Oh! Canada… Toronto’s best day spa

Just back after an amazing trip to Canada. I wanted to try a couple of different spa experiences while I was there, and the first was a funky-sounding day spa in Toronto. Body Blitz is a water spa, owned, managed and run exclusively by women for women. Toronto's a long way to go to check out a spa, but you know what? Body Blitz could be worth the plane fare...

What was so great? Everything. Seriously. The customer service was fantastic, the spa spotlessly clean, my therapist superb, and the facilities excellent! The whole idea of Body Blitz is based on the ancient practice of health and wellbeing through water. The spa itself is in a restored warehouse, with stylish exposed brick work and wooden beams. The main room is dominated by a Dead-Sea-salt warm water pool, churned by a central waterfall wall. There is also a hot green-tea pool and a cold plunge pool, with comfy red loungers to collapse on at the end. Just next door is an aroma steam room and infrared sauna -- both of which are silent spaces.

Body Blitz suggest you tackle their spa as a circuit. Just to make sure no-one is confused by where to go, not only do you get a laminated card explaining the best route, but there are also helpful charts on the wall -- we love it when people explain things to us!

Bathing suits are optional at Body Blitz and about half of the women there were au naturel, and about half in bathing suits and bikinis. There was a great atmosphere. Gals chatting away with their friends, mums and daughters bobbing around in the green-tea pool together, and I felt fine to be there alone, too. One woman told me sha had started going because her mum went "... and always looks like she's had Botox when she gets back, she's so chilled!"

I'm a cold-plunge coward at the best of times. I creep s-l-o-w-l-y into any cold water, making it a hundred times worse than if I leapt in. This time was no different. Damn. Invigorating, though! Once I was on my third plunge, I managed to work up the courage to just DO IT, and the sensation was amazing. I spent an hour happily going through the circuit before taking a break on a lounger, sipping a freshly-squeezed juice.

Body Blitz's speciality is scrubs and mud treatments. You choose your blend when you arrive, and your choice is ready for you in your treatment room. I tried the Blitz scrub, and went for a wild-oat scrub with aloe and lavender, which is soothing for sensitive skin.

I lay, head wrapped in a towel, on a couch. My therapist washed me with a soapy mitt, then scrubbed every inch of me with oats. No need to hop into a shower, as you're rinsed by a shower head as you lie on the couch. The scrub blitzed every single cell of dead skin from my body, leaving me with velvet-soft skin. A rub down with a towel and then a prize-winning massage with mint-lime body lotion. The result? A thoroughly relaxed, all-new me.

Entrance to just the therapeutic waters (where you can stay for up to two-and-a-half hours) is around £30. Add a 60-minute treatment on top and you'll play around £85. Wow.

I know this is the sort of write-up you'd give to your best friend's business, but it was really, REALLY that good. We recommend you sample Body Blitz if you're anywhere near Toronto.