Head to These 3 Resorts to Experience the Healing Power of Indigenous Traditions

Saunas have been gaining popularity in the West not only for their ability to sweat you into a state of Zen, but also for their their ample benefits, including stress reduction, pain relief, improved circulation, and better skin health. This ancient tradition of ritualized high heat has been used for thousands of years by Indigenous communities as a form of healing and rebirth. And there are new ways for travelers to experience it, all while engaging with the healing properties of nature amidst high design. Here are three offerings worth suiting up for.

Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge

Thomas J. Story

Cree Knowledge Keeper Matricia Brown and her daughter Mackenzie own Warrior Women, leading guests on interactive plant medicine gathering journeys in Jasper National Park. Their 1.5-hour immersive experience starts with an hour of plant exploration and a half-hour of hands-on medicine product, including making tisanes, salves, lotions, hydrosols, soaps, and mineral salts infused with local plants, shrubs, and flowers, which participants can take back to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and enjoy in their stunning barrel sauna overlooking Lac Beauvert (pictured above).

Moon Jelly Bathhouse

Kai Rosentzveig

Opened in early 2024, this private floating sanctuary focused on the healing power of seaweed is located within Canada’s first Tribal Park in Clayoquot Sound in the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation. Each self-led, six-hour experience starts with a 15-minute boat ride from the harbor in Tofino, known for its natural hot springs, where soakers enjoy two private oversize saltwater seaweed hot tubs, a rinse shower, a covered gazebo lounge with daybeds and warm blankets, a sky hammock swaying over open water, and the magical sea surrounding the property for cold plunging back and forth.

Naviva, A Four Seasons Resort

Naviva®, A Four Seasons Resort/Oliver Pilcher

At this adults-only sanctuary situated on 48 acres of pristine coastline in Nayarit, guests can engage with the local Indigenous culture in many ways, including a transformative temazcal ritual that combines physical cleansing with spiritual healing. The word is derived from Nahuatl language, meaning “house of heat,” and Naviva, A Four Seasons Resort works with local Native practitioners to facilitate a grounding meditation before entering the adobe dome, where participants sit in a circle around hot coals ritualistically steamed and stoked with copal while the practitioner leads prayers and intentions of ancestral healing and gratitude through prayer and song. It’s almost unbearably hot, but you’ll walk out feeling reborn.