Calistoga Spa Hot Springs

I will start off by saying that I have been coming here for about 10 years even before all the renovations. This past weekend was the first time I had ever booked an overnight stay and the two of us absolutely LOVED it. The room was splendid, absolutely perfect with comfortable and clean bedding and a heater to compensate for the colder night. The pools have always been a pleasure as have the spa services and overall customer service. We also love the surrounding area and being able to walk to a nice dinner close by makes this location even that much better!

We did a girls getaway package which included mud baths and massages for 2. What a wonderful experience! The massages were the best we have ever had! Seriously! The building is dated and needs to be remodeled, very 90’s. But it was kind of fun in a retro way.

Arrived for our honeymoon and they had some scheduling mix up and we didn’t get massages like we had originally booked. Was super unapologetic and didn’t offer anything to compensate. The front desk was rude … Don’t bother when there are so many other great places in the area.
And if that isn’t enough… the pool is crowded and sketchy looking. Not the serene and relaxing vacation we were looking for.

This place tends to get a very polarized reception. I hear people say that they’ve had amazing experiences and others say they’ve had horrible experiences. This review comes from a combined 10+ visits to Calistoga over the last 1 – 2 years. I hope it’ll help give a non biased opinion over a longer span.
Pros:
–3 different pools (Jacuzzi, warm pool, regular cold pool).
–Hotel guests get early access to the pools.
–The hotel rooms are actually very nice inside.
–Massage services have always been very good.
Cons:
–Many, many kids come here with their families. You need to keep this in mind right away so you aren’t surprised later.
–Pools get crowded on warm days and there’s little room to swim. Again, this is as expected if it’s going to be hot.
–Spa services may be overpriced for what they offer.
Overall, you have to take the good with the bad. I see many people hate on this place when in fact you really should get that many other people are coming here for a getaway too. I’ve never had any absolutely horrible experience and it’s always a relaxing time.

Spent Valentine’s weekend here with my husband and some friends. We are from the Sacramento Area. The rooms and the pools were nice but the Spa facility and service was the worst I’ve ever experienced. The day we arrived we were informed that one of our booked massages had to be canceled because someone called in sick. They didn’t even call us in advance to inform us. The front desk lady was rude, didn’t greet us or smile at all… terrible customer service. So because of the cancellation I only had the mud bath which was horrible. The spa facility is outdated, upon arriving they hand you a linen to cover yourself after you undress vs. a robe. It smelled horrible, the tubs and showers were disgusting. During your bath and soak they hand you a cool wash cloth which is old and smelly. The staff would talk and giggle. They were eating and drinking in front of us. Very rude and unprofessional… not relaxing at all. After my service I had to ask a staff member for a towel because there were none to be found in the locker room and shower area. I will never go back. I DO NOT recommend their spa services to anyone.

I am updating my review. As I mentioned, the massage person gave me a fist sized bruise on my calf at the back of my knee. It still has not completely healed. This is several months later. I have to wonder if she tore my calf. It still bothers me. And it bothers me even more that I tipped her.

The hotel was very nice, our room had recently been upgraded and it was perfect with a little kitchenette. The hot spring pools are great. The only thing I wasn’t aware of was how family friendly this place is. Not a big issue though we booked for a relaxing weekend and there were a lot of kids in the pools all weekend. Something to consider — great if you are a family, maybe not so great if you are a couple looking for a quiet, relaxing weekend. I would have probably booked elsewhere if I had known, assumed a spa and hot springs would lend itself to adults only.

This review is for the day use pools ONLY.
I found this place by looking for hotels with hot tubs and thanks to all the Unilocal comments I decided not to stay overnight or book any spa services and just pay the day price of $ 25.
Now let me re-​iterate, that is $ 25 for 11 HOURS of hot tub use. That is insane!!! We got here super early around 9:15 since many reviews said if you didn’t get here by 10 you wouldn’t get in etc. I don’t think thats true for winter as we were the only people in line!
You are allowed to come and go as you please once you are given a guest bracelet for the day. We went across the street to the coffee roaster twice, the iced tea was good the coffee is WATER don’t do it. But even better and what the website doesn’t really tell you is that you can bring whatever you want. Next time we come we’ll be sure to bring a cooler full of foods including grillables– because guess what? They have a few grills in the pool area!
The amount of people was super low during the day on Tuesday and only really picked up with a majority of males after 7pm when we were on our way out. Perhaps people staying here for work or hotel guests after a day of hiking etc. Also a great thing to know is once the sun goes down they turn on a beautiful gas fireplace between two of the pools and it’s a great way to dry off without the sun.
I 100% recommend coming here the only negatives are that the space is a bit outdated, and the staff wasn’t very friendly but those are minor offenses in a place providing such luxury at a great price.

I’m writing this at 5am with tears in my eyes and it just so happens to be my birthday. I came up here with my fiancé to have a romantic getaway and celebrate my birthday.
Let me start off by saying the front desk staff was horrible. My fiancé let them know we were here for my birthday and they answered back with a simple «cool.» Wow way to make a girl feel special!
We than found our room and don’t get me wrong it looks nice but the beds are as hard as rock which is why I’m up so early writing this review. I’ve never been in pain while trying to sleep.
Let’s talk about the pools. They’re hot and pretty relaxing until you realize it’s 8:30pm and there’s still a bunch of kids screaming and jumping in. This isn’t the public pool. No staff came out to tell them to stop jumping in or to get out of the adults only pool. It seems like the guests are pretty much running this hotel.
The spa was the absolute worst experience I have ever had in my ENTIRE life!!! First of all it’s completely outdated which I didn’t mind. But the massage itself was AWFUL. I got the 90 min Swedish massage and for someone who gets massages regularly, I know what it’s supposed to feel like. My massage therapist Jill or Julie or whatever was not only rude and acted like she hated her job, but she applied NO PRESSURE for the entire 90 minutes!!! It was literally someone lightly rubbing lotion on my body. I almost stopped her to tell her to forget the whole thing.
She also decided to leave the bright light on the whole time I was getting «rubbed down»
I complained to front desk staff they looked at me with a deer in the headlights look.
In closing my fiancé and I have decided to get out of this nightmare and stay at the Bergson for our last night and hopefully I can sleep easy there. Do yourself a favor and don’t stay here.

The spa services are ok, but I feel like there has to be better elsewhere.
My sister and I came for a mud bath and hour massage. Definitely don’t be late for your appointment. We were running late at a winery so I called to let them know. They said it was fine, but when we did arrive they had to scramble to find us time. We ended up having to wait 40 minutes and they switched our order to have our massage before our mud bath. I know, we shouldn’t have been late, but if they had told us over the phone that us running behind would have created such a hassle, I would have rushed everyone out the door and we possibly could have made it. Lesson learned.
They accidentally called us for our massage thirty minutes early. We were sitting in their women’s waiting area, naked except for a towel, when they came over to apologize for the mistake. Luckily, I had my sister to chat with, but it was pretty cold to be sitting in just a towel!
My sister and I had different experiences with our massage. I loved mine. I thought she did an excellent job. My sister asked her masseuse to apply a little more pressure and the woman answered that she didn’t schedule a deep tissue massage. This was pretty rude so my sister ended up stewing in silence for the rest of her massage.
When we did the mud bath I learned why you do a mud bath before a massage. It definitely gets you feeling loose and relaxed. My favorite part was the mud bath. It went down hill from there. The mineral bath was way too hot for me and I spent the majority of the time with the cold water tap turned on wishing it was over. Then going from that into a sauna is pure torture. That was even with me taking a two minute break. I didn’t last the full time in the sauna. Since we were running late, we skipped the lay on the table and nap part. Honestly, I feel like we could use the later parts of the mud bath as torture techniques. I’m not a fan.
Like others have said, this place has an outdated feel. I spent a lot of time looking down the dark hall while I was waiting for my massage and I felt like I could be in a horror story. Also, the walls are pretty thin so I could hear people talking in another room during my massage. That kind of ruined the relaxing aspect of it.
So, like I said at the beginning, this place is fine, but for the money I feel like there has to be better.

Nice place. Great pools. BUT, the beds are Motel-​6 quality, rock hard, and painfully uncomfortable. Really disappointing. Don’t expect comfy sleep. We were tossing and turning the whole time.

Sadly I have to give this place One Star. My parents are regulars for the outdoor pool usage, but this review is for the Spa Services and Staff. The facilities (meaning the hotel, and the out door pool) are actually excellent and I would highly recommend it.
The Spa… is probably one of the most outdated facilities in Calistoga at this point. Not only that, but it just doesn’t look super clean. The locker rooms have very tacky 70’s sickly pink colors and print, and it doesn’t ever seem clean. There are constantly cups and towels everywhere and the toilets are a mess. The main spa room where mud baths and mineral baths are done is straight up ugly and reminds me of a hospital. It is floor to ceiling cement, and i’m not sure if that’s a requirement for the type of plumbing or whatever but it gives off a hospital almost Saw (yes like the horror movie!) type feeling. I’ve had mud and mineral treatments here. I don’t feel relaxed and I mostly just stare up and down the ceilings and wonder how dirty it is.
Moving on from the actual appearance, the staff is VERY hit or miss. And during the last visit is what proved to me that I never wanted to get another treatment here again. There’s usually an attendant who guides you from your waiting area, to your treatment bath, to your steam room, to your quiet room, and then to your massage or wherever. This place seems to love employing 16 year girls, and that’s as annoying as it sounds. I was trying to relax in my bath but could just hear their conversation echoing in the concrete room. As she was guiding me from treatment to treatment, she did so in a very unprofessional way that made it obvious that she didn’t care. When I asked «where am i suppose to go for my massage» she responded to me as if I wasn’t even talking to her, telling her co-​worker to TELL ME even though I was STANDING right there. Her coworker laughed and I looked at both of them like how are you even working in a place where women are naked and vulnerable in front of you and then there’s these immature insensitive staff attendants who have no clue. Then they proceeded to talk about me in Spanish. Yeah, I live in California and I know all the cuss words in Spanish. I’m not a freaking idiot. I was rude right back to them because I couldn’t believe I had spent $ 150 on a massage and I was wasting my time getting THAT kind of service.
Never will I book another spa treatment here. Like I said, the outdoor pool is the only thing that’s worth it probably because you have minimal contact with the staff.

There are a couple great things about this place and some not so great things. My friend and I came just for the spa and did not stay the night. We each had the mud bath and one-​hour massage. The mud bath included a 10-​minute mud bath, a mineral water soak, steam room, and blanket wrap. This also included access to the outdoor mineral pools.
Pros:
–The outdoor pools are great. They’re clean, nice and warm, and very relaxing. I could’ve spent all day in those pools!
–The lady running the mud bath area was very nice and offered to take photos for us.
Cons:
–Terrible massage. The rooms were freezing, I didn’t even want to be uncovered for the massage. The rooms are lit with natural light, which is great for the environment but means that the lights can’t be dimmed for the massage part. It was blindingly bright in the room and not relaxing at all. The massage was mediocre, more of a body rub than a massage. The masseuse was not friendly and did not ask if I had any injuries, preferences, etc.
–Be warned that if you do not book for the private mud bath area you will be in a gender specific but very open bath area. I was definitely naked in front of more people than I intended on.
–No robes. No slippers. Just old towels as wraps.
–Outside of the one lady in the mud bath area the staff were not very inviting.
I would go again to use the outdoor pools during the day but would not book spa services here again.

A really good place to relax! Even if you bring your family. Yes, the spa is a little outdated but it does the job, which is to relax you.
–The staff is super nice and helpful.
–No, the place was not dirty & I have gone there 4 times now.
–The massage was amazing and relaxing.
–Mud baths are only 10 minutes because the hot temperature can damage your skin or make you get dizzy. (For the ones complaining that they’re too short)
–They keep you hydrated at all times with mineral water.
–The pools are really nice and clean. (No lifeguard)
–They provide you with towels if you ask.
So if you’re used to going to super expensive places where everything is automatic and new, then I don’t recommend this place, but if you’re trying to relax at a good price I definitely recommend it.

This place is very comfortable, relaxing, beautiful, and clean. They have recently renovated their rooms and it shows. They’re simple but very nice and comfortable.
The pools and tubs are great as always. They have the perfect setup with a pretty warm swimming pool, a 100 degree smaller pool (though it felt warmer than that to me), and a 104 degree smaller round pool. Plus, I love their fire pit that you can sit by in one of their comfortable chairs. The price is more than reasonable for all that you receive.

I stayed here for a couple days recently and had mixed opinions. Parts of this place are pretty run down, but they did try and update the room situation which helps. The shampoo and conditioner they offer is the bright blue cheap looking kind which is one of my biggest hotel pet peeves. Other than that the room is nice and the maid service is adequate. The pool is really where its at! It was absolutely beautiful when I was there, and not many people at all! The pools had different temperatures all of which were really nice. I would pay to come back here just for the pool use! One downside is that there is no bar in the hotel, it was easy enough though I just walked to the liquor store and was allowed to bring wine into the pool area. The main reason this place gets 4 stars was because of the location– you can pretty much walk anywhere and its close to both the Silverado trail and the main winery highway.
Calistoga has some high cost hotel rooms– this to me was way overpriced for what I got– but looking at other hotels that were much higher it seems like that is a trend for this area.

Great place to go when you want to get away with a girlfriend or have quality time with your significant other. It’s such a calm and peaceful atmosphere and reasonably priced. I loved how the spa was right there and we were able to do our treatments and massages then relax in the mineral pools and literally chill out all day. The main strip of Calistoga is a block away with lots of great restaurants and bars to choose from. This is my new getaway place! Love it here!

My gal pal and I went to Calistoga Spa Hot Springs for a massage/​steam bath/​hot springs soak. Seeing how I normally don’t do these types of things, I was totally out of my element.
Still, I was able to relax! The steam bath helped me unwind, and the masseuse took care of my achy neck quite well — not bad for my first massage (seriously). It does feel kind of sterile around the area (think gym locker room or hospital clinic), but they’re doing god’s work here.

I got a massage and mud bath/​jacuzzi combo here, and both were ok. The facilities for these services are not luxurious and you will be naked in front of the staff and other people doing the mudbath. As long as you are expecting that, you should be fine. The massage was more of a sports massage, which I like, but it was kind of funny looking down at my masseuse’s feet while in a fully lit (fluoresecent) room. The price for all the services seemed average.
The pools and the outside area are nice. I wouldn’t go there in the summer, but hanging out under the pergolas was pleasant in the spring. The space is large, but as others have noted, there aren’t many tables so I wouldn’t bring food that needs any kind of preparation off your lap.

I will make sure that the
Board of Barbering & Cosmetology,
The California Department of Public Health,
The Department of Health Care Services are aware of this discussing place.
Had mud bath treatment on Saturday July 5 2014
How would you react when you are in the jacuzzi (after mud bath) and THE PIECE OF SKIN WITH BLACK HAIR (from previous customer) start floating to your face !!! After you offered to follow to the amazingly run down smelly steam bath.
This place looks like some bad sad unsanitary hospital from 3d word country. On the way to the spa in the women’s locker room you will be greeted by dirty rusty drinking fountain (!!!) and carpet covered in stains. In the showers the curtains covered with old mold and dirt (notice, not mud BUT dirt). The bathrooms are smelly and covered with feces and orange stains ! FELT LIKE HELL !!!
The «RELAXING ROOM» after the Mud treatment is SOOOO MESSY ! USED towels from previous customers just kicked under your the bed and you offered to relax in the smelly white old towels with holes in it !

Bonne expérience pour un premier bain de boue. La personne qui m’a accompagnée était très sympathique et patiente. Et on se sent super bien après.
Par contre les vestiaires né sont pas digne d’un Spa, pas de robe de bain ni de sandale et pour ceux qui veulent se doucher, les produits sont pas top.