Amenities: 3.5/5
Cruisiness: 2/5
Price: $20
Pros: Plenty of parking, unlimited towels, quiet, clean
Cons: Out of the way unless you're in the area, stuff seemed just barely too hot.
It's my first review in almost a year!
I just heard about Descanso Garden Spa a few weeks ago and finally got a chance to check it out. It's in Tujunga, so not to difficult to get to from Pasadena/Glendale or the northeast San Fernando Valley, but otherwise it's kind of a trek to get to. Fortunately, I was in the area.
I was kind of surprised to see a real Korean spa in this part of town, but here it is. It's in this mini-mall on Foothill Blvd. with plenty of parking. I parked and walked in, handing them my $20. After stripping down, I went into the wet area, where there are signs on the door that say "No clothing allowed!"... I liked that. More spas need signs like that.
I was meeting a friend there, and he and I were the only ones in the men's area when I arrived. Seriously, it was otherwise totally deserted. The men's wet area was surprisingly similar in layout to Natura Spa: octagonal hot tub in the middle of the room, cold plunge off to the side, steam room in one corner and dry sauna in another corner, seated showers in another corner, and upright showers in a couple of locations to fill in the rest of the space. Oddly, though, some places where there were pairs of shower stalls, only one of the showers would have soap/shampoo dispensers. There were also shelves with towels, scrub cloths, toothbrushes and razors.
The spa area was fairly upscale and very clean. It was one of the nicer spas I've been to, although it was pretty small... (the sauna and steam room were about half the size of Natura's)
After showering, I tried out the hot pool. It was slightly hotter than I normally like; it was tolerable, but I would have turned it down by a degree or two. The jets were controlled by a timer dial on the wall (which wasn't really obvious at first), which lasted longer than the 5 minutes you get at Spa Palace. Maybe it was 10 or 15 minutes. But the temperature was such that I didn't want to stay in the pool for longer than the timer lasted.
The steam room was next. When the steam jets weren't going, it was fine in there. But it got hot quickly when the jets were on. And they were placed weirdly, under one of the benches. I was sitting next to them when they turned on, and had to move because the hot steam was too close to me and hitting my legs. The steam room is pretty small, not large enough to hide in the steam to not be visible from the outside.
The sauna was a good temperature. It had large windows that looked right into the adjacent scrub area (as well as to the rest of the wet area), which was kind of weird, but there were no scrubs going on when I was there.
After my friend and I had been there for a little while, more people started showing up. Mixed crowd (a couple of Asian guys, and maybe 5 or 6 white or Middle-Eastern guys while I was there) and ranged in age from 20-40. A couple of the guys (I think they might have been Armenian) were really good looking. (Although my friend was pretty good looking too, haha!)
In terms of places to fool around, there is plenty of opportunity when the place is otherwise empty... while you can see into the steam room from the rest of the wet area, you can't see the steam room at all from outside of it. Also, the seated showers are arranged in such a way that they could conceal you from people outside if you wanted to play in the seated showers.
While I was there, I got a playful vibe from one guy, so it's a little cruisy there. I'd never go there expecting anything to happen though, the crowd is too unpredictable. You could be all alone in there or there could be a bunch of people in the spa.
I also checked out the coed area. They have a small restaurant, several saunas, a cold room, and a patio. They also have separate men's and women's sleeping rooms, although the men's sleeping room is down the same hallway as the women's restroom, and the women's sleeping room is down the same hallway as the men's restroom. They should have planned that better. There's also a "Cedar Oxygen Room", which smells cedary and I think they were pumping oxygen in there but I'm not sure.
Anyway, it's worth checking out if you are in the area and don't want to make the trek to K-Town.
Descanso Garden Spa
7226 Foothill Blvd
Tujunga, CA 91042
http://www.descansogardenspa.com/