Canada’s Rocky Mountains are renowned for their majestic beauty, bountiful nature, and rugged adventures. Skiing, hiking, canoeing, and white-water rafting are just a sampling of some of the activities available in British Columbia’s Panorama area near the Alberta border. Towns such as Radium, Invermere, and Fairmont feature a wide selection of adventure companies offering trail riding, ATV tours, paragliding from mountaintops, and jet ski rentals for hopping over white-topped crests on Windermere Lake. It is an outdoorsman’s paradise, and a place where every visit brings you something new. I have been vacationing in the Invermere area for five years now with my husband’s family, and never once have I had the same experience or adventure. I can always find great cheap vacation packages for this place.
However, not all businesses are about sweating out pure adrenaline or facing your fears. Tucked away into one of the side streets in the town of Invermere is a hidden oasis of relaxation and rejuvenation. My sister-in-law Nancy convinced me to visit on our second stay in Invermere, and I haven’t missed a year since. It is a beautiful place called Fusion Wellness Spa, which offers massages, body treatments, hydrotherapy, and esthetics treatments in a tranquil and peaceful environment.
First and foremost, you must understand this: I am not typically a ‘spa person’. I am cheap and frugal, and still use nail polish from my junior high years. It smells horrible and is probably slowly killing me from the fingernails up. I never spent money in spas because I thought it was a waste. Well, I used to think that way. Then I went to Fusion Wellness Spa and my entire outlook changed. During my first visit, where I had an amazing 60-minute ‘Signature Massage’, the bubbling fountain, ethereal music, and sweet scent of herbal tea immediately set me at ease. I sank into the plush cushions of the waiting room couch, sipping my tea happily. The massage itself was divine; at least, I think it was. It felt so good that I slipped into a pleasant slumber and had to be gently shaken awake. I think it was that nap that converted me.
The real clincher for me was that Fusion offers prices that are more than reasonable. For $80.00, I can get a pedicure with everything: toes clipped and trimmed, legs exfoliated and massaged, feet rubbed, filed, and coated in a heavenly paraffin wax, and toes painted in a shimmery colour of my choosing. (And they let me keep the bottle – goodbye, junior high polish!) When the pedicure is done, I feel like a Venus razor model and literally strut out of the building.
Other popular treatments include massages, body wraps, facials, manicures, and hydrotherapy. For those of you who aren’t spa experts, like me, hydrotherapy is a delicious mix of infrared sauna treatments and steam showers. Both are big enough for two – romance, anyone? Prices, of course, range from treatment to treatment, but can be found on Fusion’s website. All treatments are done with products designed by a Hungarian company called Eminence. Eminence products are all organic, and have no chemical content, only using fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in their compounds.
The spa is currently owned by Barb Mullen, originally from England, who gained ownership of the already-established business in September of 2011. The downtown Fusion Wellness Spa features 6 treatment rooms, a pedicure room, a waxing room, and the hydrotherapy room. However, due to the spa’s enormous popularity and limited space, Barb decided to open a second Fusion spa in the newly-built Copperpoint Resort, also in Invermere. In April of 2012, the second spa opened its doors to the public, and features 4 treatment rooms (one being a gorgeous couples’ treatment room), a small hair salon, a pedicure room, and a hydrotherapy room.
According to Barb, Copperpoint Resort is a popular place for weddings, and the Fusion Wellness Spa offers bridal packages, with deals specifically for the bride and/or bridal party, including make-up application. The hair salon is available for rental for bridal parties as well, with a hair stylist on staff at the spa, or with the option to bring in one’s own hairdresser.
Whether or not you are planning on getting married in Canada’s beautiful Panorama area, or are simply visiting for some Rocky Mountain thrills, take the time to pamper yourself for an afternoon. Fusion Wellness Spa is the perfect place to do so!