It’s real hot to get real cold. For health! Cold plunging and cold water therapy has taken the world by storm over the past few years with it’s immense mental and physical health benefits.
While plunging into icy lakes is a great way to get all the benefits in nature (for free), there’s been a surge of spas and wellness centres focusing on the cold plunge. Take a look at some of the coolest spots in every major city across Canada!
VANCOUVER
This spot is a centre for meditation and biohacking – focusing on all things wellness. Here, you can cold plunge, do float therapy, sweat in the sauna, and they even have plans to introduce massage therapy!
Tality wants you to embrace being uncomfortable and immersing in wellness. That’s why all of their locations are equipped with a hot sauna, ice baths, lounge area, and unlimited kombucha. A visit here will also supply you with towels, robes, and flip flops (to get you comfortable, before you get uncomfortable).
VICTORIA/VAN. ISLAND
Hit pause on your busy life and relax into a new sauna experience at this Victoria spa. After cold plunging, you’ll feel like your best, most refreshed self and that’s the goal at Ritual. The Circuit is a self-guided spa experience, moving between the Finnish sauna, cold plunge pool, steam room, outdoor patios, salt lounge, bucket shower, and rinse stations.
Nestled in the Cowichan Valley, this is the first West Coast Nordic Spa, located in Shawnigan Lake. Nyübu is a Zen Buddhist term that means ‘to go into the mountains to reconnect oneself to the gods.’ The hydrotherapy experience here includes hot, cold, and rest.
Sauna for 10-20 minutes in their 10-person cedar wood barrel sauna, custom built by Wildwood Saunas; immerse in cold water (cold plunge, dunk bucket or outdoor shower) for at least 10 seconds; then relax by the fire bowl area or in lounge chairs on the deck for 10-15 minutes before repeating the cycle.
CALGARY
At Cedar & Stream, escape to a wellness vacation without leaving the city. With their Sauna and Steam passes, access their Cycle that includes warming the body up in their infrared, or Himalayan salt sauna; then cooling down with a cold plunge or shower at the rinse station.
This process closes the pores and releases happy endorphins leaving you feeling invigorated and refreshed!
EDMONTON
Offering a unique experience in an even more unique location for Nordic Spa experiences… your home! Thermaculture has mobile spa experiences, rentals, and sales whether it’s for saunas, cold plunge pools, and even fire pits and decor to set the ambiance.
You can add on a cold plunge pool to any package, or get it on its own!
Hive Fit Co. offers an array of fitness classes and experience to keep you moving. When that comes to an end and you need som R&R, head to their Recover Room!
There, you can take your physical and mental health to the next level with the cold water immersion, infrared sauna, and Normatec Compression air massage.
WINNIPEG
The Thermal Cycle at Thermëa is a relaxation ritual that is said to improve both physical and mental health. Here, you’ll do a heat therapy treatment that involves alternating hot and cold temperatures, followed by a rest period.
This relaxation ritual is based on a 2,000-year-old tradition founded in Nordic countries.
Okay, so this is outside of Winnipeg but within Manitoba counts and makes a great road trip/mini getaway! The outdoor-indoor experience allows you to take a moment, look around and immerse yourself in a ‘winter wonderland’.
Alternate between hot and cold temperatures to stimulate the body and promote wellness. The Nordic spa is designed to boost the immune system, improve circulation and assist with healing & pain relief.
TORONTO
In Toronto, they’re really getting specific when it comes to cold therapy with dedicated studios opening for it. Othership describes themselves as a space for transformation, offering both individual experiences and group/social settings.
Alter’s mission is to make hot and cold exposure a more approachable and consistent practice by creating an atmosphere that is warm, welcoming, and community-oriented and an experience that pays homage to this centuries-old modality.
Alter offers flexible three hour drop-In sessions that allow guests to shape their own experience by enjoying the spacious sauna, ice baths, lounge spaces, and other amenities. Alter also offers signature classes that are led by some of Toronto’s most tenured yoga, meditation, and breathwork instructors – all of which have 10+ years of experience.
OTTAWA
Cold Immersion is one of the main services at Nobility Performance and is one of the longest studied therapies out there. Whether you want to boost your energy, your resiliency, your recovery, your mood, or your sleep, their commercial grade cold plunge just might be able to help.
Their cold water immersion tub reaches temperatures of 4C or 39F and also has a built in commercial grade robust filtration system that includes UV, ozone, and a 5 micron filter.
At Elysian, they’re focused on treatments to make you feel better in every aspect! Their cold plunge therapy follows the ancient practice using cold water to boost cardiovascular circulation to promote a variety of health benefits.
Here, the cold plunge is a self-administered treatment where you dip in icy cold water at temperatures as low as 5–10 degrees celsius. All bookings are for 20 minutes and you’re allowed a maximum of 10 minutes cold time in the plunge, and 10 minutes for clean-up or to shower afterwards.
MONTREAL
Scandinave Spa (Vieux-Montréal)
This is Old Montreal’s premier spa destination, and they, of course, introduced extreme temperature therapy to their offerings. Be adventurous and embrace the hot and cold, immerse in silence, and get a serious digital detox in your journey towards wellness.
This full spa offers a thermal circuit to immerse yourself in cold and hot therapies.
This includes an exclusive Himalayan salt room, Finnish sauna, eucalyptus steam room, experiential showers, cold room and herbal sauna. This unique interplay of hot and cold experiences strengthens and relaxes the immune system, nurturing mind, body and spirit for a truly restorative experience.
HALIFAX
REST: The Recovery Room Sauna & Cold Plunge
At the Recovery Room, you enter a four-person communal space with an infrared sauna, a cold plunge, and a relaxation area! Feel like lounging around instead of a quick pop-in and out? Here, tea and refreshments are available in the room at no extra cost and you’re welcome to bring books, laptops, and whatever else you need to fully embrace your hour of recovery!
