CANADA 10 BEST SPAS DESTINATIONS
LEFT: Bota Bota RIGHT: Thermëa
BELOW: Nordik Spa-Nature
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Stella Photi, founder and managing director, Wellbeing Escapes “If wellbeing was a country, it would probably be Canada. It offers all the positive results of wellness travel from energising fitness activities and rejuvenating spa treatments to healthy organic food. Its beautiful landscapes and great outdoors encourage you to engage in nature, digitally detox and optimise your health, so you can lap up all that it provides. There are some stunning wellness destinations dotted around the country. One of the most unique is Le Monastère des Augustines in Montreal, which offers holistic health programmes in a deeply healing atmosphere led by a caring team who truly believe wellbeing is for all.”
Nordic steambaths, waterfalls and saunas. Make sure you take a woolly hat (or ‘toque’ as the Canadians call them), along with your swimming costume, to keep your head warm as you luxuriate in the piping-hot outdoor baths while the snow softly falls. It’s an amazing experience to be so warm, and yet have your hair freeze into icy dreadlocks! Check out the incredible Finnish-inspired steam and music Aufguss ritual, which blasts spa-goers with hot air by a towel-spinning sauna master. There’s a restaurant on site serving everything from bison burgers to chocolate fondue, plus wine and cocktails, so clients can be pampered inside and out. Day rates for the thermal baths start at £22, with massages from £53.
thermea.ca
Ottawa, cross the bridge and you’re in French-speaking Gatineau, where you’ll find the super Nordik Spa-Nature. Easily big enough to spend the day in (with a rather delicious licensed restaurant on site), this spa offers experiences that you’ll not find elsewhere, such as the Källa treatment, a saltwater floating pool that instantly lulls users into a deep state of relaxation. There are even heated hammocks to snooze in, in between dips or steams. Coming this spring are a Russian ‘banya’ combining dry and humid heat, and a thermal mud cave nestled in the rocks. A day pass for the thermal experience starts at £50, with the Källa treatment from £34.
lenordik.com
9
NORDIK SPA-NATURE, OLD CHELSEA Once you’ve seen the sights of the nation’s capital,
10
BOTA BOTA, MONTREAL
Another Scandinavian- style hot-cold-rest-
and-recover spa, the twist is that this floating gem in Montreal’s Old Port is set on a large revamped boat with adjoining spacious gardens and pool areas. Lie back and relax in the onboard hot tubs or enjoy the silence from the swing chairs, as you watch the city through the port holes. Day rates for the water circuit start at £26. Treatments are extensive and unusual, with a particularly wide range of massages, starting at £60, from shiatsu and lomi-lomi to massage timed to music, with hot shells and a Japanese kobido facial massage. It’s perfect for a pre or post-flight break, to soothe any stress.
botabota.ca
28 January 2016
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