'I'm in a bikini while foam sprays from a Fife hotel's ceiling'. Fire? No, it's the future of spa treatments

We’re waiting patiently and slightly nervously for something strange to happen - the Espuro Foam Experience at the newly refurbished Kohler Waters Spa and Hydrotherapy Suite in the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews.

Just when we’d started to get restless, it began. There’s a gurgling sound and suds start starts to erupt from a spout in the ceiling. At first, it rains down in soapy fist-sized dollops, then there are vast candyfloss clouds of the stuff. It keeps coming, until it’s up to our waists, and the room fills with a floral scent.

I’ve never been to an Ibizan foam party, but I guess it must be a bit like this, except with music.

Apparently, you are supposed to rub this iridescent fluff into your skin. Some of us do that, and the more immature of us mould it into hats and mohawks.

There is a lot of therapeutic laughter.

After 20 minutes, the shower starts, to rinse it all down the drain.

As far as idiosyncratic therapies go, this one must be up there. However, there are more conventional attractions at this five-star, 175-room golfing hotel’s spa.

It’s been a while since I visited, and it’s unrecognisable.

No wonder they chose to host last year’s Global Wellness Summit at this destination. Even the changing rooms - usually an afterthought, at other venues - are pristine, in dappled cream shades, with straighteners, Dyson hairdryers and all the modcons.

I follow the corridor round, via the 20m swimming pool, to the hydrotherapy area.

It features a spotlit and circular Jacuzzi pool, with a swan-neck jet to ease off your shoulders, and various bubbly spots, from an area to quietly percolate, to another for those who want to wildly fizz like post-hangover Beroccas. It’s big enough that there can be no seat hogging.

This offering is surrounded by a sauna, steam room and experience showers, with settings including one that makes the jets dance like the fountains outside the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

However, we become addicted to the icy plunge pool, which intersperses each heat experience. We can almost hear the hiss of our fiery skin cooling, as we ease down the ladder and into the glacial water. We get braver, and go deeper.

Have we died and gone to heaven?

After an hour or so in here, I’ve booked in for the Signature Massage and it’s a joyous rub down.

We both now feel as if we’re crafted from jelly, so are happy to be staying over. We pass the techy Fitness Centre on our way back to our boudoir and peep round the door.

It’s full of equipment - running, cardio and weights machines. I know it's January, but we won’t be pumping iron today.

Our bedroom overlooks the hotel’s eponymous course, and could double as an office, with its smart leather swivel chairs and desk. There’s a vast king-sized bed, a bathroom with two sinks and a groovy shower by Kohler - the US manufacturing company that’s behind the spa - and they’ve left us some beautiful and very fancy chocolates that are painted with nebula-like patterns.

On the striped walls, there are photographs of South African golfer Alison Sheard. I enjoy watching the players from our second floor window, which offers a view right down to West Sands Beach.

It’s survival of the fittest on the green. I notice that, if one person has to stop to rest a shoulder from carrying their clubs, or to retrieve a cap that’s blown off, the others do not wait. They’re too keen to get to the next hole. I suppose it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for some.

Their famous 17th hole is out there somewhere, but they all look the same to me.

That sport may not be my bag, but I am very much in the market for the hotel’s food offering.

After our spa treatments, we’d tried lunch in their Spa Cafe, where they serve a healthy menu of matcha-infused smoothies, veggie soups, as well as a gorgeous dish of hot smoked salmon with a lemony fennel salad and a quinoa and beetroot mixture that’s topped by hunky prawns.

However, we’re living la vida loca and going for something a bit more indulgent at dinner.

We could’ve tried the more casual Jigger Inn or Hams Hame Pub & Grill, but we’ve opted for the Roadhole Restaurant, up on the top floor, where breakfast is also served.

It’s hushed and old-school here, with wood panelling, chandeliers and deep pile carpets.

I have lemon sole, and he goes for the soused North Sea halibut followed by half a miso chicken. We are also tempted by the golf-themed cocktails, including the vodka-infused Hell Bunker and the tequila-injected Road Hole’s Secret, but I think I’ll go for a spritz instead.

Not only is it delicious, but it’s also a refreshing reminder of my nose-ticklingly foamy spa experience.

Rooms start from £360 per night at the Old Course Hotel, Gold Resort & Spa, Old Station Road, St Andrews (01334 474371, www.oldcoursehotel.co.uk)