Alba Thermal Springs: Luxury winter escapes in Mornington Peninsula’s new sanctuary villas

Sideways rain. Piercing wind. Plummeting temperatures. These might be the conditions that greet you on arrival at Alba Thermal Springs and Spa on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula if you visit in winter.

You could lament your luck with the weather, but you needn’t. The design-led spa has launched new luxury accommodation – five recently transformed wood cabins, scattered across a ridge on the 15-hectare site’s highest point. The minute you step into the villa, with its roaring woodfire and diaphanous curtains drawn, the squalls outside become irrelevant.

Alba has named its new accommodation The Sanctuary, and the name fits to a tee.

As with the rest of the complex, every design detail here has been meticulously considered. An aged bronze and travertine dining table is custom-made, as are chairs covered in patterned Italian velvet. Lighting throughout the villa, from steel bedside pendants to glass sconces, provides sculptural accents in an otherwise minimalist space.

In the bedroom, interior designer Kate Walker has even inset joinery with French wallpaper to complement, in hue and texture, the room’s curved, silk-blend upholstered walls.

In a room with many highlights, the bathroom feels particularly impressive, with profuse vein-cut travertine and a monumental bath positioned by a picture window that overlooks coastal Moonah woodland below.  A sculptural pendant of bronzed brass and handcut glass, by Melbourne-based lighting designer Alex Earl, anchors a stone vanity loaded up with Aesop products. Sconces resemble frothy sea foam. Dedicated vertical heating rails for spa robes are a slick addition.

Back in the villa’s living area, the bar is the room’s only dark, moody flourish. It’s made of Nero Picasso marble – an obsidian expanse streaked with rivers of yellow and white. Stocked inside: complimentary and seriously good snacks and drinks from local producers, like wines from nearby Ten Minutes by Tractor and beers from St Andrew’s Beach Brewery.

Speaking of food, you can have breakfast at Alba’s restaurant Thyme. Or better yet, have it sent to your room. At some point, you’ll need to leave your private sanctuary – there’s a world-class natural springs complex a few minutes away, after all. But do it after you’ve had breakfast by the fire. (Order the bagel with house-cured ocean trout gravlax, and the dark rye Schwarzbrot toast topped with avocado and sauerkraut.)

Each villa has a balcony, and on a clear day there are sweeping views of the peninsula. If dreary winter weather does little to dampen your stay, just imagine how the place comes alive as the temperature begins to warm.