The Guys Spa Awards Results are in!

So, without further ado, here are the winners of my first (possibly annual) Guys Spa Awards!

Best Korean Spa Restaurant: Wi Spa. Wi Spa was the overwhelming winner for this category. The only spa I've ever eaten at was Century Spa, and it was pretty good. I will have to try Wi Spa sometime though!

Best Body Scrub: Century Spa. I agree with this one. There were a couple of votes for CJ Hermosa, which I think also does (did?) a good body scrub. But I'd have to say that Century is better.

Best Massage: Century Spa. I've never been overly impressed with the massages at any of the spas, including Century. But my vote, amongst the spas that I've actually gotten massages at, would go to Aroma Spa.

Most Relaxing Spa: Natura Spa. Runner-up in this category was also my choice: Beverly Hot Springs.

Cruisiest Spa: Century Spa. This one wasn't even close, which surprised me, as I'd put Wilshire Spa at the same level in this category.

Best Eye Candy: Century Spa. Again, I'm going to have to throw my vote to the runner-up: Wi Spa. There's little, if any, action at Wi Spa, but I have to say there are some very attractive men that go there.

Best Spa in Orange County: ISpa, Irvine. The only spa I've been to in the OC is Imperial Spa in Fullerton, but it sounds like I should check out ISpa.

Worst Spa: Lions Spa. Votes were all over the place on this one, with Wilshire Spa in second place by only one vote. I've said in my reviews which spa I thought was the worst: Green Sauna in Gardena. I can only assume that not enough people have been there, and that's why it didn't get more than a single vote in this category.

Best Spa Value: No Consensus. Yeah, there was a 3-way tie for this one: Wi Spa, Century Spa, and Natura Spa, with Joy Spa and Wilshire Spa only one vote behind. I would probably go with Century Spa, because it's only 15 bucks to get in if you check in on Foursquare or Facebook, and you get access to so many more saunas for the money.

Best Overall Spa:  Natura Spa. Second place was Wi Spa, and third place was Century Spa, but Natura Spa was the clear winner here.. These three are also my three favorite spas at the moment, but honestly I have a tough time picking my "favorite"... it totally depends on how I'm feeling that particular day.

Happy New Year, guys!

The Guys Spa Awards!

So I get emails and comments of people asking "What is the best spa?" And my answer is always "it depends on what you're looking for!" But now's your chance to provide some feedback.

I'm making a poll where you can vote in ten different categories: Best Korean Spa restaurant, Best Korean Spa body scrub, Best Korean Spa massage, Most relaxing spa, Cruisiest spa, Best eye candy, Best overall spa, Best spa in Orange County, Worst spa, and Best spa value  

Please only vote once! And if you honestly don't have an opinion on a category, go ahead and leave it blank.

This is my first time using Google Docs to make a form, so I hope it works...

 Click HERE for your ballot.

I'll leave the voting open for a couple of weeks.

Review: Seoul Sauna, Gardena

Amenities: 2/5  
Cruisiness: 1/5

Price: $10

Pros: Inexpensive, unlimited small towels.  
Cons: Small, was pretty crowded when I was there, pretty much all Korean

So after my disastrous visit at Green Sauna in Gardena, I decided to check out another spa only a few blocks away.

This is another men-only spa, but there was a woman working at the front counter. I paid my entry and she held out a tray of razors in case I wanted to shave. I didn't need to, but she insisted I take one. So, I took one... seemed easier than explaining to her that, no, I really didn't need one. It's in my medicine cabinet in my bathroom now, unused. 

I also got a single large towel. However, there was a basket of small orange towels by the spa entrance to use, also.

Put my shoes in the shoe locker, which was only a few feet from my main locker which seemed a bit silly, but oh well.

There was one big bench in the middle of the locker room. In the middle of the bench was a pair of nail clippers, attached to the bench with a ribbon. And a purple plastic tray with probably 50 guys' worth of toenail clippings. Gross.

Entered the wet area and it was pretty small: Three tubs (hot, warm and cold), four upright showers and three seated showers. A small body scrub area in a dark corner near the showers. And a sauna and a steam room. It was fine, actually, nothing too fancy but not bad. It was really crowded though... probably at least 15 other guys in a pretty small area, and I was the only non-Asian there. I felt like they were eying me suspiciously the whole time I was there, which was kind of weird. 

I soaked in the warm tub for a while, then tried out the steam room, which was hot. Seriously, the hottest steam room I think I've experienced in a Korean Spa to date. I could only handle a couple of minutes and I had to get out. The dry sauna was better, still hot but more tolerable.

There was also a sleeping room with a heated floor (I think they called it a Jade Room, but I'm not sure) and a recliner area with a television. The Jade Room was pretty warm, and I was actually sweating quite a lot in there. The biggest annoyance about it was that there was a window between the Jade Room and the Recliner room, so the flickering of the television was kind of distracting.

I went there after work and got there a little after 5... it was crowded then, but most had left by 6:00. Still didn't have the place to myself or anything, but it was easier to relax and have some space.

This place wasn't cruisy at all. Even if you found someone and there was mutual interest, there's really no private place to play here. So if you're looking for that, I'd recommend going somewhere else.

Seoul Health Spa
15212 S. Western Ave
Gardena, CA 90249

CJ Hermosa temporarily closed?

So word on the street is that CJ Spa in Hermosa is "Closed for Renovations"... I'm not sure how long, or what they're doing.

Hopefully they're making some improvements... I've been less enthusiastic about them lately, as there are better spas in Koreatown for cheaper, and it's hard to get to unless you're already in the South Bay, and the one-towel thing that's been going on, etc.


Anyway, if anyone learns more, keep us posted!

Review: Green Sauna, Gardena

Amenities: 1/5
Cruisiness: 2/5

Price: $15

Pros: None.
Cons: Small, dirty, horrible.

Well, I finally have a least favorite Korean spa.

Green Sauna is in a mini-mall in Gardena. It's in the corner, and the storefront is hard to figure out if you're in the right place. Right off the bat, it's weird.

You enter around a curtain and you're immediately in the locker room. The locker room is nothing special. Going into the spa, there are three upright showers (two to the left of the door, one to the right), three seated showers, a large-ish hot pool, and a cold pool. There's a steam room and a "Jade room" at the far end.

The steam room wasn't steamy. The hot pool wasn't really that hot. There were no lights in the jade room (which was basically a room with a headed stone floor), but the walls appeared to be cork or something, and I think the lights would have revealed the cork to be peeling off.

There was mildew on the walls. There was mildew on the floors (seriously, there was a massive black patch on the steam room floor). There was mildew on the ceiling. There was mildew on the bottle of conditioner in the shower. I am not exaggerating. Some of the tiles had come off in the warm pool, creating a little pile of dirt on the bottom (the jets didn't really work, so I could see the bottom... I guess it was a good thing that the water wasn't cloudy.)

I had the place to myself for most of the time I was there, which made it kind of creepy. I've had spas to myself before and I wasn't creeped out, but this place did creep me out.

Pretty much the only thing this place had going for it was the fact that if you did find someone to fool around with, there is both plenty of privacy and the steam room and jade room are cool enough that you can last a while in there without passing out.

When I was getting dressed to leave, a female employee walked through the locker room. It doesn't really bother me (I've been in plenty of coed nudist situations) but it might freak some people out.

I did a google search on this place and I found some old posts on forums alluding to possible "happy ending" massages by the female masseuses. The posts were misogynistic and racist and just seemed creepy to me. Granted, the posts were years old, but still.

Seriously, don't bother with this spa.
 
I'm not even giving out their address.

Body types

I've seen a few comments in the open threads, and gotten some emails as well. People wondering how they'd be treated at a spa if they're overweight.

I'm not really sure exactly what they mean. I was at Century Spa on Sunday and there were guys of all shapes and sizes. Skinny guys, muscular guys, average guys, and various degrees of overweight guys. I didn't personally see any negativity toward overweight guys.

That said, I got the sense that they meant something like "will the guys have sex with me?"and the answer is "Who knows?" Different guys are attracted to different types. For me personally, body type isn't all that important. If a guy is overweight, I can still find them attractive.

But do thin/muscular/young guys get more action? Probably. Just like in the world outside of the spa.

But if you're going to a Korean spa with the expectation that it's a sexual free-for-all, or if you think the price of admission includes some kind of "right" to fool around with the people of your choosing simply because you're all naked, then you shouldn't go.

Anyone disagree?

Review: Beverly Hot Springs, Koreatown

Amenities: 3.5/5

Cruisiness: 2.5/5

Price: $30 weekdays, $40 weekends

Pros: Fed by a natural hot spring, nice facility, combo locks so no need for a key
Cons: Expensive, limited towels, tiny steam room, 9pm closing time

Finally, a new review!

I felt like going to a spa today so I decided to check out one that I'd heard about for years but never got around to checking out until now: Beverly Hot Springs.

It's unlike any other Korean spa I've been to. You enter and are greeted by this 2-story waterfall, surrounded by plants. I went to the front desk and got my entry: $30 for the spa, which is way more expensive than almost any other K-Town spa, and it's $40 on the weekends!

After paying, to get to the men's spa, you take the elevator to the second floor, and the attendant gives you two large towels.  (I actually don't know if they'd give me more towels; I never asked.) The towels are probably way larger than they really need to be, to be honest (practically bath sheet size), but the quality of the towels is nice.  You can pick whichever locker you want; instead of being issued keys, the locks are all combination; you set the combo to whatever 4-digit number you choose. Setting the lock was slightly confusing, but I figured it out. The lockers are huge; they're full height, rather than half-height top/bottom lockers one sees in most locker rooms.

The spa itself is really nice: stone walls, and a waterfall surrounded by green plants at the end of the hot pool. It was pretty clean. My biggest complaint about the spa area in general was that it was so dark! There was very little lighting in the main room, and it was actually difficult for my eyes to adjust after being in the bright lights of the locker room or steam room.

There are four standing showers, but they're kind of scattered: two next to each other, a third one across from them, and a fourth one on the other side of the wall. Additionally, there are three seated showers.

The centerpiece of the spa is the warm pool, which is spring-fed. The pool is huge. The posted occupancy limit of the pool  is 20 people, but I think it could at least accommodate twice that. The minerals in the spring water actually have a noticeable effect... my skin felt super soft after soaking in it. The temperature was pretty close to ideal for me. Another great thing about the warm pool was that the edge of the pool, along the back wall, had a slanted edge that was just perfect for leaning my head back.

Next to the warm pool was the cold plunge. It was also a pretty good temperature. It was just so damn dark in the corner where the pool was. Also, there was a stone sculpture sticking out of the corner that I didn't notice and I hit my head on it.

The steam room was also a pretty good temperature. If it were up to me, I maybe would have lowered the temperature by a couple of degrees, but it wasn't bad at all. The problem was that it was small. It seemed almost crowded when only three people were in there... it probably could have accommodated a fourth, but no more than that. Fortunately, it wasn't too busy on a Tuesday night so we never had to test it out.

The dry sauna was not nearly as hot as I'm used to in most spas. The thermometer in the sauna said it was around 135 degrees. That said, I wasn't complaining... I thought it actually felt great, and I was able to spend more time in there as a result. The sauna was larger than the steam room, with three tiers of benches with a slanted backrest on the top tier. It was great for relaxing, but it wouldn't surprise me if some people complained about it not being hot enough.

There's also a relaxation area. I hesitate to call it a sleeping room because (1) the beds are more like non-adjustable lounge chairs (with foam padding, so they're relatively comfortable), and (2) the noise from the waterfall is loud enough to not be able to relax very much. I would have liked a lie-flat option for resting. 

The spa was never really crowded when I was there... when I got there there were maybe 4 or 5 other men there, mostly older men (generally Caucasian) and I really wasn't getting a gay vibe from them. But there was a younger guy (maybe mid 30s?) who was definitely interested. As my time  went by, the older guys left and the crowd got noticeably younger (and pretty good looking). There were a couple of guys there who seemed like they were on the down-low, like they kind of wanted to play but were too afraid to try.

And that's the biggest issue with the spa if you're looking to play around... there really isn't anyplace to do it. Both the sauna and the steam room have glass doors, and the steam room is small enough that you can't get far enough back in the steam to conceal any "activities" you might be interested in doing.

That said, I actually really liked this spa. The magic waters actually did feel great on my skin, and I liked the decor... felt way more "natural" than most Koreatown spas. I just wish it were cheaper. I'd actually planned on visiting twice, once on a weekday and once on a weekend, before doing my review. But I can't see myself paying $40 for a spa entry. Although the body scrub, at $60, includes the spa entry, so that might make more sense on the weekend. (still pricier than most other spas though!)

If the price were lower, it would definitely be among my favorite spas. But yeah, at twice (or more!) the price of most other spas, I probably won't visit here too much. 

Beverly Hot Springs
308 N Oxford Ave (at Beverly, 1 block east of Western)
Los Angeles, CA 90004
http://www.beverlyhotsprings.com/