Review: Century Spa, Koreatown

Amenities: 4.5/5
Cruisiness: 5/5
Price: $20 ($25 with Jim Jil Bang)

Pros: Huge; great amenities; almost entirely gay clientele;
Cons: Stingy with towels; sleeping room is perpetually (permanently?) closed; guys tend to be overly modest and cover up with towels.

Ah, Century Spa. I've been to this one more than any other spa in LA, and for good reason. While, at $20 admission, the price is higher than some other spas, you definitely get more for your money here.

In terms of amenities, most spas have a bare minimum of a hot pool, a cold pool, a dry sauna and a steam room in the men's area. Century Spa has a cold plunge pool, a hot whirlpool (but not too hot), a hotter "tea pool", a dry sauna, a steam room, a mist sauna, a cold sauna, a clay sauna and a marble sauna. This gives you plenty of options for sweating and relaxation. The clay sauna and marble saunas are warm, but not as hot as the dry sauna or mist sauna; their purpose is more toward relaxing. You can spend half an hour or more in the clay sauna (laying down and resting is encouraged in there) without getting heatstroke. The huge whirlpool is warm enough without it being too hot to stand more than a few minutes. There is also an outdoor patio where you can sit and cool off. While there's supposedly a sleeping room upstairs, it's always been closed when I've been there. There is also a "meditation room" upstairs, which I guess can double as a sleeping room (or just sleep in the clay sauna). The meditation room has floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the pools in the men's area.

I've heard complaints from others about the sauna and steam room not being hot enough... I disagree about the steam room; when the steam is going it can get close to unbearable in there. As for the dry sauna, yeah, I guess it could be hotter. The mist sauna seems a little hotter than the dry sauna, though.

One of the dumb things, in my opinion, about the layout is that the showers are pretty much as far away from the lockers as you can get; Since you are supposed to shower FIRST THING when you get there, it'd make more sense to put them nearer to the entrance of the spa. The body scrub area is in a little dark room behind the showers. There are three tables in there. There's a curtain between the showers and the body scrub room, but if you're in there getting a scrub, you're on display for anyone else in there who's also getting a scrub. One time when I was in there getting a scrub, the guy next to me looked like he was enjoying his scrub a little too much, haha.

When you arrive, you're given a small towel and two bath-sized towels. They occasionally bring out more towels (to the cubby area next to the clay sauna where the robes and shorts are located) but when a stack is brought out, they go quickly. Possibly because of the lack of towels, guys tend to keep their towel with them all the time, and the preferred way to carry it is around their waist. So, because of that, the voyeur aspect of the place is less than most. (Don't worry, though. I always parade through with no modestly whatsoever!)

But don't get me wrong--despite the apparent modesty, there's a LOT of cruising going on here. I'm not sure why it is, but Century Spa has become the de facto gay spa in Koreatown... so much so that it's rare to see actual Koreans use the spa. I'm not sure how it came to be (I heard that Century advertised in gay magazines) but I'm not complaining. The size of the spa and the sheer number of different rooms and saunas make consensual play fairly easy here; I have never been to Century Spa and not had some kind of action. While for the most part, etiquette rules and guys don't just go to town without making sure that everyone is ok with it, it's pretty easy to establish mutual interest.

Popular places to play are... well... pretty much anywhere except the pools and the dry sauna. (The dry sauna is located right inside the entrance to the spa area, with floor-to-ceiling windows, so there is literally no privacy)... The steam room gets action in the back (away from the windows), the outdoor patio gets tons of action, the clay room gets quite a bit, the marble room gets a little, and even the meditation room gets plenty of action. I've even played around in the mist sauna before, which also has a lot of windows and doesn't really strike anyone as being particularly private.

Despite all this, I want to urge people to watch what you're doing and who you're doing it in front of. Century has a great thing going right now and I don't want it to be ruined by people who are reckless about who they cruise or show off in front of. But seriously, guys, it's a Korean spa... stop wearing your towels all the time and show off your goods!

There is a Jim Jil Bang here that recently opened, but I've never checked it out. There's also a full gym downstairs with a lap pool, which I've never used.

Century Sports Club & Day Spa
4120 W. Olympic Blvd (at Crenshaw)
Los Angeles, CA 90019
http://centurydayspa.com

Note: their website SUCKS and all of the photos were taken years ago, before an extensive remodel... the interior looks NOTHING like what's represented in the photos.