courTesy The elms hoTel and spa
The Grotto is the spa’s newest addition, with a dry sauna, a steam sauna featuring aromatherapy, a mineral hot tub, a steam shower featuring custom salt scrubs, and a cold-plunge shower.
He began researching new spa treatments and attended the International Spa Conference in Las Vegas to learn what other resorts were offering. Then he landed on a big concept—it would be The Elms’ take on a modern-day Roman bathhouse, and he would call it The Grotto. “Having been an entity since 1888, hydrotherapy and health and wellness has always been a part of The Elms,” Kevin says. “For me, it was a no-brainer to do what we could do to introduce folks to what the waters could do.” The Grotto is a gem. It was one of the last hotel amenities to be completed, opening in December 2012. It offers a steam shower, dry sauna, steam sauna, cold-plunge shower, and a hot tub. All features have purpose, and when combined, they make for a powerful hydrotherapy session. “The whole environment that we’ve created with The Grotto is one where we want folks to rest and relax and get in the right frame of mind before they have the spa service that they are paying for,” Keith says. Kevin suggests first rinsing off in the steam shower, which has three rainfall shower heads. Then a ten- to fifteen-minute soak in the 104-degree hot tub will increase circulation and loosen muscles. The body then needs to cool down, either slowly in a chaise lounge or quickly (forty-five seconds) in a fifty-fivedegree cold-plunge shower. Hydrotherapy is about more than applying and ingesting water, Kevin says. It’s also the contrast between temperatures that treats the
body. Blood comes to the surface through heat, pores open up, and we sweat, detoxifying our bodies. With cold temperatures, everything constricts, and blood is forced more deeply to our internal organs, further assisting in the detoxifying process. After cooling off, Kevin recommends the 118-degree steam sauna for ten to fifteen minutes, a quick trip to the cold-plunge shower, a stop in the 190-degree dry sauna, and then another stop at the cold plunge shower. Ideally, Kevin says, you should end at the steam shower and use The Grotto’s self-exfoliation bar (offering organic lavender or rose petal salt scrubs) to scrub away dry skin cells and enhance new cell growth. The Grotto perfectly epitomizes the philosophy behind the spa at The Elms—health and wellness take priority. “A majority of folks are looking into alternative health care methods or means of preventive maintenance,” Kevin says. “People are tired of taking prescriptions all the time. We want to encourage people to take better care of themselves. We want people to start understanding that there are actually some very simple things they can do to take care of themselves. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, and it doesn’t have to come out of a pill bottle.” Jim and I spent nearly ninety minutes at The Grotto before our spa treatments. I started at the steam shower and moved to the hot tub. Despite my hatred of heat, I tried the steam sauna and then the dry sauna, which I could handle for only about
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