It is rare to find an adults-only spa hotel pool and hot tub, as even the best resorts provide only one pool open to families. Even when children are in school, true quiet relaxation can be a challenge if the people around you are talking to each other or on cell phones. James Ellison at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler offered a tip that if we were truly looking for a day of tranquility and silence, to check out the Scandinave Spa, Whistler. He put us in touch with the manger, Doug, who gave us a tour of the ultimate spa retreat.
The experience begins when you walk up a mountain trail from the parking lot to the spa. The hush quiet of the pathway through the forest already takes you to another world. Entering the lodge is the registration area where each large glass window offers breath-taking views of pine and cedar forests capped by mountain peaks.
A bistro offers healthy food options including vegetarian and vegan food choices. This well-appointed chalet with blue window seats and magenta pillows is the last place cell phones, electronics, and talking is allowed. This is an electronic-free spa zone. The entire spa built up a mountain side is a place of quiet only. No talking allowed!
The spa is a hydrotherapy experience. It is based on a progression of 15 minutes in heat, 30 seconds of cold plunge, and 15 minutes of relaxation, repeated three or four times throughout the day. Choose between 15 minutes in a sea salt hot tub, a dry sauna, or a eucalyptus steam room. The 30 second cold plunge can be in a cold pool, a Nordic shower, or a cold waterfall cascading into a pool. Select a number of relaxation areas, from terraced open air decks with Adirondack chairs, to Hammock Haven, or enclosed solariums with padded chairs and foot rests or anti-gravity chairs.
Each relaxation area offers another view of the mountains, whether distant snow-capped peaks or the pine and cedar forest view. Floral arrangements artfully laid out line the walkways leading from pool to terraced patio to solariums. Red, orange, yellow, violet, and white impatiens, petunias, geraniums, lilies, and daisies welcome wherever you look. The scent of flowers, spa soaps, and eucalyptus delightfully blend together.
This was a great find to add to my best health and wellness travel vacations guide for Ricki’s List! Visit the Scandinave Spa to enjoy the silence in which one can hear the music of your own soul.