Sea, salt, sand and spa - In the grand old days of travel, well-heeled guests would clamour to St. Andrews by-the-Sea to escape the humidity and haze of New York and Boston, Montreal and Toronto. Drawn by the fresh sea air and salt waters of Canada's first seaside resort town, they descended in droves upon the glorious Algonquin Hotel.
Now, more than 100 years after it was described in a 1902 brochure as "an incomparable resting-place and retreat," the resort has ranked in a prestigious national list.
In her annual roundup of the country's top spas for the health and wellness magazine Glow, spa guru Anne Dimon named the Algonquin as the best spa at an historic resort in Canada.
Dimon, a travel writer and founder and editor of Travel to Wellness Canada, an online guide to spa and wellness destinations, has visited hundreds of spas across North America, Asia, Africa and Europe in her 15-year career.
"If I can be impressed, then any spa-savvy visitor can be impressed," Dimon says during a phone interview earlier this month from her Toronto office.
Instead of ranking the facilities in a descending list, Dimon created 24 categories, including most innovative new treatment, best for romance and best spa café, "because people go to spas for different reasons and occasions: they go with their girlfriends, they go for mother-daughter, they go by themselves, they go with their spouses."
Dimon's ranking only includes spas where accommodation is offered. Her selection is based on the entire experience, from an initial phone call to book appointments to the therapists and physical environment.
"What I look at is the experience right from the get-go," she says. How knowledgeable are the aestheticisms and therapists? What amenities are offered? Are refreshments served? How soft are the robes? How is the space decorated?
Dimon says she sees lots of potential for growth in the spa industry in Atlantic Canada, which she says is not as well developed as it is in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.
"What I am seeing as a trend internationally, and I think Atlantic Canada could capitalize on, is a trend to create a sense of place, as well as a trend towards water treatments."
Local, healthy food is another big trend in spa food.
Dimon's assessment is that these local features - salt water and seafood, as well as seaweed-based products - could make for a "destination spa."
This sort of full service spa draws visitors specifically to relax and rejuvenate.
Along with treatments, a destination spa offers fitness classes, nutrition counselling and lifestyle advice, besides the usual treatments such as body wraps and facials.
When the Algonquin first opened in 1889, seawater from the Passamaquoddy Bay was piped into holding tanks in the attic of the Tudor-style hotel. Rooms had four taps in those days - two fresh water, two salt - so guests could take a "cure-all" therapeutic saltwater bath.
Those taps are long gone, but the "general air of restfulness" an early brochure referred to is still in evidence in the hotel's modern spa, its clean, fresh treatment rooms offering standard spa fare such as massages and manicures, pedicures and facials, some with local tweaks, such as a chocolate paraffin hand treatment that pays homage to Ganong's in nearby St. Stephen.
Dimon says the saltwater taps would be en vogue today, judging from trends she has noticed in Europe, where there is a resurgence in thalassotherapy. The fancy tag simply denotes a treatment that uses sea water or sea products.
Unlike those saltwater taps of yore, Dimon says today's thalassotherapy can come with a lot of regulations such as a rule that water must be used within 48 hours.
The Algonquin does use sea products, including seaweed and muds, in some of its treatments, although they come from Europe, not from local sources.
On a more northerly New Brunswick bay, the Chaleur, another spa is putting the region's saltwater to good use.
Spa Eau Vive in Auberge de la Vallée in Bathurst has a saltwater indoor pool where guests can swim and soak. The other thing they have is a float tank, which Dimon says she hasn't seen elsewhere in North America except at a spa in Mexico.
Once the lid is closed, one floats in Epson-heavy water.
"You don't go in it if you are claustrophobic," Dimon says.
If you can handle the contained darkness, though, "it is so relaxing."
Source:Telegraph -Journal [Aloe-Spa News]