Peaceful and restorative retreat. 4 of us sisters stayed at the main pavillion for 3 nights near end of Jun wk nights. We felt very blessed that there's not a lot of guests during the week and we enjoyed most of the facilities almost by ourselves, or with 1 or 2 other groups of people at the most.
We booked the Spacious Room. We were told that it has a sitting area by the fireplace. However there were only 2 other arm chairs and a desk chair and not 4 chairs for the 4 of us. Spacewise it's not that big, just a tad bigger than standard hotel rooms. But comfortable enough for 4 of us. just wished that the sitting area a bit bigger and with a sofa like in another Spacious Room we were shown.
The outdoor ground was big and well groomed, very peaceful. It has many Adirondak chairs, lounge chairs and hammocks about to invite ppl to laze around. The 2 hot tubs outside were big and not crowded at all while we stayed. The inside swimming pool, steam bath, and sauna were very nice too, also not crowded. The best was the icy cold bath that you dipped in after the hot soak. It was chillingly refreshing, and the face towels in icy bowl of water was a nice touch. So the facility for hot/cold/rest thermal cycles were very good, but just 2-3 different variations,...Peaceful and restorative retreat. 4 of us sisters stayed at the main pavillion for 3 nights near end of Jun wk nights. We felt very blessed that there's not a lot of guests during the week and we enjoyed most of the facilities almost by ourselves, or with 1 or 2 other groups of people at the most.
We booked the Spacious Room. We were told that it has a sitting area by the fireplace. However there were only 2 other arm chairs and a desk chair and not 4 chairs for the 4 of us. Spacewise it's not that big, just a tad bigger than standard hotel rooms. But comfortable enough for 4 of us. just wished that the sitting area a bit bigger and with a sofa like in another Spacious Room we were shown.
The outdoor ground was big and well groomed, very peaceful. It has many Adirondak chairs, lounge chairs and hammocks about to invite ppl to laze around. The 2 hot tubs outside were big and not crowded at all while we stayed. The inside swimming pool, steam bath, and sauna were very nice too, also not crowded. The best was the icy cold bath that you dipped in after the hot soak. It was chillingly refreshing, and the face towels in icy bowl of water was a nice touch. So the facility for hot/cold/rest thermal cycles were very good, but just 2-3 different variations, not as plentiful say as Nordik in the Gatineau.
The food was also very good. Breakfast you can order 1 main dish (such as poached eggs with hollandaise sauce, poached eggs on avocado toast, buckwheat crepes with fruits, etc), and the yogurt bar with homemade yogurt, fruits and nuts toppings, juices, coffees, bread and jam etc. Lunch is the best with many daily different selections (such as MahiMahi fish, osso buco, vegetarian lasagne, etc), and the salad bar with soup and dessert. Dessert is always some fresh fruit puree. There's always a fish choice and a vegetarian choice. The fish is always steamed. Lots of fresh vegetables. and always presented beautifully with lots of colourful flowers and sprouts to make them eye popping. I found dinner the least impressive of the meals. There is the same menu for everynight except for 1 daily selection, so the choices are more limited. But there's still a very good variety of meat and fish available, such as bison, venison, gravlax, cod, rabbit, and turkey. The vegetarian selection of tofu cutlet and quinoa salad are also very tasty and well presented. The dessert is always the same - lemon curd, or cocoa and nuts, in a small shot glass. There's always a daily dessert selection, such as raspberry mousse or strawberry mousse. But the daily selection is normally gone by 7pm. The small size is great for portion control. So I would suggest a rotation of menu for dinner would work out better for guests like us who stayed for more than 1 nite. (and with 4 of us, we sampled the whole menu on our first night :-)
At first, we planned this sister bonding vacation to do some yoga together. But when we booked, we could not see what the activity schedule was that far advance. When we could see the schedule, there were some taichi and qigong lessons during the time we were there, but no yoga. When we got there, the instructors doing taichi and qigong got injured and activities were replaced. We ended up with a balance class on the big ball, a roller foam class and also an aquafit class. They were fun, but very short (aquafit - 40mins, balance - 35 min, roller foam - 30) and not quite the 1 hr it was stated. So it would be nice for us if we could do some yoga classes and the duration of classes 1 hr instead.
We hiked once in their trail. We only had 1 hr, so had to loop back in 1/2 hr, so just went on the main trail and not enough to indicate how the various look outs were. The trail was wide and well maintained. Pretty enough.
We also did a pedicure, facial, and "Between Heaven and Earth" 90 min head/shoulder/legs massage. They were all fine and relaxing.
We were not able to attend any of the lectures as they were all conducted in French and our French not good enough...unfortunately (it would have been nice to attend the laughing yoga, but that was in French as well :-(
All in all, a very relaxing and pampered experience. Fulfilled the purpose of why we went there, and enjoyed ourselves with a lot of good memories. We felt very blessed to be totally taken care of, while having the thermal cycles and spa treatment to feel that we're doing our bodies and minds a lot of good. Valuewise, it's not cheap, but it's not that expensive compare to similar amenities. We would like to go back again, or try similar set ups.More
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