Specializing in whole-body wellness, Sparkling Hill Resort and Wellness Hotel, a luxurious European-inspired hotel perched high on a cliff above Okanagan Lake, is expected to have a tremendous impact on tourism in the Okanagan Valley, a region recognized for its majestic mountains, refreshing waters, lush vineyards, world-class golf and skiing, and one of Canada’s warmest climates. Chiseled from granite bedrock, the 240,000 sf wellness hotel is built in a fluid style that respects and infuses the natural landscape.
The crown jewel of this stunning 150-room full-service hotel is the 20,000 sf wellness centre and spa, laid out as an internal "street" lined with treatment areas along its east side. Each treatment area has its own reception and waiting space reflecting the unique sensory qualities of the treatments occurring within - ranging from familiar beauty treatments to specialized European regimens, as well as massage and movement therapy, yoga, and meditation. Beyond the waiting areas, subcorridors stretch deeper into the building toward individual treatment chambers and cubicles, with glimpses to the natural landscape at corridor ends. In some rooms, such as those housing Kneipp baths, large, crystalline windows fill "fractures" in the dense outer wall, bathing interiors with natural light; other chambers are tightly controlled environments evoking sensations of being deep in the native rock of the mountain. Tucked between treatment areas on the east, as well as in freestanding pavilions outside in the landscape to the west, are a diverse array of sensory "grottos," each with a special character of form, lighting, connection to nature, or seclusion. The path connecting them changes direction and width, creating more crystalline cracks to the outside world, interior niches, and crossings.