Picture taken from King Spa Yelp Review
Ratings: 3 out of 5
Location: Palisades Park, New Jersey
'King Spa', aka 'King Sauna' is a public bath spa for both genders. By comparison to 'Spa Castle', I would give it a 2 out of 5 but I guess this spa has food, saunas, steam rooms and board games, so I decided to give it an unbiased 3 out of 5. Please read on if this caters to you.
Pros: They have valet parking but I believe they also have a shuttle bus. Check out http://www.kingspa.com/ for more info. I went on the weekend, so the admission fee is $45. If you buy a packet of 10 tickets, you get 50% off. Women's changing and bath section is on the same floor. and Men's changing and bath section is on the third floor. There are at least one entry way to every area of the building. Once you enter your changing areas, you take off your shoes and place it on the open shelf. There are no closings or locks, it is an open shelf. Then you go to the locker area and find your designated number, you change into their guest uniform and lock it with your wrislet. The bath area only has 3 stand up shower stalls and around 20 sit down units. The sit down units are for those who want to scrub their body thoroughly with a special exfoliant cloth. It has 4 bath pools. You MUST shower before you go into the bath pools. One I find is too hot to sit in and one is too cold to sit in. The last one is a little over lukewarm. It has a teabag in there, so it does feel pretty relaxing. The last one by the wall is a mini pool that is very cold, it has a showerhead that pours water straight down in high speed. They have one steam room and it is bearable without a wet towel on the face. The seats and walls are not too hot to touch. It gets pretty hot and steamy for 3minutes then cools down for a minute then back to hot and steamy. (The best way I can describe it, sorry!) They also have a small stepping stone area in there. They only give you one body towel and one face towel to use. They also have shampoo, conditioner, soap, body lotion, hair dryer, brushes, and hair spray. There about around 5 sauna rooms. They have a crystallized steam room, an ice one, an egyptian/gold one, and herbal one, one with intense heat and an infrared red room. They fit from 5-13 people at most. There are a lot of lounge areas with comfy leather lean chairs. A section for men and they have football on. A section for women where they play Korean dramas and variety shows. They have a unisex sleeping area as well as designated gender sleeping areas. They have a bar on the second floor. They also have a fitness area, but that is limited to members only. They have a Their restaurant area only serves Korean food and it's in the basement floor. They go around $10 dollars a meal. One meal is more than enough for one person. You use your bracelet to pay.
It is equipped with wireless service and has a mini internet cafe section. There are mini tables with Chess, Cards, and Go (A game invented in China 2,000 years ago.) Workers are cleaning the wooden floor constantly. The workers there are friendly as well.
Cons: This is recommended if you want to come alone or with a same gendered friend. I went with my boyfriend and it doesn't have the mood for couples. There are plenty of seperate gendered sections where I'm just hanging out by myself. Football is on, so the guys are glued to it. You see plenty of computers, so it doesn't have an ambiance of relaxation. Their decor I think is pretty outdated. I think this spa was built around 10 years ago, it even appeared on New York Times. The furniture and uniform looks pretty old and worn. The sauna rooms all have the same feel and it's too small. You don't really know the temperature of each sauna room as opposed to 'Spa Castle', the temperature is on the marquee on the door.There's a lot of people over the age of 45 going there. Also, I prefer stand up showers where I don't have to squat and sit down on those little chairs, but there's only 3 of them. The towel little cubby board and shoe shelf is not locked. The bracelet has a physical key attached to it, so it's pretty bothersome. (That's to open your clothing locker with.) They only give you one thin towel! Unlike 'Spa Castle' you can use as many as you want. They only have soap for body wash! And no, you don't get your own individually packaged body soap. It's ONE bar soap in each stall, so it's shared with everyone before you. The hair dryers are so old and weak. And they have hair brushes with so much of other's people's hair in them. YUCK! They have hair picks too but there's no UV sanitizing station. They don't give you complimentary toothbrushes. They do however have free toothpaste at the bathroom. But it's like 7 tubes of them, left OPEN without the cap. YUCK! There's too many entryways that it's pretty confusing, but I think if I were to go there a couple of more times, I'd get used to them, but what I'm saying is, the structure of the spa doesn't flow smoothly. They only serve Korean food, which is a headache because not everyone likes it or is in the mood for it! There are no windows throughout the whole building! I might be wrong, there may be one...hidden somewhere.
Verdict: Go to Spa Castle.
