• Home
  • About Carol
  • About us

Luxury Travel Magazine

An unpretentious guide to luxury travel, culture and adventure

  • About Luxury travel
  • Destinations
  • Spas
    • The Spa and Spa Travel
    • Hot Springs Spas and Thermal Baths: Why You Should Visit One
    • Spa Towns in Europe – 8 Reasons You Should Visit
  • Popular Articles
    • Things to Do in Canada
    • Top European Destinations
    • Things to Do in the South of France
    • Travel and Art: Artistic Cities, Art Fairs and Painting Holidays
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
Luxury travel blog » Places » North America » Canada » Ontario » Toronto » Cheap way to spa in Chinatown

Cheap way to spa in Chinatown

February 27, 2011 by Carol Perehudoff 8 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links.

If you’re after an exotic way to spend the day with a spa treatment included, all on a budget, then think Chinatown. And think feet! Here’s a cheap way to spa in Chinatown, foot reflexology included.

Cheap place to spa in China Town Toronto

Happy feet

A cheap day in Chinatown – start with food

Make it a day  – first go for dim sum. That’s a Chinese breakfast/brunch meal of tapas-sized portions. Yum – what could be better (of course you need to call a hiatus on your carb free diet) than shrimp dumplings, sticky rice in lotus leaves and lots of bean curd rolls? Then get adventurous and opt for tripe and chicken feet. No scratch that. Stick with the bean curd. Are you crazy?

Mark and I did this the other day. Except we wanted to try the newly-installed Dynasty on Yorkville Ave so our Chinatown spa day actually started in Yorkville. Highly recommended.

Then we went wandering through Chinatown looking for a foot massage place that didn’t look too dodgy – erm, no happy endings, if you know what I mean.

Yay! We found our cheap spa in Chinatown

And then we found the Evergreen Beauty & Wellness Centre. How can you go wrong with a wellness centre? It was clean and we didn’t need an appointment and a an hour foot massage cost a whopping $25. Men, take note – you will never be able to offer your girlfriend such a cheap spa date again.

Evergreen Spa Chinatown Toronto

Foot massage!

Evergreen Beauty & Wellness Centre

At Evergreen we were ushered into a plain room with two easy chairs, given some green tea and then our Chinese-speaking massage therapists came in. You really have to wonder what they’re talking about (remember that Seinfeld episode when the Korean manicurists kept talking about Elaine?) when they look at your feet then start gabbing to each other.

And you’re not going to get any of this frou-frou soft treatment like at some high-end spas. These women have serious strength. As I was gasping in pain, Mark looks at me. “Is it tickling?” he asks (stupidly).

“Yar!!! Grack!! Arggg!!! No!” I replied (prettily).

And then she went for my heel. “Yikes!” I shouted.

She said something to the other woman. Oh, no, I thought. Now they’re probably saying I have some strange irreversible internal problem because reflexology, as you probably know, doesn’t just feel good on the sole (and soul), it’s a pressure therapy based on massaging reflex points that are connected by nerves to all the organs in the body right up to the top of the head. Different spots on the feet correspond to different points of the body and focused pressure is said to be able to cure or prevent disease.

What are you thinking?

Cheap reflexology in Chinatown

So if you think you just have a sore heel, think again. As I look on the handy complimentary foot map you can pick up at the front desk, I see that the heel area can pinpoint problems like the Genital Gonad, Sciatic Nerve or the Cold Point Rectum – depending on where the pain stems from. Somehow, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what was causing my pain. But I gave the therapist a raised eyebrow look, as in, what? What? And she said, “Me same!” Apparently she has a sensitive heel, too, and didn’t seem to think it symbolized anything dire.

Phew!

Anyway, I was sorry when it ended. The ladies were really good fun even if we couldn’t speak the same language, and I’m sure my genital gonads, sciatic nerve and cold point rectum were much better for it.

PS To keep on making it an exciting day, add on a trip to a Chinese bakery for coconut buns then go to one of the market stalls for dragon fruit, lychees and anything else weird and wonderful in the Asian fruit realm. It’s the perfect cheap spa day in Chinatown!

Want to go more upscale? Here are some of the best spas in Toronto

Read more about going to the spa at The Spa and Spa Travel

Filed Under: Affordable, Spas, Toronto

About Carol Perehudoff

A former freelance travel columnist for the Toronto Star, Carol has won more than 20 writing and blogging awards and honours. A spa and luxury travel expert, she's written for top travel publications around the globe.

Comments

  1. Carol Perehudoff says

    November 27, 2013 at 5:34 am

    Yes, Linda – you need to add a tip, and it does add up. There’s really no way around it. Still worth it though!

  2. Linda says

    November 27, 2013 at 4:33 am

    Hi Carol, sounds like great fun I’m keen to try it out! I’m from Australo\ia and have no idea about the tipping thing as we don’t really have a culture of tipping. Do you tip at massage parlours? The price sounds cheap for a ot of these places but once u add tip…

  3. Angela Cosmai says

    November 20, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    Looking for great foot massage . Visitng Montreal next weekend. Thank you

  4. wanderingcarol says

    April 13, 2011 at 10:26 am

    Right you are! The address for the Evergreen Wellness Center is 422 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON M5T 1G4 and the tel is 647-341-5016. May your feet be happy.

  5. Schreibey says

    April 12, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    This place gets so many great reviews and not ONCE is the address mentioned. How about a phone number?
    thanks

  6. Lori Henry says

    March 5, 2011 at 11:18 pm

    Um, yeah, I definitely don’t get to Chinatown enough… but then again, I’ve been told that my Cold Point Rectum is doing just swell…

  7. amy says

    March 3, 2011 at 9:03 pm

    Sounds like the best day ever! Though I wonder if it makes more sense to do the foot massage and then dim sum; you know, once your genital gonads are relaxed.

  8. Lesley says

    February 28, 2011 at 4:46 pm

    Chinatown also can be a great place for a good budget haircut–Mario gets swears by Osaka.

Talk to me! Leave a comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search

Subscribe and you won't miss an article!

About Wandering Carol

circle profileIn my 10+ years as a travel writer and columnist I've seen the best of what the world has to offer and written for some top publications around the globe - and now my goal is to bring this expertise to you. For more blah blah blah, visit my
About page.

Connect with me online

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Carol Perehudoff published in top media, logos for newspapers and magazines

Categories

How to use this adventure and luxury travel site

  • Click on the ‘DESTINATIONS TO TRAVEL TO’ tab on the menu bar to go to my destinations page.
  • The CATEGORIES drop down menu above will point you to locations and travel themes such as hotels, outdoor adventure and tours.
  • SUBSCRIBE to keep up with the latest articles and get tips to make your next journey inspiring.

Recent Posts

  • A (Lost) Love for Travel on Valentine’s Day
  • Best Beach Resorts in South Africa: Top 9 Luxury Stays for 2021
  • A Chocolate Christmas in Switzerland
  • Best Place to Live in South Africa | Cheapest, Safest and Best on Offer
  • Romantic Budapest

Recent Comments

  • Carol Perehudoff on A Tropical Island Cocktail Cure at Paradisus Palma Real
  • chrisrochfort on Who worked at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel?
  • brittshedhappens on My shamanic healing in the Amazon, Peru
  • Christa McKinney on A Tropical Island Cocktail Cure at Paradisus Palma Real
  • Ruth Reynolds on Bad Kreuznach – the German Spa Town You Probably Never Heard of

Terms of Use

Terms of Use

Copyright @2020 WanderingCarol.com Luxury Travel Blog