The highlight of our little trip to Whistler was definitely the time we spent at the Scandinave Spa. A short drive outside Whistler, the Scandinave Spa is set in a beautiful mountainside setting. Although offering massage services, the Spa is best known for its Scandinavian Baths. Through a series of warm – cold – relax, you can spend your day between the pools, the saunas and the relaxation rooms or hammocks.
The Scandinave experience is not the same as a traditional spa experience. Staff are few, so the services are different. Unlike a traditional spa, you won’t be offered snacks or teas or juices. There’s a little bistro where you can buy your lunch, but otherwise you make do with water. You are given a towel, but bathrobes and sandals cost extra. The massages are simple are as good as you’ll get at any other spa – I loved mine!
All of these may take away from your experience, but really they don’t. You are going for the setting. And you can stay all day. I had no idea you could stay all day, so I didn’t bring my book. That’s something I’ll change for next time! The whole spa is a “quiet zone”, so my plugged-in self could only last through a few hours of relaxation without needing something to “do”. ;)
For those of you looking to relax on a cheaper budget, you can just pay for all-day bath access, sans massage, and have a fantastic day for it!
After our Thomas Haas lunch and a short walk along the seawall path, Jessica, Nicola and I popped in early for our spa treatments at Spa Utopia. The North Vancouver location is quite large, so it’s great if you can build in extra time to relax in the facilities.
We started off the day with a nice steam before heading over to the lounge to relax on the couches with some tea. The lounge is co-ed, which I personally prefer over other options. Though they didn’t have a jacuzzi like Willow Stream did, that did take out the complexity of having to wear a swimsuit then having to change out of it. We simply sat down for some nice girl chat. The lounge was so large that it really felt like we had our own private ‘space’ to chat. So great for a moms day out!
All three of us had massages, though I opted for the longest one, the Royal Massage. I always find that 60 minutes flies by in a relaxation massage, and I have to say that 100 minutes felt a lot better – like I had time to really relax! I had my first warm stone massage experience, which was great. My favourite part, though, was the warm towels wrapped on my feet – WOW.
This is a treatment I think I’ll be repeating at my next visit, as I enjoyed it quite a bit. I was a lot more relaxed during the treatment as well because they had small pillows to wedge under my shoulders (though not actual ‘wedges’, it was way nicer than rolled towels). My past injuries makes shoulder support crucial.
Last weekend, I finally redeemed one of my Christmas presents by going on a “Baby Free Day” with my best Mom friends Nicola and Jessica. We were given a day of luxury including lunch at Thomas Haas, massages at Spa Utopia and dinner out at The District.
First, I’ll start by reviewing our decadent lunch at Thomas Haas. Although I am a frequent consumer of their pastries over at Moja, this was only my second time going to the patisserie in North Vancouver. The last time I was there, a bunch of moms and infants met for lunch and a walk along the water.
This time, we three girls sat down to a delicious lunch of grilled sandwiches, pastries, chocolates and rhubarb spritzers that were to die for. All of us had the seasonal spritzer and a rhubarb pastry – so amazing!
For just $20 apiece, we were able to really spoil ourselves at lunch. Just two rich chocolates each was the perfect way to finish the meal before our spa time!
This Mother’s Day I was given my third Pandora charm for my bracelet. I was given the bracelet and my first charm for my birthday from my mom – the first charm was the baby carriage in honour of Aiden. The second charm came from Ianiv at Christmas. And I’ve asked to receive a charm for Mother’s Day each year:
In future, Aiden will be able to help pick out new charms for me, which I think is great. Plus, it makes life easier for Dad!
Having such a wonderful family was all I could ask for on Mother’s Day – it was fantastic to spend time with Ianiv, Aiden, Oma and Babby. ;)
To spoil ourselves for our anniversary weekend, we booked a side-by-side couples massage at the Willow Stream Spa, located inside the new Fairmont Pacific Rim and just a block away from the Fairmont Waterfront (boy, that must be confusing for tourists!) where we were staying the night.
We arrived to the spa with a half hour to enjoy the spa’s facilities. After changing, we each took a short steam in the very large steam rooms located in the change areas. After that, we met for a dip in the jacuzzi’s outside. We had beautiful weather, so the outdoor jacuzzi’s were perfect. The outdoor spaces were gorgeous, actually. We didn’t have much time to spend in the lounges, though they did have both individual mens’ and ladies’ lounges and a couples lounge.
We booked only an hour massage, of the relaxation type. I wish we’d booked a longer massage and/or some added services, it was nice to have the down time! The massage was decent, though I do regret not getting a deeper tissue massage. I’m used to more pressure from my massage therapist. That said, despite having beyond-fantastic massage tables, they lacked shoulder wedges, making the experience not 100% comfortable for me.
The massage room we had was gorgeous. Very open, very light and quite comfortable. I loved that aspect.
After the massage, I used the Experience Shower available only in the women’s area – it had 8 or 10 different shower heads and could be programmed to different pressures and experiences, rotating between heat and cold. It was a little confusing to use, but fun. I wasn’t a fan of the cold though, therapeutic or not!
There were a few drawbacks to my experience:
- No shoulder wedges for massages, as mentioned above (an inexpensive addition to the massage rooms)
- No robe hooks near the jacuzzi areas (hanging them on the rail is very messy)
- No towels near the entry door from the jacuzzi area
- No pastries in the couples lounge, only in the ladies’ or mens’ lounges
- No couples steam room (not sure why this is segregated??)
- No shampoo left when I showered (how often do they check? I saw people servicing the towels often, but perhaps not the shower stalls??)
I’ve been to a few spas now, and have had more than my share of massages, so perhaps I’m just getting picky. ;)
I was busy enjoying some relaxation time, so apologies for my lack of personalized photos of our experience. ;)
