It’s Back to Nature at Rustic Spas in Quebec - Travel
A gentle summer rain dotted the lake surface. As I toweled my Speedo racerback after a cold swim, I spotted a building occupied nests of muskrats under the willows. As campsites go, this clearing 30 miles north of Quebec City in the foothills of the Laurentians offers tranquility. Except it was not backcountry destination - it was a spa with a wild streak.
Zonespa, the site of the gentle rain, is one of the many spas in Canada who take the ritual Scandinavian sauna as a source of inspiration, but expand it to include water therapies such as whirlpool hot waterfalls and reinforcements piping steam baths, placing them all in the middle of the woods to the north. Exploit the natural resources of Canada, Nordic spas use rivers, ponds and lakes as additional therapy pools. The rustic theme covers services: manicure offers none, and the massages tend to be simple Swedish variety.
But in this organic theme is the change, as I discovered last summer on a stay of four days exploring the lakes and rivers in Quebec, the province most closely associated with so-called Nordic spas. Four spas that opened since 2005 are just 20 to 60 miles from Quebec City and near national parks and the creation of an ideal tour for those looking to commune with nature on the trails and recover from this communion backcountry.
My first stop along this path was sybaritic Siberia Station Spa, a haven of peace at only 17 miles from Quebec Airport, near the resort area of Lake Beauport. Like other outdoor spas in the region, Siberia Station offered immersion in nature, with a series of whirlpools on several terraces on the steep bank of the Yellow River. Unlike many of them, it has features that could convince a honeymoon to waive the Catskills to Canada. Jacuzzis seems designed for two, and couples waiting their turn. Some have done cuddling and forth, hammocks rainbow stripes stretched between the pines, in a cabin warming shaped capsule with a flat screen television flashing images of serene beaches, or wrapped in robes in front of a fire outdoors.
As requested by the signs in French, I began to explore the facilities in the steam chamber strongly scented with eucalyptus, followed by a cold shower under a waterfall and a false quiet swing in a hammock rocked by a trill is the red-winged blackbird. The recommended steps - hot, cold, rest, repeat - have been bracing, but after a few laps after knocking my meaning was not only enjoyable, it was numb in a way that has become an addiction.
Indulging in spas series is often not financially realistic. But Nordic spas are relatively inexpensive, access generally runs 25 to 37 Canadian dollars (about the same in U.S. dollars), with extra massage. In granting this need and they are two different things, of course. The next morning I made for my laziness with an invigorating walk through a country moose in Jacques-Cartier National Park, drive north a half-hour of Lac Beauport.
A few short miles south of the park, the river passes Jacques-Cartier The Nordic spa, which evokes a summer camp, including the use of the river as a pool of cold water. Dotted in lupine and daisies with sunny, flagstone terraces and artificial waterfalls, ownership hill felt more favorable to individuals and couples than platonic Siberia Station.
A mother and daughter out of the river has assured me the cold immersion was "Okay!" After I took my own icy plunge almost breathtaking, I realized they had served it "breathtaking, but it is exhilarating to survive." In the sauna near a blast of hot air had a similar shock that I got a bench in front of another guest Read a novel by a naturally lighted window wood interior spacious.
The most successful Nordic channels Scouting in its shoreline wood platform tents that serve as display face treatment rooms of the season, which I mentioned to a Swedish massage. A soundtrack of chirping, whistling and chirping birds accompanied the treatment my therapist kneaded my backpack-shaped nodes.
I repeated the routine the next day exercise in the morning canoeing and trail running at Station touristique Duchesnay, a resort in the province managed about 25 miles northwest of Quebec City.
Then, with enough muscle past, I introduced myself to one of the chief of park amenities, Tyst Trädgård. This four-year Nordic spa housed in a series of cottages order twinkling on the shore of Lake St. Joseph offers a private spa experience and more pampered than the others, invited individual time slotting in its outdoor pools, saunas and plunge.
After meeting in the locker room, an attendant led me outside to my garden hydrotherapy. She returned periodically during the hour before my massage to the rhythm of my trip to the sauna jacuzzi, regulation of time spent in each and to make me look a butterfly Longwing hum of flowers near the pool, two peaks typing a premium maple and a snail enjoying the cold fog of artificial waterfall shared.
"Being in nature and beauty, fresh air is part of the therapy," said Genevieve Monette, owner of Tyst Trädgård, which means "quiet garden" in Swedish.
To quench my end, I went to the eastern city of Quebec Zonespa, a few miles beyond the ski resort of Mont Sainte-Anne, where I made a symbolic walk before it starts raining. But a little thread is not enough to spoil the Nordic spa experience. "We are open all the time," said the official control of me in the spa contemporary, window-wrapped offering the most ambitious treatment program in her class, and felt well, at least inside, as sophisticated urban spa. However, the water remained the priority, with a wooden dock on a private lake serving swimmers and wildlife watchers.
The spa can be weatherproof. Not, apparently, spa-goers, there were only five in the morning rain, I spent there, alternating between the steam room and sauna and indoor hot tubs outdoors, and icy cold Cascade The lake chin deep. The gentle but steady rain convinced me that I did not need plumbing to assess the effects of thermal water, and I spent my downtime recommended sitting on the dock, watching the trout area, the parade of ducks, swallows skimming the lake, and a muskrat very diligent - a bit like camp, but much cleaner.
WHERE TO SOAK
The Nordic (747, Jacques-Cartier Nord, Stoneham-Tewkesbury; 418-848-7727; lenordique.com), 32 Canadian dollars, unchanged in U.S. dollars, for hydrotherapy unlimited, $ 99, including massage 60 minutes.
Siberia Station Spa (339, boulevard du Lac, Lac-Beauport, 418-841-1325; siberiastationspa.com), $ 37 for hydrotherapy unlimited $ 99 an hour massage.
Tyst Trädgård (35, way to relax, Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier 418-875-1645; tysttradgard.com), $ 25 for one hour of therapy, $ 91 more with a massage.
Zonespa (186, rang St-Julien, St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, 418-826-1772; zonespa.com), $ 37 for three hours of hydrotherapy, massage 60 minutes from $ 99
Zonespa, the site of the gentle rain, is one of the many spas in Canada who take the ritual Scandinavian sauna as a source of inspiration, but expand it to include water therapies such as whirlpool hot waterfalls and reinforcements piping steam baths, placing them all in the middle of the woods to the north. Exploit the natural resources of Canada, Nordic spas use rivers, ponds and lakes as additional therapy pools. The rustic theme covers services: manicure offers none, and the massages tend to be simple Swedish variety.
But in this organic theme is the change, as I discovered last summer on a stay of four days exploring the lakes and rivers in Quebec, the province most closely associated with so-called Nordic spas. Four spas that opened since 2005 are just 20 to 60 miles from Quebec City and near national parks and the creation of an ideal tour for those looking to commune with nature on the trails and recover from this communion backcountry.
My first stop along this path was sybaritic Siberia Station Spa, a haven of peace at only 17 miles from Quebec Airport, near the resort area of Lake Beauport. Like other outdoor spas in the region, Siberia Station offered immersion in nature, with a series of whirlpools on several terraces on the steep bank of the Yellow River. Unlike many of them, it has features that could convince a honeymoon to waive the Catskills to Canada. Jacuzzis seems designed for two, and couples waiting their turn. Some have done cuddling and forth, hammocks rainbow stripes stretched between the pines, in a cabin warming shaped capsule with a flat screen television flashing images of serene beaches, or wrapped in robes in front of a fire outdoors.
As requested by the signs in French, I began to explore the facilities in the steam chamber strongly scented with eucalyptus, followed by a cold shower under a waterfall and a false quiet swing in a hammock rocked by a trill is the red-winged blackbird. The recommended steps - hot, cold, rest, repeat - have been bracing, but after a few laps after knocking my meaning was not only enjoyable, it was numb in a way that has become an addiction.
Indulging in spas series is often not financially realistic. But Nordic spas are relatively inexpensive, access generally runs 25 to 37 Canadian dollars (about the same in U.S. dollars), with extra massage. In granting this need and they are two different things, of course. The next morning I made for my laziness with an invigorating walk through a country moose in Jacques-Cartier National Park, drive north a half-hour of Lac Beauport.
A few short miles south of the park, the river passes Jacques-Cartier The Nordic spa, which evokes a summer camp, including the use of the river as a pool of cold water. Dotted in lupine and daisies with sunny, flagstone terraces and artificial waterfalls, ownership hill felt more favorable to individuals and couples than platonic Siberia Station.
A mother and daughter out of the river has assured me the cold immersion was "Okay!" After I took my own icy plunge almost breathtaking, I realized they had served it "breathtaking, but it is exhilarating to survive." In the sauna near a blast of hot air had a similar shock that I got a bench in front of another guest Read a novel by a naturally lighted window wood interior spacious.
The most successful Nordic channels Scouting in its shoreline wood platform tents that serve as display face treatment rooms of the season, which I mentioned to a Swedish massage. A soundtrack of chirping, whistling and chirping birds accompanied the treatment my therapist kneaded my backpack-shaped nodes.
I repeated the routine the next day exercise in the morning canoeing and trail running at Station touristique Duchesnay, a resort in the province managed about 25 miles northwest of Quebec City.
Then, with enough muscle past, I introduced myself to one of the chief of park amenities, Tyst Trädgård. This four-year Nordic spa housed in a series of cottages order twinkling on the shore of Lake St. Joseph offers a private spa experience and more pampered than the others, invited individual time slotting in its outdoor pools, saunas and plunge.
After meeting in the locker room, an attendant led me outside to my garden hydrotherapy. She returned periodically during the hour before my massage to the rhythm of my trip to the sauna jacuzzi, regulation of time spent in each and to make me look a butterfly Longwing hum of flowers near the pool, two peaks typing a premium maple and a snail enjoying the cold fog of artificial waterfall shared.
"Being in nature and beauty, fresh air is part of the therapy," said Genevieve Monette, owner of Tyst Trädgård, which means "quiet garden" in Swedish.
To quench my end, I went to the eastern city of Quebec Zonespa, a few miles beyond the ski resort of Mont Sainte-Anne, where I made a symbolic walk before it starts raining. But a little thread is not enough to spoil the Nordic spa experience. "We are open all the time," said the official control of me in the spa contemporary, window-wrapped offering the most ambitious treatment program in her class, and felt well, at least inside, as sophisticated urban spa. However, the water remained the priority, with a wooden dock on a private lake serving swimmers and wildlife watchers.
The spa can be weatherproof. Not, apparently, spa-goers, there were only five in the morning rain, I spent there, alternating between the steam room and sauna and indoor hot tubs outdoors, and icy cold Cascade The lake chin deep. The gentle but steady rain convinced me that I did not need plumbing to assess the effects of thermal water, and I spent my downtime recommended sitting on the dock, watching the trout area, the parade of ducks, swallows skimming the lake, and a muskrat very diligent - a bit like camp, but much cleaner.
WHERE TO SOAK
The Nordic (747, Jacques-Cartier Nord, Stoneham-Tewkesbury; 418-848-7727; lenordique.com), 32 Canadian dollars, unchanged in U.S. dollars, for hydrotherapy unlimited, $ 99, including massage 60 minutes.
Siberia Station Spa (339, boulevard du Lac, Lac-Beauport, 418-841-1325; siberiastationspa.com), $ 37 for hydrotherapy unlimited $ 99 an hour massage.
Tyst Trädgård (35, way to relax, Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier 418-875-1645; tysttradgard.com), $ 25 for one hour of therapy, $ 91 more with a massage.
Zonespa (186, rang St-Julien, St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, 418-826-1772; zonespa.com), $ 37 for three hours of hydrotherapy, massage 60 minutes from $ 99
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