Sunny Foot Massage
For “the best footie in LA”, locals hit Sunny Foot Massage. It may look a little sketchy from the outside, but the Chinese foot reflexology here is the real deal. After a day of shopping and sight-seeing, take a seat in one of the reclining chairs, put your feet up and enjoy a no frills, no fuss, low cost and highly effective reflexology treatment executed by a talented staff member. I promise you won’t be thinking ‘where is my cucumber water?’ when the therapist digs in deep. You can also opt for a great full-body massage.
5169 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Pho Siam
When I first visited Pho Siam, it was a hole in the wall with a bunch of mats strewn over the floor. It has since moved to a new location in stylish, laid-back Los Feliz, where it thankfully still offers the type of traditional Thai massage where the therapists forego their slippers to dig into your back with their toes. If your idea of a spa is where you swan around in a robe and sip esoteric teas, Pho Siam is most definitely not for you. The massages here are rigorous (read: intense) deep tissue work; you will be bent, stretched and trod upon. They won’t go easy on you, and you will leave battle-worn, but blissful.
1670 Hillhurst Ave #101, Los Angeles, CA 90027; phosiam.com
Royal Thai Massage
This is another traditional, no-frills Thai massage place that also provides great deep tissue massages. It is considered the go-to spot in K-town for massages specifically tailored to ease chronic pain from conditions like TMD (temporomandibular joint disorder), frozen shoulder and sciatica. It’s the sort of place that, if it were next door, you’d be going weekly.
3600 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019
Wi Spa
If you have never been to a Korean spa, you must go to this mothership of classic Korean spas. It’s open 24 hours and, while it has a designated women’s floor and a men’s floor, the main draw is its jimjilbang, a mixed-gender common area that is the traditional centre of a Korean spa, where friends and family convene. An array of specialty rooms meant to be cycled through include the bulgama for intense heat therapy; the sault sauna for detox; the clay sauna, where you can sink into time-heated clay balls for deep relaxation; the jade room for hormone balancing and the ice sauna to reduce inflammation.
And if that’s not enough, or you have still more hours to kill, Wi Spa also has a great full-service restaurant; a fitness room, kid zone, computer area, library (with a comic book collection) and roof terrace.
2700 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90057; wispausa.com
Crystal Spa
Crystal Spa is the yin to Wi Spa’s bustling yang. A 10-15-minute drive from Wi Spa, tucked into a K-town plaza, this hidden gem is quiet and treatment focused. It’s the ideal place for those looking for the Korean experience minus the action; where you can cycle through the traditional rooms and steam, soak, sweat without fear of running into someone you know. Highlights are the charcoal room where negative ions are drawn from your body, and the Himalayan salt room which uses 100 per cent Himalayan mineral ore to relieve stress and fatigue. The spa exclusively uses Aveda products and robes (in all sizes), and lockers are provided.
3500 W 6th St #321, Los Angeles, CA 90020; crystalspala.com
Burke Williams
With 10 spa locations throughout California – including this one in Hollywood and another in Santa Monica – Burke Williams is one of the early pioneers of the day spa concept. Designed to feel like an urban sanctuary – think large communal lounges with fireplaces, seasonal teas, infused water and fruit, as well as quiet rooms for reading and napping between treatments. It’s a hell of a lot pricier than the others listed here, but when resort-style pampering is required ASAP, this is the place to go.
The spa has gender-separated steam rooms, saunas and cold deluge showers. And on offer, in addition to Swedish, Thai and shiatsu massages, are niche treatments such as cranial sacral, reiki, dry brushing, lymphatic drainage and a unique Tranquility treatment which mixes Nepalese sound bath with Swedish massage. Add-ons include detox and CBD.
925 N La Brea Ave, Hollywood, CA 90038; burkewilliams.com
Jane Moggio is currently a resident of Miami and is working on her first novel, Fed to the Alligators, a humorous account of a New Yorker surviving the wild Miami terrain and its inhabitants
