SoJo Spa

Last week I went to a spa for the first time and it was magical. Really, like stepping into a dream. Specifically, I went to SoJo Spa, and I am definitely going to be making a trip (or 10) back. Here are a few reasons why:

First of all, it was almost free. Ok, it wasn’t free, but I had paid for it last year as a Christmas present for my bf and we never used it. So pretty much I had forgotten how much I had paid for it and it was free. In reality, it’s $75 on the weekend on $55 during the week, which is actually a bargain since you can stay there for like 14 hours.

Second of all, the transportation was free. This is actually true. They have a free shuttle that picks you up from midtown Manhattan! This is a huge perk because the spa itself is in New Jersey (I know, ew), and it’s not easy to get to NJ without a car. Plus, tolls! I was happy to book us seats in the shuttle 2 weeks in advance online, and not have to worry about getting there and back. The only drawback was picking the time in advance. I didn’t know if I’d want to spend the whole day there. In hindsight, duh, I should have taken the last shuttle back, but at the time I wasn’t sure. We picked the 11 am shuttle there, and the 6 pm back; it left exactly on time and the ride only took 20 minutes.

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Third of all, they have Asian-inspired food in their dining hall, which is some of my fav cuisine. It’s Asian-fusion, with sushi, bulgogi, salmon rice bowls, udon, etc. When we had lunch, it came with a surprise bowl of miso soup. Yum.

I realize I haven’t actually talked about the spa yet. Let’s get to the good stuff.

When we were dropped off at the spa from the shuttle, there was a huge line to get in. This was a little annoying because it was cold. But the line actually had HUGE heaters, so eventually the top of my head was burning hot. Not ideal. But it moved pretty quickly, and we were inside within 15 minutes. Then we paid/scanned our gift certificate, had our bags checked (I had to chug the remnants of my iced coffee), and proceeded to the “shoe lockers.” The whole facility is a shoe-less facility, so you put your shoes there for the day, and the “key” to the locker is a wristband you wear all day. You can pay for food with it, massages, and also open your main locker with it upstairs.

We went up to the 4^th floor where the locker rooms are and got changed. They give you a towel and a robe to wear all day over your swimsuit. A majority of the facility is coed, so swimwear it required. I am pretty used to stripping in front of other women in gym locker rooms, so this was normal for me to change into a swimsuit. For the shy people, there were changing rooms but there was a line for them.

I locked up all of my valuables, took my book, and explored the locker room a bit. There were about 100 showers with nice toiletries (which I never used), and also women-only hot tubs and saunas. There was an interior exit and an external exit to many many hot tubs, each with different purposes. I had told Chris I would meet him at the foot massage path, a shallow pool with flat and rounded stones on the bottom. This is meant to “provide walkers a natural foot reflexology massage while improving balance and heightening body awareness.” What it really did was KILL my feet. There was a sign that said, “advanced to the left, beginners to the right.” Unfortunately, I started on the wrong end, so left was right and right was left, and I had no idea what I was doing besides that fact that I was crying in pain and holding on to the railing for dear life. Oh, also, I couldn’t find my bf and my phone was in my locker. I slowllllyyy got to the other end of the foot path, went back to my locker, and told him to meet me at a more central location.

Once I was with my emoji-bf who is much smarter than me, he helped me realize that we were walking on the wrong side of the foot path, and things got much easier from there. We took off our robes in one of the many heated tents, and quickly shuffled into the first hot tub, or “silk bath,” which “utilizes state-of-the-art Japanese white ionization technology that infuses hot spring micro-bubbles directly to the water to nourish body tissue and improve skin elasticity.” Do I believe any of that? Maybe. But it was a nice hot tub either way. We then made our way to the hydrotherapy pool, which was one of my favorite spots of the day. It’s a pool with various little cubbies you can stand and sit in, which have jets aimed at different parts of your body. Shoulders, calves, hamstrings, lower back. It was glorious. After trying out a few different cubbies, we headed to the Dining hall for some Asian fusion.

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After lunch, feeling refreshed but a little tired, we decided to do some exploring, then check out some of the saunas. We stopped by the gym ($5 extra fee, but like, who wants to work out??), we saw the infinity pool which was packed with people taking selfies, we saw the yoga studio, and checked out their “coworking space,” which was really just a corner with a long desk and 6 office chairs. After walking a few hundred steps, it was time to relax again and find the saunas. It was packed! Granted, it was a three-day weekend, but it was a little annoying to go into the first sauna and find it packed like sardines. Luckily, there were many options. We eventually found room to lay out on the ground in the charcoal sauna, and spent about 15-20 minutes baking in there.

After that, we headed to the relaxation lounge, and I finally got a chance to dive into my book. I even took a little nap. After my nap, I was reinvigorated and ready to sweat some more, so I did some sauna hopping. I went to the red clay sauna, the Himalayan Salt sauna, and the white clay sauna, I mixed in some times in the ice room to cool down, and even spent 15 minutes reading on the hot stone beds.

I met up with my bf, who was still relaxing back in the relaxation lounge, and we watched the sun go down over Manhattan and realized we only had an hour left before changing to go back to NYC. We made a plan to hit up some of the things we hadn’t seen yet, and started with the Ganbanyoku Room. This is “bedrock bathing,” which is basically Japanese hot stone therapy. According to SoJo’s website, you lay down on a “heated black mineral slab which emits far-infrared rays and negative ions to speed up the release of toxins from the body through perspiration. Pressure points around the body that are in contact with the stones are stimulated to alleviate joint, muscular and nerve pain. Other benefits include healthier skin tone, blood circulation and improved immune system.” Again, not sure I believe any of that. But what I can say for sure is it was HOT. I mean like 110 degrees. You must put towels down under every part of your skin that is showing including your toes. I lasted approximately 8 minutes in that room. We then headed back to the pools for a final dip. First to the carbon-rich bath, and then to the Hinoki, or white cedar bath.

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Unfortunately, our time was up (if we didn’t want to miss our free shuttle back to NYC), so we went back to the locker room, changed, checked out by scanning our wristbands and paying for any extras, and headed back downstairs to our shoe lockers.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience. It was crowded, but on the Sunday of a 3-day weekend, it was no more crowded than I expected. I still was able to experience everything I wanted – 4 saunas, 5 hot tubs, I finished half of a book, spent time with my bf, AND I got to take a nap in the middle of the day. I can’t imagine going in the summer, because my favorite part of the hot tubs and saunas was the cold outside air in between. However, there are cold pools and waterfalls, and chaise lounges for tanning in the summer. Those were all closed in January. I may need to check it out in June and write a compare/contrast blog by season. Anyone want to go with me?