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Vancouver, on everyone’s travel hit list thanks to the 2010 Winter Olympics, is a fine place to visit any time. Let us count the reasons: its gemlike setting amid mountains and ocean, its casual West Coast ambience, its eclectic mix of fine dining and yes, its fabulous spas.
In the category of Vancouver’s best spas, here, in alphabetical order, are five of our favourites:
CHI, Shangri-La Hotel
A visit to Chi, one of the city’s newest spas, in the swanky Shangri-La Hotel, is all about personalized service.
No chatty girlfriend changing rooms here, everything is discrete with Asian influences of rich teak wood and amazing Tibetan artifacts. Chi is also one of Vancouver’s best spas.
The spa’s philosophy is based on Tibetan beliefs and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM); CHI (pronounced ‘chee’) describes the body’s life force. The CHI Balance Signature treatment is a blend of Asian techniques, including acupressure.
Feeling like a princess, I am escorted to a private ‘suite’ one of only six treatment rooms, each with soaker tub, fireplace, steam/shower, beautifully detailed changing area and cozy lounge. (One larger suite is a haven for couples.) Incense wafts from a Tibetan burner, I luxuriate in my steam room, don my cashmere-soft robe, then ring a bell when ready for my foot bath – is this Shangri-La or what?
As Marisa Short, my massage therapist, soaks then scrubs my feet, she explains that this is a traditional welcoming and purifying ceremony. I’m deciding I love these rituals, especially later [during my treatment] when a Tibetan singing bowl vibrates around my body – I hope that my karma has something to do with this tantalizing sound.
This massage, customized to cool my ‘fire’ element, begins with the feet as the Chinese believe that everything begins there. Marisa explains that this treatment is designed to open meridians and increase energy flow. As I enjoy long, rhythmic movements and occasional pressure on certain points, I picture my meridians as highways crisscrossing my body and I visualize detours disappearing. Although not deep, I find this pressure penetrating and when my lower legs are worked on, it’s mildly uncomfortable – aha, this is where I store my stress.
The aromatic oil of Neroli orange blossom, rose, lavender, cardamom and chamomile was customized for me and when I leave the spa, without having seen another client, I realize that this is what royalty and movie stars experience. At CHI we can all have our moment of stardom.
MIRAJ HAMMAM
Miraj Hammam owner, Surinder Bains, likes to joke that she offers a Moroccan experience without transferring at hectic Heathrow. No joke. She has succeeded in transporting this steamy, Middle Eastern event to a large Vancouver following. It’s also considered one of Vancouver’s best spas.
Okay, it’s far more upscale than my Hammam visit in a Berber village where my friend and I were steamed and scrubbed ‘en masse’ in a communal bath then slapped around a bit to get circulation going and dispersed into the starry night.
In Middle Eastern cultures the hammam, which consists of a series of steam and water rooms followed by a Gommage (vigorous scrub), originated as a procedure to increase men’s fertility. It progressed to being a weekly cleansing for everyone with separate bathhouses for men and women. At Miraj Hammam there are specific times for women, men and couples.
The first of its kind in North America when it opened in 2000, Miraj Hammam is a small, peaceful place, where you don a sarong and enter a private steam room to drip delightfully, imagining all those criminal toxins exiting your body. My attendant, Darlene Araujo, checked on me regularly during the 20 minutes.
Feeling for some reason like Cleopatra, I next lay on a golden marble platform in the buff. Starting with my feet my body was scrubbed with a roughly surfaced Gommage glove and black olive Moroccan soap. If there is a word of the decade in the spa world it is ‘exfoliate’ and this intense one does the trick. By the time Darlene gently hoses me down, I’m squeaky clean.
This is followed by a massage (it can be from 15 to 90 minutes). If you revel in a deep, get-those-knots-out’ touch, request Yiota Moldovanos. This was a blissful massage using one of the spa’s customized ‘Pure Attar’ oils called Moroccan Moon. Everything at this spa exudes originality, especially the grand finale where you are escorted to a cushioned platform, served a special tea and a Moroccan sweet cake. Spa Miraj is an exotic haven.
Walking into Skoah is like entering a fresh lemon. Okay, I know that sounds silly but think cool, lemony walls, high, exposed Yaletownish ceilings, minimalist décor with shelves of their blue and white labeled product. The whole place is as sharp as its name.
SKOAH SPA
Skoah is a made up word which owners Andrea and Chris Scott came up with while brainstorming. This was 2001; today as well as the Yaletown location Skoah is Burnaby and Calgary. You have to love their fun concepts – you take ‘personal training for your skin’ and facials are ‘workouts’.
I’m here for their classic Facialiscious and I soon see why Skoah, among heaps of other plaudits, was named the best place to get a facial in 2009 by Vancouver Magazine’s survey.
As I relax under a comfy quilt esthetician, Tahni Poulin gives me a foot and leg massage. Next my face is cleansed — I learn I should only use a cream cleanser — then freshened with Skoah’s ‘tonik’ that is used several times throughout the facial. An exfoliating mask – think apples and grapes with a touch of peppermint – is gel like and gives a prickly feel.
A few extractions followed by ‘kalm down’ mask, which does just that, soothing and adding moisture. What I found most impressive, aside from the lovely feel of the products that, as one example, use a highly refined olive oil called polysynlane rather than a petroleum product as one of their bases, was the skill of the Tahni who assessed my skin and made decisions about what to use as she went along.
The finale step was hydradew mask and an arm, neck and shoulder massage. As well as feeling cleansed and hydrated, I fell in love and purchased one of their most popular products, the ‘skin boost serum’ that, among other ingredients, contains plant polyeptide that stimulates collagen. Often after a facial you slump around feeling red-faced. Leaving Skoah, after a touch-up with their make-up line, ‘chiiki munki’ and my ‘game plan’ for my skin in hand, I felt downright perky and rushed off to meet friends for drinks.
SPA UTOPIA, Pan Pacific Hotel
Tucked into one of Vancouver’s most dramatically set hotels (the Pan Pacific), Spa Utopia is a local success story that began in 2000 in Langley, a community east of Vancouver.
While Spa Utopia’s appealing Romanesque decor – soaring columns, earthy tones, rustic exposed brick and gentle walls of flowing water – is front and centre, it is backed by a team of exceptionally well-trained practitioners.
Three campuses of Utopia Academy provide training in massage, estheticians and hair design. Even an accredited massage therapist receives extra training before joining Spa Utopia.
One of the signature treatments here is the Aromasoul. Devised in Italy using the product line COMFORT ZONE, the treatments allows you to choose a customized procedure. For example, you can select an invigorating massage from India or a calming Arabian-influenced massage. The choice was an easy one for me on this rainy December day, I know I’m a sun and sea person and my body craved the warmth of the Mediterranean.
Aah, the wonders of the Med, the sounds of waves and waterfalls – thanks to a CD but hey it works — and the refreshing fragrance of oregano – oregano? Yes, one of my favourite herbs, along with aromatic bergamot, mandarin and basil was combined with apricot kernel oil and spread luxuriantly over my body. The touch used in this full body massage was reminiscent of a wave moving over my skin which esthetician, Shirley Lim, says stimulates the lymph nodes and increases circulation.
As well, she uses her knuckles in a short stroke devised to increase the flow of endorphins. After 75 blissful minutes, lazing with a warm cloth on my face and my feet wrapped in a hot towel, it’s not surprising that I feel both relaxed and rejuvenated. Utopia? Perhaps, yes.
VIDA SPA, Fairmont Chateau Whistler & Sutton Place Hotel
Vida is synonymous with ‘spa’ in the west as it first welcomed guests in 1987 in the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.
In January 2010 it opened its doors in the Westin Bayshore adding to its well established facilities in Vancouver’s Sutton Place Hotel, Wall Centre and Seattle’s Pan Pacific Hotel.
In Vancouver, 84 well-trained practitioners move between the three locations and while there are many treatment options, it is the Ayurvedic menu that has fans beating a path to Vida’s doors.
The 5,000 year-old Indian practice means ‘science of life’ and the belief is that every person follows under one of three doshas (or constitutions) -Vata, Pitta or Kapha. An Ayurvedic treatment works on bringing your dosha into balance harmony.
Michael Strickland, massage therapist extraordinaire, slathered me with sunflower and coconut oil infused with lemongrass, peppermint, fennel, lavender and sandalwood, a cooling combo as apparently my Pitta is high.
He began with long, steady strokes on my feet and legs, utilizing strong thumb pressure at certain points. My back and buttocks were well worked on and while there was no kneading in this massage, I found the fluid, intense pressure released knots especially in my shoulders and my lower arms.
During the treatment, a heated towel was moved around on my body, my knees were soothingly warmed while my well-oiled skull was coaxed into a relaxed state — a strange but welcome feeling. Michael brings worldly experience to the massage table and he shares his knowledge: For instance, those of us prone toward a high Pitta hold stress in our joints. I was given tips on deep breathing, eating and sleeping.
Since each Ayurvedic treatment is customized according on one’s individual dosha, the specifics of my treatment may not apply. I can also guarantee, however, that at Vida Spas Ayurveda will work its wonders on you.
Judi Lees is a B.C.-based writer and regular contributor to Travel to Wellness.
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