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| Old Is New: When at a Spa, Do as the Romans Did |
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In the world of spas, where hot tubs and mud baths were all the rage thousands of years ago, everything ancient is avant-garde again.
Modern spas are balancing innovative technology with a stunning, colourful array of treatments drawing on the rituals of extinct empires, ancient cultures or indigenous people.
At Elemental Embrace, a country retreat about 140 kilometres east of Toronto, spa-goers seek peace and tranquility through Ayurvedic folk medicine spawned in India 5,000 years ago.
Fitness fans can challenge themselves with exotic exercise regimens at The Island Experience, a tropical paradise near Rio de Janeiro. Here, weary city dwellers soak up the sun and build strength and endurance through capoeira, a strenuous combination of aerobic dance and martial arts created by Brazilian slaves centuries ago.
Spas seem to be sprouting up on almost every street corner or every country road. In the United States, the number of wellness centres has quadrupled in 12 years, to about 12,000, according to the International Spa Association. The Canadian Tourism Commission reports that 2,300 destination and day spas across the country welcomed more than 14 million visitors and generated $1 billion in business in 2005. The brisk competition means that wellness centres - no matter what the size, budget, style or location - are looking for creative approaches. The trend today is to look to the past, even thousands of years in the past.
At the Japanese-style Ten Thousand Waves spa in Santa Fe, N.M., the signature facial is done with pulverized droppings of nightingales, believed to be favoured by geishas who wanted perfect skin. Ten Thousand Waves is an exotic destination spa with the ambience of a Japanese "onsen," the style of bathhouse that dates to 700 AD. Guests are clad in kimonos and walk along manicured gravel paths to various treatments.
Spas and their guests are finding that the languid pace and organic sources of ancient practices offer a welcome contrast to modern big-city, high-tech life. Rituals rooted in classic religions have comforting, spiritual aspects. Other wellness treatments such as bathing, mud wraps or salt scrubs have natural qualities that have been found to be soothing and even therapeutic for centuries.
Ancient Asian cultures strongly influence spas around the world. The Singapore-based Como Hotels and Resorts is named for owners Christina Ong and daughter Melissa, who are titans in the fashion and hotel businesses. Como is developing Shambhala, an elegant and sophisticated spa brand. Como operates sleek city hotels with urban spas in London, Bangkok and Singapore, as well as exotic Shambhala retreats in Turks and Caicos, Indonesia, Bhutan and the Maldives. These diverse getaways blend local culture with modern design, and holistic, indigenous treatments with international know-how and technology.
"We are turning to ancient customs because they have been greatly effective for centuries," says Monica Barter, director of the Como Shambhala flagship resort in Bali, Indonesia. "There were no technological or mechanical tools in olden days, so those treatments and cures had to be particularly efficient and ingenious. And invoking ancient spiritual rituals permits today's spas to treat both the mind and the body."
The Como Shambhala Retreat in Bali, a cluster of five-star villas in a secluded jungle, focuses on a natural approach enhanced by state-of-the-art facilities. Guests soak in the resort's spring water, which the Balinese consider sacred and imbued with healing powers. Spa directors have upped the ante by creating a vitality pool charged with positive ions to make it more alkaline, said to be particularly therapeutic for the body. The beauty treatments involve natural mud and floral extracts used by the island's residents for centuries, but those remedies also harness the power of high-frequency currents that stimulate the skin and help potions penetrate.
At the Como Shambhala Retreat in Parrot Cay, an exclusive Caribbean resort on a 400-hectare private island in Turks and Caicos, guests sign up for yoga immersion with internationally known teachers. They leave busy schedules to wind down and practise "pranayama," which in Sanskrit refers to breath control, a ritual expounded in ancient Hindu scriptures. That fascination with the past is balanced with contemporary spa cuisine and exquisite Zen-style guest rooms, where white cotton fabrics contrast with dark teak furniture in modern, minimalist decor.
Spa developers in North America also are looking close to home for inspiration. Mii amo Destination Spa is a thoroughly modern, luxurious resort of adobe casitas in the Red Rock Desert of Arizona. The spa emphasizes North American Indian traditions. Major surveys have voted Mii amo the top spa in the United States for 2006, elevating it to the level of the iconic Canyon Ranch and Miraval resorts. Mii amo translates from Yuman, an Indian language found in northern Arizona, as "one path," and the spa's desert location is sacred ground. Its guests have a choice of every major treatment, but many choose Indian rituals such as meditation set to drumming, chanting and purification in a sweat lodge, a traditional Hopi dinner in a teepee or a pipe ceremony.
Experts agree that the most fundamental and simplest treatment for the body is bathing, which relieves stress on joints and muscles and just about everything else.
At The Heritage in Ireland, a golf resort and destination spa in the style of a country castle an hour drive southwest of Dublin International Airport, you might soak in a tepidarium, a sanarium and a caldarium - three progressively hotter chambers based on ancient Roman bathing techniques - to relax the muscles and stimulate circulation. Keep your toga handy and head for a 2007 version - the high-tech infrared sauna, a new spa facility that heats the body with light.
It's water, water everywhere in Leukerbad, Switzerland, a 190-kilometre drive from Geneva's airport. The town has about 40 hotels built around one of the largest natural hot springs in Europe, all in a breathtaking setting at the foot of the snow-covered Alps. Guests at the Lindner Alpentherme Hotel & Spa can spend the day in water therapies: natural hot springs, indoor and outdoor whirlpools, neck massage showers, underwater beds, a heated lap pool, or aqua-fitness classes for conditioning and strength training. The idea of the old hospital-like European "cure-house" is fading. The Lindner has modernized, with atriums and large windows letting in lots of natural light.
The spas of Leukerbad were built on the ancient Roman principle of "sanus per aqua" - health through water - but the Lindner hotel also has a popular series of treatments called "sanus per vinum." These wine-based treatments use grape extracts in massages, scrubs and facials to smooth and rejuvenate the skin. Champagne facials, Shiraz massages and Sauvignon soaks are a potent new trend, but the foundation of vinotherapy dates to ancient times.
Science has long promoted the healthy properties of polyphenols, which are found in grapes. But using wine for medicinal, topical purposes dates to 400-300 BC. Hippocrates, the Greek physician considered the father of modern medicine, used wine for cleaning wounds and sterilizing surgical instruments. It wasn't until the Middle Ages that women used grapeseed oil as a cosmetic application.
The Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte in Bordeaux, France, is credited with creating modern-day vinotherapy, in the 1990s, with wine-based potions under the brand name Caudalie.
Today, spas using grape extracts flourish in wine regions of Europe and the Americas. Among top vinotherapy centres are Spa Caudalie in Las Vegas, the Kenwood Inn and Spa in the Sonoma Valley, the Auberge du Soleil in Rutherford, Calif., and the Chianti Wellness Centre in Radda, Tuscany. Closer to home, the spa at the Manoir St. Andrews in St. Jerome uses beauty and body-care products that are made with grapeseed and imported from Italy.
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If you go
Elemental Embrace, Brighton, Ont., www.elementalembrace.com,
1-866-212-9355. An Ayurvedic retreat with eight guest rooms and eight spa treatment rooms on a 12-hectare country estate. Rates start at $175 per person, per night (double occupancy), including three meals daily, yoga, and all facilities - indoor swimming pool, sauna, steam room and gym. Extra fee for all treatments including abhyanga (two-therapist massage ) or shirodhara (warm oil relaxation drip). (All prices are approximate and in Canadian dollars.)
Como Shambhala Retreat, Parrot Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands, www.
parrotcay.como.bz. This 60-room luxury sand-and-sea getaway on a private island north of the Dominican Republic specializes in anti-aging programs, yoga and gourmet Mediterranean, Asian, American and spa cuisine. Winter rates start at $680 per night (double occupancy), and include breakfast, airport transfers, water sports, yoga and Pilates.
Como Shambhala Estate, Begawan Giri, Bali, www.cse.comosham
bhala.bz. Comprising 31 villa-style suites in a jungle setting, the spa features a one-on-one approach, holistic therapies and fitness activities. Specialties include Ayurveda, stress management, anti-aging. Rates start at $1,800 U.S. per person (single occupancy) for a three-night wellness program, including meals, treatments, consultations, activities and airport transfers.
The Island Experience, Ilha Grande, Brazil, 347-416-6517 in Canada, www.theislandexperience.com. Open March through December, the adventure spa with nine rustic, air-conditioned guest rooms hugs the Atlantic coast between sand beaches and rainforest in a historic former Portuguese colony, a sugar plantation on a prison island about 100 kilometres south of Rio de Janeiro airport. Guests sign up for a challenging physical regimen - sea kayaking, snorkelling, hiking, sea-side yoga at sunrise and sunset, daily massage, Brazilian dance/martial arts, and a low-calorie diet of vegetables, fruit and fish. Six-night package starts at about $2,100 per person (double occupancy, single supplement costs $300).
Mii amo, Sedona, Ariz., www.
miiamo.com, 1-888-749-2137. The luxury resort and desert oasis in the Red Rock Canyon is a small destination spa within the grounds of the larger 28-hectare Enchantment Resort. Mii amo has 16 luxurious contemporary southwestern-style "casitas" set up like hotel rooms, with fireplaces, soaking tubs and balconies. Mii amo starts at $620 per person, per night (double occ.), based on a four-night visit, all-
inclusive of gourmet spa meals, eight treatments per person, exercise classes, hikes, tennis, par-3 golf and six swimming pools.
The Heritage Golf & Spa Resort, Ireland, www.theheritage.com, 001-353-578-645-500. This five-star hotel with classic interiors, 98 rooms and suites and fine dining in a pastoral countryside, is Ireland's largest spa, with 20 treatment rooms, 70 different treatments and elaborate bathing options, including a Turkish steam bath, Roman-style hot and cold baths and a mud chamber. Deluxe lodging with breakfast, dinner and the spa experience starts at $240 per person, per night (double occ.). The resort also has championship golf, trout fishing, a floodlit walking track and lawn bowling.
Lindner Alpentherme Hotel & Spa, Switzerland, www.lindner.de/en. One of almost 40 spa hotels in the Swiss Alps town of Leukerbad, the Lindner has 135 rooms and suites with cable and pay television, radio and telephone. European and South Asian cuisine is available. A complete roster of spa treatments is available, as well as thermal baths and wine-based body care. A five-night package with buffet breakfast daily and dinners at the hotel's various dining rooms, spa treatments (many of the them with grapeseed), thermal baths, gym and tennis, starts at about $1,000 per person (double occ.).
For more information on the above spas and others, visit:
For Canada, www.spacanada.com; for Quebec, www.spasrelaissante.
com; and abroad, www.experience
aspa.com or www.destinationspas. com. |
| http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/travel/story.html?id=572bd3fc-a47c-4916-992d-77f1991dad45 |
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