily a conference centre – one surrounded by 72 hectares of beautiful forest, one with a gourmet restaurant and a star-speckled hammam, but a conference centre nonetheless.

On weekdays, the ultra-stylish grand white lobby is packed with corporate bods dressing down in the best way they know how (no ties, Hush Puppies instead of Church’s), but at weekends Dolce La Hulpe is transformed into the leisure destination of choice for families and couples seeking a relaxing weekend break in the Brussels region.

Deep in the Soignes Forest, just 15km from central Brussels, Dolce La Hulpe is part of an American-owned global hotel chain that specialises in upscale resorts and conference hotels – there are outposts in Aspen, New York and Munich and the latest addition to the Dolce portfolio opened in Las Vegas last month.

Driving up to La Hulpe, you are struck by how simple, even underwhelming, the low-rise structure is. But once inside, it’s a different story. Danish architect Jorgen Bo has successfully retained its original 1970s feel and wide airy spaces while injecting it with a dramatic contemporary flourish – think Philippe Starck meets Scandinavian naturist chic.

The theme continues throughout the building. All 264 rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows that offer stunning forest views. You can even gaze out to the trees from your bathtub as the bathroom is partitioned by glass, but if you’re not ready to embrace your inner exhibitionist you can always pull down the blinds. If you need to work, there is free wifi and a desk in all rooms.

Luckily I came to relax and set about inspecting the thread count of the sheets (exceedingly high, I’m happy to report) before preparing for an afternoon in the spa. Now, before you accuse me of being a freeloading journo, which I may or may not be, a quick word for those of you who plan to come here to work. Dolce’s state-of-the-art conference facilities are considered among the best in Europe – and with good reason.

Situated at one end of the complex (so visitors are not distracted by the spa and the very tempting lobby bar, where the bartenders will mix you anything you ask for or something from their extensive cocktail list), it features 4,500 square metres of meeting space, 23 tree-named meeting rooms all with access to natural light, 12 brightly coloured break-out rooms and two auditoria, the largest of which seats 500.

At the other end of the building is the Cinq Mondes Spa. Run by the award-winning Paris-based spa whose philosophy is rooted in five world cultures, this is the only place in Belgium where you’ll find the world-famous Cinq Mondes brand. They offer Ayurvedic, Balinese and Taoist massages, Japanese flower baths and Java body scrubs among other treatments.

There is also a fitness centre, but I walked straight past it to have a Taoist youthfulness facial which sent me to sleep and woke me up an hour later looking at least 60 minutes younger.

There are currently only two hotels in Brussels with their own swimming pools – Dolce and the Sheraton – but Dolce also has the added benefit of two tennis courts, various mountain bike trails (with bikes available for hire) and a nearby 18-hole golf course.

After working up a sweat on the massage table it was time for dinner. Dolce has two restaurants – the first is the Argan dining room, which offers breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets founded on a unique ‘Food for the Brain’ concept, which uses various nutritional principles to ensure maximum energy levels and good health. As someone who has been known to heap butter, salt or sugar on to anything remotely healthy, I was pleasantly surprised by just how flavoursome the food was and the variety on offer.

Dolce also houses the Tree O gourmet restaurant, which offers fine dining from Thursday to Saturday. There’s a barbeque pit when the weather holds out and you can even enjoy ‘Dinner in the Sky’, where guests dine at a suspended table 50m in the air. Just what you need to feel like you’re a thousand miles from Brussels when you are, in fact, just down the road.

135 Chaussée de Bruxelles, 

1310 La Hulpe; tel 

02.290.98.00; 

www.dolcelahulpe.com