Victoria lavender farm offers unique sauna and cold plunge experience
Willows Beach, Esquimalt Lagoon, Royal Beach, and a Metchosin lavender farm — what do all of these places have in common?
They’ve all, at one point, been home to Wildwood Saunas.
“I had some friends that were having a picnic [at Bilston Creek Farms], and they thought Wildwood would be a perfect spot for us,” founder Josh Dupuis told Daily Hive.
Wildwood Saunas is a mobile and custom sauna business which started in 2022, and in July, it established a more permanent spot at Bilston Creek Farm in Metchosin.
The lavender farm was prepared for an operation such as Wildwood Saunas. It hosts events and weddings, and it welcomed the sauna company with open arms after the business bounced around the city for various bureaucratic reasons.
“We started with a small sauna last summer […], and once the weather got colder and more people started showing up, I built a community sauna and a deck space. We’ve really dialled it in, and things have picked up,” Dupuis said.
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Dupuis launched the company after looking to rent a sauna for his backyard during Christmas in 2020. Frustrated by the lack of options and armed with over a decade of carpentry experience, he built his own sauna.
“That’s when the idea started,” he said.
Two years later, Dupuis built his first mobile sauna, which could be towed by a truck. He first started setting it up in the parking lot of Willows Beach. It turned heads.
“The goal from the start [of Wildwood Saunas] was to get people healthy and happy and do it in a way that’s fun,” he said. “Being at the beach was a way to inspire people to get away from the bars — away from the drinking — and instead, do something healthy.”
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Since then, Dupuis has been able to establish a full-fledged sauna business by providing a service unique to the city. If you want a sauna in your backyard, Wildwood can provide it. If you want one permanently, Dupuis can make it.
But if you may not have the money to purchase your own sauna, then heading out to Bilston Creek Farm is a pretty magical alternative.
The farm in Metchosin is home to many things: tall trees, lavender, weddings, private events, and now, a sauna and cold bath experience. It’s the perfect venue for Wildwood Saunas.
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With HAVN, Ritual Nordic Spa, The Magnolia and Oak Bay Beach hotels, all rounding out Victoria’ robust sauna scene, it’s clear there’s a hunger for more unique sauna experiences on Vancouver Island.
If you’re looking for that, and you want to stop, smell, and sweat with the flowers, head to Bilston Creek Farms and Wildwood Saunas.