No silence here: Montreal’s Recess spa welcomes socializing and music | Canada Voices

At Recess, one of the newest wellness spas in Montreal, quiet is almost discouraged.

R&B singer Leon Bridges croons sweet melodies over a speaker, flooding the gender-neutral locker room. Individual changing stalls flank the space, which leads into a waiting room filled with marble benches, bean bag chairs and more upbeat music, from TLC to Naughty by Nature. Everyone is chatting – not whispering – and the conversations continue happily as spa goers of all ages grab water and tea and head into the circular sauna.

Inside the 50-person coliseum sauna, which was brought to life by co-founders Adam Simms and Marilyne Gagné, attendants thump their feet and sing along to the music, almost as if performing, as they flick essential oils and water onto the hot stones in the centre. They spend 15 minutes twirling around the room with towels and giant fans like fairy godparents giving out magical powers. The fans push hot, mint-infused air toward attendees, most of whom are scattered around the room and carrying on conversations with the people they came with. It’s an interpretation of the aufguss method, in which a sauna master creates an aromatherapy experience and moves hot and cooler air around participants.

In the cold plunge room, attendants walk guests through cold water immersion, which can last up to two minutes, by offering gentle words of encouragement and support. The cycle is repeated as many times as a visitor desires in the allotted 75-minute session. Here too, quiet is edged out in favour of conversation. The owners hope it makes the ancient tradition of sauna a more approachable, enjoyable endeavour.

“Modern wellness has become an individual pursuit – headphones in, eyes down, disconnected. With Recess, we’re bringing people back to something deeply human: shared rituals,” Simms says. “Thermotherapy has always been communal and when you pair that with immersive art, music and intentional design, you create a new kind of wellness – one that restores you physically but also reconnects you socially. Our vision is to transform wellness from something you do alone into something you experience together.”

Recess, which has been open at 217 Rue Young in the trendy Griffintown neighbourhood for a few months, is part of a changing wellness movement in Montreal. Recovery classes, designed to aid in muscle and mind relaxation, are taught inside the sauna, there are singles nights and Friday DJ nights within the thermal circuit space, and people sing and dance along in joyful defiance of the traditionally quiet spa setting, similar to Toronto’s Othership and Tality Wellness in Vancouver.

“Hybrid work and digital life have left so many people feeling isolated, even as they try to take care of their health,” Simms says, adding that Recess gives customers a place “where being around others feels natural again.”

In January, Montreal’s Joy Spa is scheduled to open with a similar concept, turning a former retail space into an outlet for HIIT training, red-light therapy, sauna and ice bath sessions, and includes a café for the social element. Even the city’s more serene outdoor spas, such as Bota Bota, are recognizing the need for change. The Nordic spa on a boat in the city’s Old Port is launching a second spa boat next winter, which will add audiovisual elements to the spa experience.

Recess offers a range of classes that cycle from the sauna to the cold plunge, from a stretch-focused Restore class, which uses massage balls and gua sha (a facial massage tool), to the 90-minute Bad Stu, which pulls the sauna doors open and adds smoke to the essential oils and offers restorative teas to drink. There is even a comedy night and themed music nights taking place inside the sauna.

“For me, true wellness has always been as much about connection as it is about recovery. Recess reinvents an ancestral tradition – the sauna as a gathering place – for a generation that’s craving belonging,” Gagné says.

The writer was a guest of Tourisme Montreal. It did not review or approve the story before publication.