Going Norse in Newfoundland: Two Nordic spas in the planning for St. John’s region

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Nordic spas have been popping up across the country for years now and pretty soon there may be a pair in the St. John’s region.

There are currently applications before the City of St. John’s and the Town of Flatrock for two different Nordic spas, which would make them the first in the province.

The owner of one of the proposed spas, Rebecca Bezanson, told SaltWire Network she got the idea after visiting one in Nova Scotia and has been working on it since November.

She had planned on keeping the idea under wraps until she had all the necessary permits and the proposed land had been rezoned, but after seeing another one pop up in nearby Flatrock she decided to let the cat out of the bag.

“We didn’t plan on saying anything until we had everything approved, but I also didn’t want people to be like, ‘Oh, they copied them,’” she said with a laugh. “We had a lot of stuff already in the works.”

Bezanson said she had first planned to build the indoor/outdoor business in Torbay, but after running into some roadblocks decided to go with a location in St. John’s instead. She is working on getting the land rezoned for the Nordic spa and said she was told by the city it would be another four months or so.

The response she’s received on social media since announcing the business has been surprising, Bezanson said, and she expected there to be interest.

A lot of people are interested in the Nordic spa concept in the province, she said, and have either encountered one while travelling or heard about them from friends.

A Nordic spa involves going between hot and cold temperatures, she said, for relaxation purposes, and includes outdoor saunas or hot tubs, as well as more traditional spa services.

“You would go into the hot tub or the sauna and then you would go directly to either a cold bucket drop, where you literally stand underneath the bucket and pour freezing cold water on you, or you go to a cold-water plunge, which could be like a small pool that you dunk yourself in, things like that.”

Over 35,000 people have shared her post about the spa, Bezanson told SaltWire, which she said is very encouraging.

The Town of Flatrock posted on its site that an application had been made for rezoning on Windgap Road to allow for the construction of a three-story Nordic Spa with outdoor pools and other buildings. SaltWire was not able to get an interview with the proponents of the proposed project by deadline.