Stay Well

TORONTO

Park Hyatt Toronto
After being led into a flooded marble room, walk down a flight of steps into a bathtub the size of a master bedroom filled with body-temperature water. Water wings are strapped onto your legs and arms, and a buoyant pillow is placed beneath your head. Music is piped in underwater as the therapist floats you around the room and lulls you into a hypnotic swoon while “balancing your equilibrium.” Otherwise known as aquatic reiki, it might be our favourite spa treatment in the country. The immersive water creates a sense of weightlessness; combined with the trippy music, it can induce a delightfully altered state of being.

Four Seasons Hotel Toronto
Ordering room service only counts as healthy living if you choose from the Healthy Options Menu. Try the black cod with bok choy and tempura scallions followed by fresh berries. If you require something more active than chewing, the hotel offers MP3 players loaded with the dulcet voice of a personal trainer to guide you through your workout.

OTTAWA

Brookstreet
With electrodes secured to your body, you are told to run until you reach 85 percent of your maximum heart rate – i.e., when your heart is about to burst. Welcome to the complete health assessment, offered by La Vie Executive Health Centre at Brookstreet. The five-hour process includes an ECG, stress tests and an exam to determine the proportion of water, lean mass and fat in your body. At the end, you’ll get “My life is in my hands”: a USB key containing your entire medical profile.

MONTREAL

Hôtel Omni Mont-Royal
If you’re finding old-fashioned yoga mundane, sign up for the hotel’s power yoga class, offered daily at 7 a.m. Request a Get Fit Kit and expect a canvas bag waiting in your room when you check in, complete with a bottle of chilled water, a towel and an elastic exercise band. A small booklet provides suggestions for exercises you can do in your room, but why would you when the hotel’s 6,600-square-foot gym – among the largest of any Canadian hotel – is just a short elevator ride away?

QUEBEC CITY

Le Château Bonne Entente
A PhD in aquatic engineering isn’t necessary to operate the Spa Suite’s BainUltra bathroom, but it would help. With eight adjustable heads, light therapy, aromatherapy and a dry sauna option, the shower is more thorough than the average drive-through car wash. What’s more, the giant whirlpool bathtub offers chromatherapy. Downstairs, the Amerispa makes use of one of the region’s most desirable ingredients (no, not cheese): Take a dip in a therapeutic ice-cider bath or regenerate with an ice-cider body exfoliation.

MONCTON

Delta Beauséjour
The hotel’s well-equipped gym overlooks the city, making it a good choice for visiting varsity athletic teams. All your hard work will pay off when you can run for (almost) as long as the teenager on the next treadmill – who, admittedly, is deep in a cellphone conversation – and bench press as much as a junior-field-hockey centre.

HALIFAX

The Prince George Hotel
Escape the city to Peggy’s Cove and the hotel will even provide a gourmet picnic. We recommend the seared Digby scallops and smoked salmon. In collaboration with the Spirit Urban Spa, the hotel offers a wide range of treatments using local products like blueberries and rosehip.  

Halifax Marriott Harbourfront
The Atlantic provinces are a golfing mecca, so if you’ve got some time, seize the day and work on your game. The Marriott will set up a lesson with local pro Scott Frizzell at the Links at Montague Executive Golf Course & Academy: a nine-hole golf course right in metro Halifax. Upon returning to the hotel, enjoy a dip in the courtyard pool and a soak in the whirlpool. Or, if the weather is more, uh, maritime-y, take advantage of the gym’s sparkling new Life Fitness equipment.

ST. JOHN’S

Spa at the Monastery and Suites
Only the rain can disturb the silence during your Phytomer Spa Seatonic Treatment, a.k.a. reflexology session. This spa makes clear that its location – a former monastery – is no coincidence. It remains a shrine for quiet reflection and a place to find a higher sense of well-being. Of course, they draw the line somewhere. Instead of a monk’s cell, you stay in a suite, complete with air massage tub beside the king-size bed.

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