DEL.ICIO.USTravel Arts Syndicate
Published on: 04/13/08
Mont-Tremblant, Canada, and Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands — A blizzard had halted flights from the East Coast to the Midwest when I padded through the snow to the outdoor hot tub at Quintessence, a boutique hotel in the Laurentian Mountains of eastern Canada. The handrail on the tub was coated with ice, but the water was toasty. I propped my chin on a snowy ledge so I could look at frozen Lake Tremblant beside me and reclined in the water to gaze at the snowflakes, stinging my face just a little before they melted into swirls of steam.
Icicles formed in my hair as I decided to do the proper Nordic thing and take a dip in the adjoining cold pool — around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I only made it in up to my waist before I retreated to the hot tub. My skin felt like it had been pricked by tiny pins.
 Terese Loeb Kreuzer/Travel Arts Syndicate | ||
| At Quebec's Le Scandinave Spa in Mont-Tremblant, the hot pool may be more inviting than the cold pool. | ||
 Terese Loeb Kreuzer / Travel Arts Syndicate | ||
| Clients at the spa at Rosewood Little Dix Bay in the British Virgin Islands await their treatments next to an infinity pool overlooking the Caribbean Sea. | ||
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That's what's supposed to happen. Open the pores with heat, close them again with cold. Repeat several times and then plunk down on a lounge to relax. Completely.
With spas offering similar "treatments," the ones that most interest me as a traveler are those inspired by their environment. In snowy Quebec Province, for instance, there are several spas with hot and cold Nordic baths.
Among them is Le Scandinave Spa in Mont-Tremblant, a resort area noted in wintertime for its skiing and other cold-weather sports. A wooden bridge in an evergreen forest leads to the spa's reception building, one of several rustic, pine buildings that are interspersed among pools of hot and cold water, some with waterfalls. At the foot of the hillside property is the ice-cold Riviere du Diable.
Unlike the Quintessence spa, where Nordic bathing is one small part of the spa experience and the emphasis is on facials, wraps and massages, Le Scandinave is all about taking the plunge, with a limited menu of massages as a bonus. Though I huddled in an oversize bathrobe and kept my boots on, toughened Quebecois wandered the 10-acre premises in bikinis and flip flops. The hot pool was delightful, but I only got as far as dunking my finger in the cold one, where the locals frolicked like polar bears.
Nevertheless, the relaxation room with its zero- gravity reclining chairs and the soothing sound of a fountain elicited sufficient bliss. I could happily have stayed there a long, long time, looking out at the snowy woods. This is, in fact, what many people do. For $43, they spend the day in the baths, steam room and sauna, buying lunch at a food counter in the reception building (soup, sandwiches, salads, pastries, beverages) and eating in front of the fireplace or around a large, plank table in an adjoining room, where they can watch deer coming out of the woods to use the salt lick.
Meanwhile, down south...
For a spa experience at the other end of the temperature spectrum, there's the Caribbean, where quite a few spas utilize medicinal plants that grow abundantly in the tropics. I lolled for a few days at Rosewood Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, where facial masks are concocted from plants harvested on the property, and where guests await their massages next to an infinity pool.
A frangipani tree with waxy, white blossoms perfumed the patio outside the treatment room where I was to receive a facial. Beyond the tree was a wall for privacy and the turquoise Caribbean Sea breaking rhythmically against a sandy beach.
Gaetane Parkins, the aesthetician, had decorated the room with large, pink-red hibiscus, which she had picked that morning. She also had been busy whipping up a batch of neem and aloe to apply to my face. Neem is used in the Caribbean for its antiseptic properties and aloe is known to soothe and heal the skin.
I was on my back on the massage table and Parkins got to work, cleaning my skin with jojoba oil blended with a few drops of juniper, peppermint and lemon.
It smelled good. I closed my eyes and listened to the sea as Parkins progressed to the scrub of cornmeal, oatmeal, a quarter of a green apple and honey.
"Did you make that today, too?" I asked her sleepily.
"No, she told me. She makes it in large batches and freezes it.
My mind was floating. Toner. Warm towels around my face. Steam.
Parkins applied more toner and then massaged my face with apricot oil mixed with essential oils of chamomile, roses and lavender.
Then came the neem. It felt cool and goopy and smelled like grass.
When I was all green, I asked for my camera to take a picture. The aloe itched a little and the goop was dripping around my ears. No matter. This was the funniest thing I'd seen in a while.
After a few minutes, Parkins scraped the goop away and applied more toner and moisturizer of aloe and lavender oil.
I took another picture. I was glowing — silly with amusement and happy to have such a fine, shining face.
The neem and aloe facial, a signature treatment of the spa at Rosewood Little Dix Bay, is one of several that utilize natural, local ingredients.
A body wrap designed to moisturize and soften the skin is made with goat's milk, honey and bananas. The foot and calf scrub used in the pedicure is concocted with salt from nearby Salt Island and mixed with tropical oils. Another scrub is made with mangoes, pineapple and sugar.
Glen Ross, Little Dix's spa director, wants to go even more in that direction, using indigenous ingredients wherever possible because "when they're fresher, they're more potent."
We talk about bush medicine, which interests him. He wonders if he can learn things from Virgin Islands herbalists that could be translated into treatments at the spa.
With or without these enhancements, the spa is memorably beautiful — perched on the crest of a hill overlooking the Sir Francis Drake Channel. The rooms and pavilions are built of stone and wood, linked by stone paths lined with dense, flower-bearing foliage.
Long after my shining face has succumbed to urban stress and pollution, I know I will remember the sight and sound of the sea, white-winged sailboats, Parkins' ministrations and the pungent smell of neem.
IF YOU GO
MONT-TREMBLANT
Mont-Tremblant is about 1 1/4 hours by car from Montreal. Expect to pay $550 round- trip airfare from Atlanta to Montreal.
• Hôtel Quintessence: Thirty luxurious suites, all with balconies overlooking Lake Tremblant. Wood-burning fireplaces, deep whirlpool tubs in each room. Picture-book log cabin, built in 1895, serves as the hotel's honeymoon suite. Basic 700-foot-square suites, $299-$499 per night depending on season. Larger suites priced higher. Award-winning restaurant and wine bar, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Quintessence's Spa Sans Sabots has two treatment rooms (one opening onto Lake Tremblant), sauna, steam room, exercise equipment. Spa services also offered in-suite. Swedish, Thai, shiatsu, hot-stone and four-hand massages. Carita and Ishi products used for body wraps, facials and foot treatments. In-suite yoga classes. Spa packages available. 3004, chemin de la chapelle, Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada . 819-425-3400, www.hotelquintessence.com.
• Spa Le Scandinave: Finnish sauna, Norwegian steam bath, outdoor Jacuzzi, swimming in the river, Nordic waterfall. Thai, hot-stone and Swedish massages. Yoga classes. Seventeen treatment rooms, plus relaxation rooms in rustic pine buildings with views of the forest. The fee to use the hot and cold baths is $43 per day. A massage plus the baths costs $112-$173 depending on kind of massage and duration. Open daily except Christmas. 4280, Montee Ryan, Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada. 819-425-5524, www.scandinave.com.
• There are numerous spas in Quebec province that are near a natural water source and offer hot and cold baths in the Nordic manner. In the Laurentians, these spas include Spa le Finlandais in the Riviere-des-Mille-Iles Nature Reserve, 20 minutes from Montreal, and Spa d'Howard in Saint-Adolphe-d'Howard. For more information: www.spasrelaissante.com.
VIRGIN GORDA
Getting there
Round-trip airfare from Atlanta to San Juan, Puerto Rico, is about $300. American Eagle flies from San Juan to Beef Island adjoining Tortola for about $250 round trip. At Tortola, a Little Dix Bay representative escorts guests to a private launch for the 20-minute ride to the resort. The fee for the boat is $95 round trip, with discounts for children. Fly BVI offers air taxi service from St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands on five- , seven- or nine-seat aircraft ($250 per person, one way).
Resort founded by Laurance Rockefeller on 500 acres of prime beach front property. Opened in 1964; recent $25 million refurbishment. Simple but luxurious furnishings in spacious, airy accommodations, most with balconies overlooking the Caribbean Sea. Deep tubs, marble bathrooms, some with private outdoor showers. Garden-view rooms $395-$725 depending on season. Ocean-view rooms, cottages, suites and villas priced higher. (Additional 10 percent resort fee and taxes. Rates are in U.S. dollars. Meal plans and packages available.) Some treatment rooms have doors that open onto private patios and private outdoor showers. Services include massages, scrubs, body wraps, facials, manicures, pedicures and reflexology. A 105-minute spa sampler costs $235. A five-hour spa day that includes lunch is $475. Spa packages available. Rosewood Little Dix Bay, P.O. Box 70, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands VG 1150; U.S. mailing address: c/o P.O. Box 720, Cruz Bay, St. John, U.S.V.I. 00831-0720. 284-495-5555, www.littledixbay.com.
More information
Mont-Tremblant: www.tremblant.ca
Virgin Gorda: www.bvitourism.com
Terese Loeb Kreuzer, the author of "How to Move to Canada" (St. Martin's Griffin), is the editor of Travel Arts Syndicate; TravelArtsSyndicate.blogspot.com.
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