It’s been a tough couple of months for me and my family as we navigate the roiling waters of a failing parent. And, like many women, I tend to take care of myself last. So a few days of self-care at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver were just the respite I needed.
Here’s how to pamper yourself in style and restore balance to your body and mind.
Editor’s Note: The writer was hosted.
Step 1: Gather Your Girlfriends
While this trip certainly can be done solo — Vancouver is a safe, clean, walkable city — the experience is that much sweeter when shared. There’s an extra level of joy when you can share a glass of wine and a great meal while catching up on how the kids are doing and comparing notes on which massage therapist did a better job of untangling the knots in your neck.
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Step 2: Check into the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver
This luxury hotel overlooks False Creek, a hive of activity in the Yaletown neighborhood of Vancouver (easily reached via the fast, clean and efficient Canada Rail from the Vancouver Airport).
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The hotel is the home of the Spa by JW Vancouver, the wellspring of wellness that sets the tone for my three days of pampering.
The JW Marriott Parq Vancouver exudes elegance with its muted colors, elevated service and luxury touches.
I started my wellness journey with a few minutes in my room watching the water taxis, rowers and personal boats criss-crossing False Creek, the body of water that links Vancouver to the charming Granville Island.
Step 3: Have an Intention
This is a surprisingly emotional experience. When I enter the spa, I am given a piece of rice paper and a felt-tip pen and asked to share my intention or say how I wanted to feel at the end of my treatment.
“Relaxed & rested,” I write.
The attendant then invites me to place the paper into a bowl of water that she stirs with a wooden spoon; I watch the paper disintegrate as she tells me the water will be used to water the JW Garden and “Mother Nature will take care of the rest.”
I nearly burst into tears.
Step 4: Sync Your Mind and Body
This requires a visit to the Spa by JW Vancouver and its Mind Sync experience.
First, I sink into the oversized recliner. Then I choose my meditation experience; I opt for the 25-minute Stress Release session, which promises users can “Free yourself from tension through letting go.” It had me at ocean waves.
Next, the solicitous attendant covers me with a weighted blanket, being careful to tuck it in all around so I am encased in a comfy cocoon. Then she places the headphones over my ears, an eye shade over my eyes, adjusts the chair to zero gravity, turns on the program, steps out and closes the doors, leaving me alone to listen to the waves and music while the chair vibrates in time.
As a real Type A, I find it a challenge to calm my mind and stay in the moment. (Just ask my husband. He’ll tell you.)
This mind sync experience was no different. Every time my mind wandered — to the next deadline, to how I would write about this experience, to the meeting I had scheduled later that day — the gentle vibrations would pull me back.
The experience was developed to treat military veterans with PTSD. Since all of us seem to be suffering from some sort of PTSD these days, it’s been adapted to work for everyone. I found it a comforting antidote to my jet lag from crossing three time zones over a 5-hour flight.
Step 5: Nourish Your Body
Vancouver is a mecca for foodies. Burdock and Co., a small woman-owned restaurant that earned its first Michelin star after just a year of operation, offers a tasting menu in which every dish and every bottle of wine has a back story that adds richness and wonder to the experience.
And every artfully-plated dish is just as beautiful as it is delicious – food for the soul as well as the belly.
SheBuysTravel Tip: You don’t need to leave the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver for great eats. I found equally delicious and beautiful offerings from the talented chefs who work at the resort.
Step 6: Embark on a Spiritual Journey
For this step, I joined the Salish Sea & Me Tour from Talaysay Tours, another woman-owned business in Vancouver. This one focuses on exploring the lasting impact of indigenous peoples on the modern city.
Our guide, Ruby Banwait, is a marine biologist by training and her love of the sea is palpable. Like her, I find that water soothes my soul. Just seeing water or being near water makes my blood pressure fall and my breathing ease.
As we stroll along the beach, watching the Pacific Ocean waves gently lap the shoreline, she tells tales of the sea and the native Squamish people of Vancouver. Sadly, their story is no different from that of other native people who were treated horribly by white settlers.
It is hard to hear the stories of dislocation and deprivation. But it is the final story – the one in which the women of the tribe save the white settlers who banished them from their lands from certain death when Vancouver burned to the ground in 1886 – that brought tears to my eyes.
Step 7: Take Time to Detox
For this, I head back to the Spa by JW for the 105-minute Organic Honey Detox Wellness Journey.
My massage therapist, Natlie, is compassionate, professional and nurturing. The bespoke treatment developed at the spa uses honey harvested from the onsite JW Garden (the garden that was watered with my daily intention) for a treatment that combines soothing massage with the honey detox – a process that can, at times, be quite painful.
She started with massage oils, then poured warm honey on my skin. As the honey cooled, it grew sticky and she kneaded my skin with her hands, pulling the honey and the toxins from my body. In the places where I most strongly hold my tension – for me, my back and shoulders – it felt like she was stripping wax from my skin over and over. On other parts of my body, it was much less intense.
The treatment finishes with a much-needed soothing massage.
Step 8: Take a Yoga Class
I’m a real yogi, so no wellness journey could ever be complete without at least one session of yoga.
This time, our teacher is Ethan from Jaybird Studios, a woman-owned yoga company with outlets across Canada.
Our class, outdoors on a sunny fall day in Vancouver, gave us the chance to gaze out at the city while holding a warrior pose.
Step 9: Bring the Wellness Full Circle
We did that at Circle Wellness, a unique experience only available in Vancouver.
From the outset, it is mysterious and intriguing. The building is non-descript from the outside, with a small plaque announcing the name and double doors next to a keypad. When it’s 10 minutes before your appointment time, your secret code (the last four digits of your phone number) can be punched into the keypad to unlock the doors.
Inside, I was greeted by an attendant who handed me headphones and asked me to watch a short video explaining the experience. I did, but still had no real understanding of what I was about to do.
Then, she walked me to my pod – which should win an award for “most creative adaptation of a metal shipping container.”
I stepped inside, locked the door and stripped for what would be a decidedly invigorating yet relaxing experience. By the time my 90 minutes were up, I was part limp noodle, part namaste, part in tune with my body and mind.
The 6-part experience asks participants to:
- Take a shower
- Soak in a very warm bath inside a large cedar soaking tub for 30 minutes.
- Step into a sauna room that slowly grows so dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face.
- Dip into a very chilled cold plunge pool. (Confession: I only made it in up to my waist. I couldn’t bring myself to go deeper into that freezing water.)
- Lay on hot stones for up to 15 minutes. (I was surprised by how comfortable the bumpy surface was and how much I loved looking up at the blue sky while I rested.)
- Shower again, using an exfoliating cloth to slough off all of those dead skin cells.
Step 10: Relax, Massage, Repeat
I headed back to the JW Marriott for one final pampering, a 50-minute relaxation massage. Generally, I find that a 50-minute massage is just long enough to get my clenched muscles to think about starting to maybe relax a little bit. But coming as it did after three days of self-care and that 90 minutes at Circle Wellness, my muscles and mind were so relaxed that this massage was one of the best I’ve ever had.
“Wow,” said my therapist, Stephanie, “you have made my job really easy.”
Optional Step 11: Massage by Machine
This step is optional because, while I didn’t mind it, it’s not as nurturing as the spa experiences with a personal touch. That’s because it involves some techy wellness:
- Massaging boots that use air to gently squeeze and release your legs and feet. Imagine a large blood pressure cuff wrapped about your legs, ankles and feet. When the boots were at their tightest, they were a bit uncomfortable, much like the automated blood pressure cuffs. Just as I thought I couldn’t take any more, they would release and the blood would flow again.
- A red light therapy mask that is supposed to increase collagen production. The mask covers your full face, which led one woman to stop before her 20 minutes were up because she was feeling claustrophobic.
- A massaging eye mask that can be programmed to massage your temples and around your eyes. I found it comforting to have the mask massaging my sinuses, especially during fall allergy season. A fellow traveler who suffers from migraines liked the experience so much that she ordered a mask to use at home.
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