I never thought I would be happy to come home to -10 weather. Scratch that. I was positively ecstatic. I guess a few days in Winnipeg will do that to you. No offence to anyone from that city, or Manitoba for that matter, but it is WICKED cold out there. If it wasn’t for the fact that it is home to one of my favourite people I would never ever, ever go. Never. Ever. At least not again in the winter. (Sorry Tricia!).
Now that I’m back in a place where I don’t have to worry about my eyes freezing shut when I go outside, I feel like I can share one of the experiences I had while visiting said favourite person. While I was in Winnipeg last week my friend and I made a trip to Thermëa, a Nordic-style spa popular for it’s “thermal experience”.
Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of the inside, as it’s strict spa policy that you aren’t to use your cellphone, take photos, or engage in any kind of conversation above whisper levels on the premises. There are plenty of pictures on their website, however. I encourage you to check them out for a better idea of how everything looks poolside. And er, sauna… side.
But back to that thermal experience.
When you arrive they’ll give you a wristband that will open a locker complete with towel and bathrobe (the bathrobe costs extra to rent), and that you can electronically add money to should you want to grab a bite to eat at the restaurant on site at some point during your visit. The day we went it was around -30 outside so I went in thinking that maybe this wasn’t the brightest idea I’d ever had… seeing as the whole spa experience happens outdoors and all you have to protect you from the elements are your bathing suit, flip flops, and a bathrobe. To be fair, it is a very nice bathrobe.
The general idea at Thermëa is that you divide your time between baths of different temperatures — ice cold (which I later learned was closer to 10C, though it felt like an ice bath), temperate, and hot-tub levels — as well as various dry and vapour saunas, an exfoliating shower room, and a relaxation room where you can help yourself to fancy spa water or herbal tea and listen to the sounds of nature through noise-canceling headphones.
How to navigate the hot & cold:
As someone who manages to feel cold no matter the season, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s easy to assume you will head straight to the hot tub and spend most of your time there, because who doesn’t love a toasty hot tub? However there are many physical benefits to be had (including improved circulation, the alleviation of muscle soreness, and detoxification to name a few) if you make your way through the saunas and pools from cold to hot instead.
In my case, my friend and I opted to start in the dry Finnish sauna. It’s the perfect place to chill (ha!) and mentally prepare yourself for that cold, cold polar pool. A couple times a day they will ring a gong and perform a ritual whereby a Sauna Meister (otherwise known as a man clad in a towel and sandals) will pour water enriched with essential oils over hot rocks and then fan you so that you can inhale it… while also feeling blasts of hot air. And I mean HOT. It’s only ten minutes long, but by the end everyone was sweating buckets.
Next was a circuit of cold bath – warm bath – hot bath, that we repeated a few times, and more sauna time in steam rooms that smelled of orange and eucalyptus before we ended with an invigorating menthol and eucalyptus scrub. It was glorious and my skin felt both buttery soft and tingly afterwards.
I would be lying if I said I liked the cold bath (I didn’t), but everything else at Thermëa was a really fun and ultimately relaxing experience. I liked it so much in fact that I’ve been inspired to start planning a tour of the Nordic countries for the future. It can’t be that much colder in say, Iceland Greenland, than Winnipeg… can it?
Are you planning to visit Winnipeg this winter? If yes, I think you’re crazy. Now that that’s out of the way, crazy person, here are some tips for the trip to Thermëa you absolutely must take:
You don’t need an appointment to try the thermal experience. You just show up and pay $60 (+tax) to use the facilities and rent a bathrobe. For the entire day. I think that’s a pretty good deal. I was also there on a Sunday — it’s a little bit cheaper if you visit during the week.
Bring a toque (that’s a hat for you non-Canadians) or at the very least take out your earrings if you decide not to wear one. There’s nothing worse than the feeling of freezing metal in your earlobes. And there are pockets in the rental robes so if you decide to store yours there it will make life much easier when you try to find your robe amongst all the other white robes hanging up next to each other.
Hang your towels/robes on the hooks inside the saunas when you venture out to the pools. They have hooks outside that are closer in proximity but I don’t think anyone likes putting on a freezing robe or using a cold, damp towel to dry off in -30 weather. I may have done this once but NEVER AGAIN.
It’s not just you, no one likes the cold pool. It definitely takes some getting used to so don’t feel bad if you can only dip your toes in. That’s what I did my first try and I thought I was going to die. But after going through the pool/sauna circuit a few times and just sucking it up like a big girl I was able to go in all the way up to my shoulders. If I can do it, anyone can.
Try to avoid touching the hand rails and just be careful as you step into the water. It feels like touching the cold hand of death.
Even with the freezing cold-as-death handrails, overall it was a great little day trip and an experience that I will remember for a long time. That, and the expression on the faces of people who know me when I tell them that I: (1) visited Winnipeg in the middle of winter, and (2) not only willingly plunged myself into cold water in said winter, but that I paid to do it.
-C
