Sparkling Hill Resort

The Hotel

Sparkling Hill opens in 2010 as the personal project of Gernot Langes-Swarovski, fourth-generation head of the Austrian crystal family. He buys a granite outcrop above Okanagan Lake, hires a Vienna-based architect, and builds what is in effect a European Kurhotel transplanted to the British Columbia interior. The eleven-storey building is set into the ridge so that every guest room faces south down the valley; the public spaces wrap around a triple-height central atrium hung with crystal sculptures; and three and a half million individually placed Swarovski elements are integrated into the walls, the ceilings, the chandeliers, and the bathroom fittings. The cumulative effect is restrained rather than gaudy, the crystal reads as architectural punctuation rather than decoration.

The 152 rooms are unusually generous for a wellness resort. Standard categories begin at 38 square metres with floor-to-ceiling glass facing the lake, walnut floors, and bathrooms in white stone with the now-signature crystal-embedded mirror walls. Suites run to 90 square metres; the penthouses sit on the top floor with private rooftop terraces and the only outdoor hot tubs with a direct line of sight to the entire south Okanagan. Every room is allergy-free, mechanically ventilated with hospital-grade filtration, and built without textiles that retain dust. The intention throughout is therapeutic rather than decorative.

The KurSpa is the property's reason for existing. At 40,000 square feet it is the largest European-style wellness floor in Canada and one of the largest in North America. The signature is the medical cold chamber, the only one of its kind in the country, in which guests stand in temperatures of minus 110 degrees Celsius for three minutes at a time, a protocol used by professional athletes for inflammation control and by general guests for sleep and energy. Around it sit seven steam rooms and saunas, an indoor pool with underwater music, an outdoor infinity pool with valley views, two relaxation rooms, and a hundred-treatment menu administered by a permanent medical staff. Naturopathy, nutritional medicine, and physiotherapy consultations are bookable through the on-site clinic.

Food is treated as part of the cure rather than a separate amenity. PeakFine, the resort's restaurant, is among the few hotel dining rooms in interior British Columbia worth a special trip; chef Jenna Pillon runs a tasting-menu format weighted toward Okanagan produce, wild fish, and a wine list of valley estates. The Lobby Bar handles lighter all-day service. There is no children's facility and the property is strictly adults-only (sixteen and over), which is unusual in the region and is the source of its consistent guest-satisfaction scores. The building has won AAA Four Diamond ratings every year since opening.

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