Cruisiness: 4/5
Price: Normally $20, but they're having a $10 "Summer Special" going on through the summer!
Pros: Clean, quiet, sauna and steam room are kind of hidden and private, saunas are perfect temperature (in my opinion)
Cons: Towel stinginess, small spa area, no seated showers, doesn't really have a cold pool.
So last Friday, I was again in the South Bay so I decided to head to CJ Spa in Hermosa Beach.
This one was hard for me to give an accurate rating. On the one hand, the quality of the facility is good. The temperature of the sauna and steam room was my ideal temperature, and the whirlpool was pretty close to that too. The place is clean and everything.
However, it's SMALL. There aren't all of the standard amenities one would expect in a Korean Spa. For example, there's no cold plunge pool, only an awkward-to-use rock pool with waterfall that's scarcely a replacement. There are also no seated shower stalls, and only three regular showers. Well, four, if you count the odd one between the whirlpool and the scrub table. Like its sister spa in Northridge, they only give you one bath towel and a hand towel when you enter.
Despite all that, I actually liked this spa quite a bit. Why? Because although it wasn't very crowded while I was there (no more than 5 guys at any one time during the 4 hours I was there), pretty much every guy there was looking for action. (except for one really cute guy, sadly). The door to the steam room is frosted glass--with no other windows-- and the dry sauna only has a small window on the door. This means there is quite a bit of privacy in these rooms. Employees seemed to constantly be walking through, though, so one would have to be careful.
Side note: the male employee that was working the front desk was one of the employees always coming through. When I was in the sauna (By myself, usually), he'd stick his head in and ask if everything was all right. Not sure if he was doing this purely from a customer service standpoint, if he was checking for inappropriate conduct, or if he just wanted to see me naked. Honestly, the latter option is the one I find the least objectionable... He was actually kind of cute. :-)
Anyway, based on my Friday evening experience, I thought it might be a good place for a future meetup, if the front desk employee would stop coming through. (especially during the $10 summer promo!)
CJ Grand Spa
1601 Pacific Coast Hwy. #280
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
1601 Pacific Coast Hwy. #280
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
