PHOTOS: COURTESY SPAS NAMED
Super Spas
Tired? Jet-lagged? Stressed? Read on
by louise phillips, sheri radford + jill von sprecken
A spa treatment can help regain the energy you lost in travelling. It can
improve your mood. At the very least, it’s an enforced rest. At its best, a
professional massage or other form of hands-on therapy can treat sore
muscles and induce a feeling of profound well-being.
Above, left:
Spa Utopia
Above, right:
Vida at YYoga
54
Vida at YYoga
888 Burrard St. 1-800-401-4018.
Also in the Sutton Place & Westin Bayshore hotels.
vidaspas.com
Do you mind oil in your hair, asks the masseur.
Viliam has a fetching Slovak accent, a quiet manner and impressive biceps. Of course not, I murmur.
It’s not my scalp being anointed that concerns me.
I know that in Europe, spa goers abandon modesty
and their towels with carefree sophistication, but…
No worries, it transpires, as one is discreetly draped
at all times in warm towels and sheets. Vida’s
Ayurvedic treatments are based on a 4,000-year-old
Indian philosophy in which the treatment oils are
matched to the individual’s “dosha,” or predominant energy type (of three), with the intention of
balancing all the body’s energies. For the 90-minute
Ayurvedic Swedana Massage, Viliam combines several of my favourite essential oil scents — fennel,
lavender, lemongrass, mango, pepper and sandalwood; and begins coaxing the knots and kinks out
of my sore muscles, using his powerful arms and
hands to apply a comfortable level of pressure. After
his expert massage comes immersion in a kind of
E SS E N T I A L VA N CO U V ER 20 16 / 1 7
Indian sauna: a large cedar chest that allows the
head to remain free while the body is enveloped in
herb-infused steam. There follows a brisk brushing
with chickpea flour and more massage to rebalance
the energies, and I leave the treatment room, feeling...how else? Energetic. What next? A yoga class,
perhaps, in the adjoining studio. — LP
Spa Utopia
Pan Pacific Hotel, Canada Place, 999 Burrard St.
604-689-7700. Also in Langley and North Vancouver.
spautopia.ca
Ancient Rome was as well known for its baths as for
its Senate, gladiators and the Colosseum. Spa Utopia
echoes the ancient world with its stone columns,
statues in niches, splashing fountains and numerous highly trained attendants, 70 in all. Everything
else about it is superbly modern, an expansive,
luxurious facility offering services from massage
therapy and chiropractic to beauty and wellness
treatments for men and women. Rod Stewart, Halle
Berry, Renee Zellweger and Demi Moore have graced
its elegant, spotless surroundings. Aesthetician