Relax Body and Mind in an Asian-Style Spa and Sauna

Have you ever heard of King Spa and Sauna? If you have, that's good. If you've been to one, that's great! This overview is for the uninformed. A personal review follows in a separate blog post.

King Spa and Sauna is a Korean style bath, spa and sauna with two locations in the US:

-- Niles, IL, a northern Chicago suburb
-- Dallas, TX


A number of Korean saunas are also located in the Los Angeles area.

This post will focus on the Niles location. It's in a typical suburban strip mall. H Mart, a big Korean super market, is right next to it.

When you walk in the front door, you will come to the front reception desk. You pay a $25 entrance fee here, and receive a locker key attached to a plastic bracelet. From here, men go the left and women go the right, each to their respective locker room.

Once you enter the hallway leading to the locker room for your gender, you'll take off your shoes and place them into a small shoe locker labeled with a number that matches the number on your bracelet.

Enter the locker room. If you would like to have a special service such as a body scrub or a massage, look for the computer reservation station. A clerk is usually standing there waiting to assist. You tell the clerk which service you want. They will fit you into the schedule, telling you a start time. It is usually within an hour, or even half an hour. The photo a the left doesn't show it but there is rack with folded cotton "uniforms" - a set of shirt and short pants. You wear them in the co-ed area.

At this point, you're in the locker room, and it's time to make a choice. Wet private baths and sauna (with others of your gender only) or dry public sauna - the facilities where men and women share in the amenities. If you are ready to experience public baths the Asian way, these are your next steps:

1) Take all clothes off and put them in the locker labeled with the same number on your bracelet. The key on your bracelet will lock up your belongings. Once naked, proceed through the double glass doors into the bath area. It has two big hot bath tubs, one water tub, one steam sauna, shower areas and the areas for sitting and washing.

In this area there are bays where an attendant receives you (by appointment) and will give the full body scrub service. It is basically full body exfoliation. Words can hardly describe it! Afterward, your skin never felt so clean and smooth! It may seem odd but nothing can substitute for this amazing experience. That service and all the rest are optional. You don't have to get any of those services. If you wish, you can take a long shower, soak in the baths, and enjoy the wet steam sauna.

Once you're done with that part of the facility, come back into the locker room.

2) Put on your "uniform" of shirt and short pants, and follow the signs that will lead you to the dry sauna area. In the center of the room is a big lounge area, many tables and chairs in the middle. A number of sauna rooms with a variety of themes are lined up on the both sides. At the far end, there is a food counter and place to pour yourself a cup of cold water. At this always open station you can drink all the cold water you wish. You can order food and soft drinks, sit in the area and eat/drink.

The lounge area is pictured at the left.

Food Court (menu)

What are the dry sauna rooms about? You can't miss them! They are small to medium-sized compartmentalized rooms, each decorated in a different theme, some quite elaborately.

One of the characteristics of each dry sauna room is the heated floor. Most people lie down, face side up. The floors heat apply a direct heat to the whole body, easing body aches from tension. Towels are okay to lie on for more indirect heat from the floor.

Inside each dry sauna room, you are expected to be silent. Talking and conversation is not allowed. Do that in the large lounge area. The dry sauna rooms are usually decorated with crystals and/or other stones or natural materials. Enter and exit the rooms whenever you like, as many times as you like within a 24 hour period. (Yes, this facility is open 24/7)

Here is a list of the dry sauna rooms:

Fire Sudatorium: Very high temperature, they give you a blanket to cover your body.

Pyramid Room: Shaped like pyramid

Salt Room: salt

Ice Room: ice

Bul Ga Ma: a big tatami matted room

Charcoal Room: charcoal

Amethyst Room: amethyst

Base Rock Room: ($5 surcharge) It's pretty popular in Japan too, called ganban-yoku (rock plated bathing). You pay the surcharge at the door, borrow a sheet and take 15-20 minutes laying on the rock plate. The rock plate is pretty hot, you put the sheet and the wood pillow to lay on. It has a clock inside to see the time. Lots of Japanese places have a sand clock by each section. The $5 covers a whole visit, you can come back to this room as many times as you like.

Upstairs relaxing sections:
1) Reclining seats and big TV screens usually showing US TV shows or sports.
2) Quiet room for each gender: men and women each get a tatami matted room, low heated, a big TV screen usually shows Korean TV shows.

Also on the main floor:
A full screen movie theater usually playing a popular Western movie. The seating: full size recliners!

There are also rooms just off the main lounge area for pressure point massage and foot massage services.

Here's an idea I just want to put out there. To the managers of old water parks and back-in-the-day resort hotels in the U.S.: Why don't you look into upgrading your facilities to the style of the Asian Spa and Sauna?