A visit to the salt cave is relaxing and rejuvenating

It's not often I can say I have something in common with Himalayan and Polish salt miners.

But just as those miners have benefitted from dry salt therapy, so have I.

And I didn't have to go to the Himalayan mountains or Poland to experience it.

Room+Pillar Salt Cave+Wellness Spa in Kelowna has the Okanagan's first and only Himalayan salt cave at its location at 1546 Harvey Ave. near Burtch Road.

The cave is essentially a big room made to look like a grotto with thousands of pounds of pinkish Himalayan salt rocks and bricks along the walls and salt gravel on the floor.

Six white-cushioned comfy loungers are strategically placed for relaxation and rejuvenation, the temperature is an ideal 18C, the mood lighting is soft and yellow and tinkling spa music is playing.

While the setting is calming and atmospheric, it's the quietly humming halogenerator that grinds up pharmaceutical-grade salt and disperses the miniscule, beneficial particles into the cave that provides the dry salt therapy.

"You don't even see the salt particles because they are 5 microns in size (.005 of a millimetre)," explained Room+Pillar owner Lindsay Krieg.

"But, as you breathe them in you start to benefit from the anti-inflammatory properties, it opens up your airways and improves your skin condition."

The list of other benefits includes reduced asthmatic, allergy, stress, anxiety, headache, migraine and arthritic symptoms.

Plus, as my wife, Kerry, and I conclude after 45 minutes in the cave, it is ultra relaxing.

Wrapped in plush robes and supine on loungers in a yellowish glow with soothing music, we can't help but chill out.

Dry salt therapy became a thing in the 1800s after it was discovered that Polish salt miners were benefitting from the very commodity they were pulling out of the ground.

Dry salt therapy and retreats are popular in Europe, which is where Krieg stumbled upon it.

"I was in Rome and saw a spa offering it, so I just made a random booking and loved it," she said.

"I just knew I had to set up a salt cave in Kelowna."

That dream became reality in June when Krieg opened Room+Pillar Salt Cave+Wellness Spa.

Its salt cave is the first and only one in the Okanagan.

Sparkling Hill Resort near Vernon has a salt-themed sauna, otherwise the next closest salt caves are in Nelson and Langley.

The Himalayan salt for Room+Pillar's cave comes from Khewra Mine in Pakistan.

Stylish, framed black-and-white photos of Khewra miners at work line the walls at the spa.

Salt cave sessions are $20 for 20 minutes or $35 for 45 minutes.

You can also rent the whole cave for $125 for up to six guests.

Children under 12 are free with a paying adult or $10 for additional children.

Kids (and adults, if they want) are also catered to with pails and shovels available in the cave to play with all the salt gravel.

Or combine 45 minutes in the salt cave to get feeling good followed by a one-hour massage for the ultimate in pampering for $100.

Aleena Yoga has also started weekly one-hour classes in the salt cave for $40.

Check out RoomAndPillarSpa.com.

NowMedia Group last featured Krieg in its Faces of Kelowna magazine for her Three Temples Sensory Design business, which creates residential, commercial and institutional spaces to be good looking as well as balancing mind, body and soul.