By Phil Birnbaum
The temperature’s dropping, and while you’ve been busy shopping for the holidays or working extra hours, it can be easy to forget a very important person: You. Reward yourself for a year of hard work; even if that means a quick manicure and pedicure, body wrap, facial, or massage. Here is a list of picks for some of the city’s top spas and services. As well, should you be short for time (who isn’t?), we offer some take-home options from each spa. You can thank us later.
StillwaterSpa at Park Hyatt Toronto
4 Avenue Road, 416-926-2389
At the heart of Yorkville’s Park Hyatt Hotel, Stillwater Spa offers calming and revitalizing facilities, where you could easily spend a day unwinding. Prior to services, guests enjoy a series of teas, flavoured waters, and biscotti in the very serene Tea Room. Swedish-sourced The Essential Massage ($139 for 60 minutes) helps loosen up knots and soothes before allowing spa guests to partake in the hot steam room, dry sauna, Jacuzzi, or private cabanas with televisions. Should you require a break for sustenance, Anonna Restaurant is open all day, with options to complement your spa services. The spa’s retail boutique, which is also accessible directly from Avenue Road, includes the new Dermalogica UltraCalming line (from $43.50).
18 Elm Street, 416-977-6751
Be prepared to have your calls held, as you will surely want to spend the entire day at the Elmwood Spa. Housed in a historic landmark building, the spa offers a pool, relaxation rooms, two restaurants (great place to nosh in between treatments), and a great juice bar over the building’s four floors. Chandeliers hang over the large mosaic-covered hot tub in the women’s change room, with both a dry sauna and steam room at your disposal. If the seasonal cold has hit you, you’ll enjoy the Deep Siam Massage ($160 for 75 minutes), which mixes deep pressure massage with a heated Thai herbal compress (small bag filled with lemon grass, plai, tumeric and Kaffir lime). ElmLine products, designed by the spa, include cleansers, moisturizers, and even the tea, which can be enjoyed throughout your visit (from $11).
Donato Salon and Spa Don Mills
39 Clock Tower Road, 416-390-9996
This uptown salon and spa serves as a great escape for those who may not live or work downtown. With three Toronto locations at Yorkdale and Square One, the Don Mills location offers a full spa in addition to its salon. The Spa Manicure and Pedicure, with Paraffin wax treatment, ($75 for 90 minutes) uses the Alessandro line of products, in addition to Deborah Lippmann nail polish. The full-service salon is a must visit, as haircuts (from $40) feature aromatherapy scalp massages and hot towel skin care treatments. You won’t want to get out of your chair! Deborah Lippmann’s full collection of nail polishes ($22) are also available for purchase, or included with the Celebrity Manicure and Pedicure ($90). The spas extended holiday hours will make planning a little ‘me’ time that much easier.
471 Adelaide Street West, 416-364-0400
Women’s Post editor Jelena Djurkic visited this women’s only spa and had only great things to say about its facilities and thoroughness. “This spa is clearly for women, by women,” Jelena described after going through the spa’s water circuit ($48). Focusing on the therapeutic benefits of soaking in waters, Body Blitz offers a warm sea salt pool, hot green tea pool, and a cold plunging pool (read: freezing). As well, it’s suggested to visit the aromatherapy steam room and infrared sauna in between dips in each pool. The juice bar onsite even allows you to order drinks in advance of treatments, so that it’s ready when you exit anywhere from the deep plunge to the sizzling sauna. Blitz on the Go (from $18), Body Blitz’s newly debuted product line, gives visitors the option to take the spa home with them, and features Moroccan Argan oil in several of the products.
18 St. Thomas Street, 416-971-9666
Perched atop the Yorkville boutique hotel, the recently renovated spa offers numerous unique services to its guests. Having recently undergone renovations, the gym’s equipment is brand new and the pool has been converted into saltwater, and acts as both a calming and healing place. The Spa at The Windsor Arms even hopes to offer Pilates and yoga classes in the New Year. The Intraceuticals Oxygen Infusion Treatment ($195 for 60 minutes) infuses oxygen and hylauronic acid into the skin, which helps add the necessary moisture that the skin loses during the dry winter months. DARPHIN skincare (from $54), which is used throughout the spa, is also available for purchase.
Comments
I have been fortunate enough to visit both the Stillwater and the Elmwood. Both are fantastic spas. The Stillwater's couple cabana for the couples massage is intimate and gorgeous with a private hot tub, shower and fireplace. The change rooms with private cabana's are perfectly gorgeous. And the service in the tea lounge is fawning without being obsequious.
The Elmwood's couple's room is more cozy, much smaller, and yet still beautiful with a fireplace and and natural light.
The restaurant at the Elmwood has an excellent lunch, which I highly recommend. In the summer, enjoying lunch on the deck in your robe is simply decadent.
Post new comment