B.C’S SPARKLING HILL
The Talbots romantic retreat
You may or may not have heard of Predator Ridge, if you’re me you’ve heard of it, my wife, (no interest in golf) not so much. Now there is another reason to add Predator Ridge to your travel-log, and it may just get your wife fully invested. Sparkling Hill Resort is not just a Swarovski adorned hotel with 180 degree sweeping lake and mountain views, as if that weren’t enough to peak your interest, the resort is so much more.
Rebecca and I have been “moving” for a couple of months now. With the ups and downs and issues constantly needing to be dealt with surrounding our home reno, spending quality time together, other than choosing finishings, takes a backseat. The opportunity to get away from it all and reconnect was a big reason why we booked the grandparents on kid-duty for the weekend and took a road trip to the Okanagan.
We’d heard about Sparkling Hill before the need to visit presented itself. They tout themselves as a full-body wellness experience. There are yoga classes, therapists on site and 40,000 square feet of spa amenities to be enjoyed. Each room comes equipped with a built in starry sky to match the one that will present itself outside your window during European spa hour, as well as bath robes and slippers that one may don at arrival and lounge in for the duration of his/her stay. In fact dining for breakfast in robes is recommended which means you can do one of my favorite things, roll out of bed straight into your morning cup of coffee without a second thought.
The highlight of our stay was our treatment in the Cryo Cold Chamber at the Kurspa. There was a lot of talk leading up to our afternoon appointment on our second day. Patrons who had already experienced it told us it was “fun” while shaking their heads, others laughed and said it was crazy. Our attendant, Paul, compared it to bungee jumping, to which, I thought, I would never go bungee jumping! But Paul’s assistant, who watches from
the outside of the chamber and announces the halfway point, was much more ‘real’ about it. The gist of it is, it’s not an enjoyable experience but you can do it.
Multiple treatments over time are said to heal injuries and afflictions like arthritis as well as possibly alleviate sleeping issues. But the main thing for Rebecca and I to get out of our one-time visit was an adrenalin rush and a boost in energy post-treatment. I was second-guessing signing up for it until I learned that Paul is in there with clients ten times a day. He’s spent those three and half minutes on the inside thousands of times. Well then, we could do it once. And now that we have- I can recommend it.
The rest of our stay was just heavenly relaxation and indulgent couple-time bliss. The options of aromas and temperatures in the saunas and steam rooms make one feel like a kid in a candy store, the infinity pool is picturesque, the serenity room- even more picturesque, the food is great and the rooms are roomy with enough space for two in a crystal-shaped soaker tub. And if your wife is reluctant to share tub time at first, there are many other crystal-shaped adornments available in the on-site Swarovski retailer that are bribeworthy and may make your nights at the Sparkling Hill Resort truly the most exciting part of your stay.
Wink, wink.