We’re taking you along to experience Spa Castle in Dallas, Texas! The 3-story, 140,000 sq ft. urban spa resort blends diverse Asian saunas with luxurious European spa experiences, indoor and outdoor hydrotherapy pools, tranquil resting areas, and spa treatments to provide a full-day, holistic retreat for relaxation and rejuvenation.

If you love spas as much as we do, check out the other reviews in our spa series!

Spa Castle Review – Episode Transcript

Today you have just Kim and I’m taking you on another luxurious spa experience.

0:57

This time we’re going to Spa Castle in Dallas, TX.

Spa Castle has one location here in Dallas, TX.

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They also have another one in New York City and this is truly an Oasis away from the world.

When you are in there, you are transported to another place entirely.

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It’s all about rest, relaxation, rejuvenation, and good spirits.

I absolutely loved it here.

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And yes, it’s called Spa Castle.

It’s a massive facility of relaxation.

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So let me tell you a little bit about what Spa Castle is.

It is a three story spa resort property, mostly indoors but it does have quite a few outdoor pools

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and a sauna outside as well.

It’s also a hotel you can stay here and I would love to spend a weekend here just in saunas and

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pools and relaxing.

They also have 3 restaurants on site.

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They have a Thai restaurant, a sushi restaurant, and then another coffee, smoothie, ice cream Cafe.

They offer massages, facials, reflexology, body scrubs.

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They even have a salon for hair and nails.

When I went, I did not do any of the treatments.

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I just paid the resort fee to go in and use the facilities and that was amazing.

That was a full day that I’m going to get into, but when I go back and I’m spoiler alert, I loved

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it, I’m going back.

There is so much more to do that I would take advantage of on my next experience here.

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Some quick tips for you For Spa Castle, plan to be there all day long.

It opens at 10.

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AMI was there 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

So I spent six hours there.

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I wish that I could have had at least two more hours, or if I was staying in Dallas, I would stay

until it closed because Oh my gosh, just the relaxation.

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There’s just so much to do.

You really can stay a long time.

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I would definitely recommend getting there at 10:00 AM when it opens because it’s less busy in the

morning, you can have more open space to yourself.

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It does get busier as the day goes on, especially the outside pools.

The other thing very important, bring your own full size towel.

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I did not see this anywhere on the website.

The reviews that I read through, I completely missed this and when I was there I realized they don’t

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give you towels.

They have hand sized towels that you can use.

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I imagine as you’re sweating in the sauna, that’s what they’re more intended for.

They don’t have full size towels for you to use when you get out of the pools in the shower.

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So bring your own.

I did not bring my own on this first experience and I managed just fine to use the poles in the

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shower with the tiny towels, but you could have a more enjoyable experience when you bring your own

squatty’s.

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Remember, this is one of many spa reviews that we’ve done before on the podcast.

We reviewed two different spas in Iceland, some other spas in Dallas, and we have many more coming.

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So go onto our website, travelsquadpodcast.com/episodes type in spa, and you can find all of our

tours and spa reviews right there.

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Let’s talk a little bit about what Spa Castle has to offer and then I’ll take you through what I did

when I was here.

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So I went on a Sunday in February and I got there at 11.

AMI was a little bit hungover.

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I will say that.

Now, the spa certainly cured that.

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But I would also recommend not a coming hungover so that you can really really enjoy your relaxation

rejuvenation.

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They do have a fitness center.

In my perfect world I would have used the fitness center but this was not the day for me.

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I actually didn’t even see it but in the reviews and the pictures and what not it looks like a very

large normal gym.

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Next time I come back I would love to try it.

Start the day with a workout.

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On the 2nd floor is where all the saunas are and it’s where all the nap rooms are and the chairs to

sit down.

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It’s also where the sushi and the Cafe is.

There’s a lot of saunas.

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I have never seen more different saunas in one place than I have here.

It is mind blowing and like I’m not a huge sauna person but I loved all of the saunas here.

5:04

So in every sauna of course they say don’t bring your phone it gets hot.

They also said no books or newspapers and I was like oh that’s interesting but no books and

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newspapers.

You can read on all the lounge chairs and beds that they have all over the property.

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But just know saunas are for relaxation.

So let me take you through some of the saunas that they have and I’ll tell tell you a little bit

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about how I like them.

I’m going to start with my favorite, the gold pyramid sauna.

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It is lined with 98% real gold plates.

This sauna exudes opulence.

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It’s shaped into a pyramid when you first walk into it.

And then they have a regular rectangle shaped room that has beds on it.

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There’s stone beds that come up in 1/2 circle, so they’re not flatbeds, they’re half circles and

they’re covered in a jute rub so that you’re not laying on a hot stone bed.

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So you go in, you see this gorgeous gold pyramid.

You walk a little bit back, lay on one of those stone beds with the mat on it and justice take in it

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is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

The gold pyramid room is also not super hot.

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Every sauna on the outside will tell you a little bit about what it is, what it benefits you for,

and the temperature.

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This one was not the hottest room and it was the most beautiful room, so I enjoy this one very much.

Another sauna they have is called the charcoal Tower.

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It’s shaped not as a pyramid.

It kind of comes up more in a rounded tip and it has black charcoal all over it.

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Activated charcoal helps extract toxins, kill bacteria and viruses, lower cholesterol levels.

This one has jute rugs on the ground.

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So you’re laying down on the ground in this sauna and it was pretty hot.

The lowest tower when you walk in, it has these beautiful hand painted Korean scenes, Asian scenes

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painted on the walls.

It has this aroma of yellow clay.

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It is supposed to enhance blood circulation and metabolism.

It’s it’s a beautiful sauna to just come in, enjoy, sit on those jute rugs on the ground around and

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just take it all in.

The Roman bath sauna is a sauna when you walk in.

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It has these benches all around and in the middle is where they have the sauna rocks where the heat

is coming from.

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So this is a great one for groups.

You want to sit upright instead of laying down and it’s pretty.

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It’s fun to be in here.

The color therapy sauna was one of the most interesting saunas I have ever seen.

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They also had the bench seating around the perimeter and they had almost like these walls creating

cubbies along the seats.

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And one cubby was red, 1 cubby was green, one cubby was blue, one cubby was white.

And of course, all of the different colors of the sauna, they impact your mood and healing in

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different ways, right?

We know that red is good for skin care, wrinkles, that kind of stuff.

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We know blue is great for acne.

There’s a lot more to it.

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You’ll have to read the description on the outside of it, but this sauna was really, really hot.

I couldn’t stay in here for long.

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I wanted to come back and really spend more time in all the different colors, but I was running out

of time.

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We’ll get to why in just a SEC, but this was a really fun room.

I would definitely plan to spend some time here.

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Maybe hit this one first before you get overwhelmed with all the heat.

If you do get overwhelmed by the heat, by the way, they do have one room called Iceland.

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You walk in and there’s ice all around this room.

So it is a cold exposure.

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Cold exposure, as we know, strengthens the immune system.

It firm skin provides a refreshing escape from all of the heated saunas.

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It does feel really, really good once you’re kind of overwhelmed with that heat.

I know when I’m in a sauna for too long, my heart starts to beat fast and hard.

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It’s great to go into this ice room and cool down.

Actually was not overwhelmed whatsoever like I usually am with a cold plunge.

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It’s not as drastic as that.

Once you’re sitting in there for 5 minutes or so, of course you’re going to get a little chilly and

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then you can step out.

But it’s a great one to mix in between the different saunas and you’re going to want to do that

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before you go into the Himalayan salt sauna room.

This one is of course made of blocks of Himalayan salt rich in minerals that help relieve allergies,

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soften skin, reduce signs of aging.

It also has those stone semicircle beds with the jute rugs on top so you can lay in here.

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This room is very, very hot.

I could not stand this room for very long even though it was beautiful and I wanted to spend more

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time here.

That’s why I’m saying go into the Iceland first, then come into the Himalayan salt room.

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One of my favorite saunas of all was the far infrared sauna.

It uses infrared light converted into heat.

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The room was really cool.

It kind of reminded me of the Roman bathroom, but they had these lights going off in here.

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It was a cool room to sit and enjoy.

Then they had a room called the Bull Gamma.

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This is a traditional Korean ultra heated sauna.

It uses super heated stones and oak wood for deep detoxification.

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It’s also a very beautiful sauna to spend some time in.

So check this one out.

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Maybe use the Iceland a little bit before you go into this one because it’s really hot.

And then lastly, I want to mention out in the open, they had about 5 or 6 beds that you can lay on.

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They were almost like pool chairs that you lay on and you push a button and then above you red light

comes on and it’s pouring over your whole body.

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I would say the red light is probably, I don’t know, 4 feet or so from you, which I’ve heard some

experts say for red light you need to be within 6 to 12 inches.

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So take that as you will.

But I laid there.

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Every time you push the button, you probably get about 10 minutes of the red light coming down on

you.

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It’s not hot, it’s not cold.

There’s no temperature with it.

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So that’s actually very refreshing and you’re out in the open so you don’t have to be so quiet.

This is really nice.

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After I laid here, I actually felt like my skin looked better, felt better.

I felt like I was in a better mood.

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Maybe it was placebo, I don’t know, but I was starting to feel really, really good here.

So after I went through quite a few of these saunas, I was hungry.

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I was waiting for the restaurants to open.

I got there at 11, the restaurants opened at 12, and as soon as they did, I went up to the Thai

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restaurant and I ordered a Bento box.

It had chicken, rice, broccoli pot sticker, spring roll, a little salad.

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That was amazing.

It was actually really, really good.

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They had a bunch of other stuff on the menu that looked really good.

Prices weren’t bad at all.

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Oh and also how you pay for everything.

You get a wristband when you walk in, that’s what you scan to pay for anything that you buy there

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and then when you check out, you pay when you leave.

They also have water fountains throughout the facility with very cold water, so bring a water bottle

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that you can refill.

It’s very refreshing and you need to be drinking water when you’re going to these saunas.

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It will dehydrate you.

You need to be drinking water, so bring that.

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They do have little disposable cups, but they’re small.

So I’d really recommend bringing a water bottle and just leaving it right outside the sauna when you

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go in.

After I ate lunch, like I said, I was a little bit hungover when I arrived here.

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So after I ate lunch, I really wanted to lay down on one of the chairs or one of the beds and just

take a little nap.

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It’s meant for that.

You are encouraged to nap here.

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It’s actually really cute to be walking around the property and seeing people napping all over, like

grown adults just napping.

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It’s really cute actually.

I haven’t seen a lot of that at other spas.

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Most other spas people are relaxing and whatnot, but mass napping takes place here.

So up on the 3rd floor they have a room called the Andal sleeping area.

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Andal translates to warm stone in Korean.

So it’s traditionally it’s a room covered in heated floors.

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Actually didn’t feel like the floors were that heated here, but maybe it’s just not so heated

compared to the hot saunas.

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But on the floor they have these thin ish but still very comfortable mats and the pillow is like a

long cylinder pillow that’s just perfect for ergonomics under your neck.

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So I laid down there.

When I went in, the room of probably 12 mats was completely empty.

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Nobody was in there.

I laid down.

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I pretty much immediately fell asleep because I was so relaxed from the saunas.

I just ate.

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I needed a little bit of recovery.

I took a good like hour and a half, two hour nap.

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I wasn’t planning to nap for that long, but it just happened and I when I woke up, I was like a

little confused, like where am I?

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I turned around.

The entire room was filled with people napping.

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It was so cute.

There were like couples cuddling on their little beds.

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There was just solo people napping.

I wish I would have taken a picture of it because it was the cutest thing.

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There’s a lot of other mat beds like that in the second floor, strewn about the main property.

And then there’s also these really comfortable chairs that lean back and they look amazing.

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I sat on them for like one second.

I wish I could have just laid right there in those beds and read a book.

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Saw a lot of people doing that.

Would have loved to do that.

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But I was getting a little bit short on time because my nap ended up going a little longer than I

thought.

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And there’s still all the pools to discover.

So there’s two sections for pools.

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One are the Coed hydrotherapy pools, and then the other section is the gender specific locker room

pools.

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I’m going to go into the Coed hydrotherapy pools first.

So I got a smoothie from the Cafe after my nap to kind of wake me up, and I went to go to the locker

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room to change into my swimsuit in the Coed therapy pools.

Of course you need a swimsuit.

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As I was changing, I realized I didn’t bring my bikini bottoms and I was like, Oh my God, I had my

bikini top and then it was a four piece set.

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So it came with like this mesh skirt, mesh shirt, but I was missing the bottoms.

So what I did was put on a thong that it could pass for a swimsuit to the unsuspecting eye.

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And then I put the mesh skirt tied around my bottom so that it kind of blended it.

I mean, it worked it, it definitely passed, but I was like a little bit self-conscious when I went

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out there.

So went out into the Coed pools and these pools are meant for relaxation.

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They’re not just pools for swimming.

They’re fully equipped with jets and blades that are meant to massage different parts of your body,

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your back, your legs, your bottoms of your feet.

They have jets everywhere.

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So there’s these buttons that you’ll turn on and then they start blasting you.

I will say not all the buttons work to turn on The Jets, but I was still able to use a jet in every

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section of the pool wasn’t so crowded that I didn’t get to experience.

It just was like, oh, this one doesn’t work.

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When The Jets come on, they have handlebars for a reason because they are intense.

They will push you away completely.

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They will pull your UN quote bikini bottoms off, so you have to keep readjusting there.

But it feels really, really good.

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Like I spent a lot of time in the saunas and of course I enjoyed it, but I was like, wow, I really

wish I would have spent more time here in the pools just getting a massage.

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If if you don’t actually pay for a massage from a person, you’ll be just fine with the massage from

the water jets.

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So when you first walk in, they have pools inside like they’re open air, but it’s still inside.

There’s an Aqua bar are in there that serves American food cocktails.

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I did not get a cocktail.

I wasn’t in the mood for one and I had a long drive coming up.

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But all the cocktails that I saw, they look tropical.

They look delicious.

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I would definitely come back next time and I would get one so you can have your drink out here.

You’re going through all the pools.

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They have different pools.

Like one of the pools was set up with beds along it.

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So you kind of like lay back into this little pool bed, turn The Jets on.

That’s amazing.

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They have a little bit cooler temperature pools where they have little tables so you can have your

drink on there, not your food.

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And then they have warmer hot tubs when you walk outside.

They have even more pools.

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They have the grand pool that has like 3 to 4 feet of water, super powerful Aqua jets.

They have this area you can walk through that has jets for your legs.

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They have a Mystic pool you kind of like walk into.

It’s more enclosed, meant to look like a cave.

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You go in there, they have massive jets in there.

There’s also a sauna right by that pool.

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And then there’s two other pools up the stairs right there that are meant to kind of look like Hot

Springs.

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They’re smaller.

They have the Hinoki bath, which is a Japanese style bath that traditionally is constructed from

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ancient pine woods.

It has this pine aroma and it’s supposed to be this very relaxing experience.

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It was built into looking like pine trees.

And of course the spa itself, which was very hot, was not just made of pine, it was made of stone as

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well.

But it was completely covered by pine.

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So that was a really cool pool experience there.

I stayed as long as I could here.

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There were different pools that would massage your feet and back and I got as much massage as I

could here.

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But I knew the day was getting late.

I needed to drive back to Austin, so and I still wanted to see the gender specific locker room

18:21

pools.

So I kind of finished my time here after me.

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I probably spent an hour and a half out there, went back into the locker room, took my half swimsuit

off.

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Because in the gender specific areas, you can go naked and it’s clothing optional.

Of course, you don’t have to go naked, but everyone was naked.

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So I was like, all right.

When in Rome, when in Spa Castle, and if you were to be doing a Korean scrub here, this is also

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where it takes place.

I didn’t see anyone getting a scrub at this time, but you can see the scrub areas here.

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In this area they have dry and wet saunas.

I went into the wet sauna.

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I was done with dry saunas.

I didn’t go in that one.

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I hadn’t had enough saunas.

Up on the 2nd floor they have a bunch of different heated mineral pools.

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They have like 4 in the center that all have different minerals and different temperatures for

improved circulation relaxation.

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They had a cold pool of course for that cold plunge to shock the system, strengthen the immune

system, help with circulation in here.

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They also had a ton of different jets strategically placed around, like they had a massive one that

was just so good for shoulders, neck, back.

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That one was so intense.

And of course, then they have the lounge area here too, so you can sit on the beds and the chairs

19:38

and just relax.

I actually really liked it in here.

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I spent probably, I don’t know, 40 minutes or so enjoying these pools before I decided to get out

and kind of wrap up for the day.

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They also have a ton of showers in here.

This is where you will shower.

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They have shampoo, conditioner and body body wash.

I used all of it.

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I did bring my own stuff, but I hadn’t brought it with me into this room and I didn’t want to go

back and get it.

20:00

So I will say the products were pretty good.

You know, they they’re not like luxury 10 star products, but they did the job and I was not.

20:09

Dissatisfied with them, so that’s good.

So you can shower here and then this is where you’re going to want to bring your own towels so that

20:15

you have it to use when you get out and then go back to your locker to change.

They also have hair dryers.

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They had toothpaste, disposable toothbrushes and a few other little things around.

Oh, they had big tubs of lotion.

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So you lotion up your body after you’ve been in the pools in the sauna all day.

Yes, I highly recommend that.

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All in all, like I said, I spent six hours there.

I could have spent all day there.

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I think they’re open till like 9 PM, so you could spend full 11 hours here and I really think you

could because you can have your lunch, you can have drinks, and if you’re staying in Dallas, you

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don’t have to drive far home.

Do it.

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I will 1000 million percent be back.

I cannot wait to be back in Dallas to have a reason to come.

20:56

I loved it.

Sure, it’s not a five star luxury facility, but that doesn’t matter.

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It’s massive.

It’s amazing, relaxing, beautiful, truly a resort and because it has a hotel, you can also stay here

21:11

and I 1000% would Squatty’s thank you so much for tuning into just the tip.

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