Sunrise Springs an Oja Resort situated in Sante Fe, 1 hour drive from Albuquerque

https://sunrisesprings.ojospa.com/

This spa resort is situated in the middle of nowhere, well that’s what it seems like as I was in the desert. A one hour drive from Albuquerque lies Sunrise Resort. Just like Red Mountain resort we reviewed in December 2017, this resort is mainly an outside wellness resort.

The resort lays on 70 acres fed by natural springs. There are a variety of outdoor amenities, swimming pool, medicine wheel, sweat lodge, mineral baths and hot tubs, small amphitheater and a natural mineral lake to enjoy while you here. Whilst I was visiting the resort, they were in the process of building and completing a 5 mile bike trails. So this will be another activity they will be adding to their resort.

The resort has two types of accommodations:

Garden rooms and casitas (one or two bedrooms). Garden room are situated in the middle of the complex and are more of a hotel style room. The casitas are bigger rooms that have one or two bedrooms in them. They were situated at the back end of the property, so when heading to breakfast/lunch/dinner it is about a 5 mins walk to those areas. In total there are 32 Garden Rooms and 20 Casitas which can house 77 people in total at one time.

Casitas

Garden Room

Garden Room

During our stay we had the pleasure of enjoying one of the casitas. On arrival, with each room on the resort you are given a small meditation book, calming tea and just for me some chocolate truffles. Yum. As you can see by the decor, it is very light, it has a Southwestern feel to it and is spacious. The bonus of staying in a casitas, you also have access to an actual fireplace.

Upon arrival, the staff at reception were very helpful and showed me the way to my room. I had to drive my car to the area, but again you can walk. Once we were settled and unpacked we made our way to our first class which was called Luscious Aromatics. In this class we learned how to make wax diffusers with essential oils as well as oil diffusers, to help get rid of the toxins within your households. It was amazing on how easy these were to make.The scents we used for our wax diffusers were Lavender, Cedarwood and Ylang Ylang. Oh how they smell so nice together. Now, our task when we get back home will be to buy the same ingredients to make our own.

One of my evening activities consisted of visiting the puppy school they had on the resort. There were quite a few of them ranging from 7 days old to 17 weeks. The purpose of the puppy school was to train them to be service dogs within the community. There was a great sense of calm whilst hanging out with the 7 days old puppies, however the 17 week ones had a little more energy to them but were well-behaved.

Our day activities were : medicine wheel, core training, circuit training,  meeting the silkie chickens and yoga

The medicine wheel was an new and interesting activity for us as we got to learn about Native American rituals and how they were used and still are used to this present day. Throughout the activities we always felt drawn to the East and North. The East represented new beginnings in ones life and the North represented having a core purpose in life and doing what speaks to you. This resonated with us as we are going through the new beginnings of running a business as well as knowing that travel speaks to us and this our my core purpose to share all of our knowledge of the world with our clients. To read more about it click on the link below,

http://www.walkashamanspath.com/medicine-wheel-ceremony-and-teachings/

Our core training and circuit training class was very small but enjoyable. The fitness room is quite small however the instructor was pretty good at using the space well and making you work up a sweat for both sessions.

Hanging out the with silkie chicken was definitely a different experience. The whole purpose of the class was to feel calmer and more relaxed while being with them which certainly did happen to us. This was definitely the feel we had once the class was over. These chickens are from China and are very different from regular chickens. They have black skin and bones and are very docile and friendly. As you can see from the pictures and the video you can even hold them and they will roam around you.

As you can imagine with any vinyasa yoga class it was very calming but challenging. The class was very small and the instructor was very attentive towards our needs and practice.

In between all the activities we got to experienced a couple of treatments from the spa. This consisted of a 25 mins reflexology session and a jacuzzi soak in their outdoor jacuzzi. The outdoor jacuzzi holds up to 4 people and it lasts for 50 minutes. There is also a fireplace within the section to help you stay warm and dry off if it is too cold. Opposite these sections you also have the option of having an aromatherapy steam shower which smell wonderful and will definitely help you go to sleep afterwards.

One activity that we would have like to have experienced was the sweat lodge. Due to this only being done on a weekend (sharman’s availability) we will have to experience this at another time.

Finally we must talk about the food!! The food was amazing, very tasty, farm-to-table style and of course had a Southwestern theme to it. The only drawback we had on the food was that it was not calorie controlled. There was no information on each dishes calorie content. You also do have the option of drinking wine or beer with your meal.

Sunrise Resort is an outdoors-focused wellness resort located in the Southwest. Even though it is a small resort, there are many quite a few activities to occupy your time, from fitness to gardening. If you go you will definitely feel relaxed and refreshed. You will definitely eat well. However, you will not be minding the calories, along with a glass or two of wine to wash down the great food.