The Spa at French Lick

French Lick and West Baden were once competing hotels out in the middle of nowhere, Indiana, built there for the Pluto Waters, mineral waters. There is now a casino out there, and once a long time ago, I guess gambling was popular as well.
I love to visit as many mineral springs as I can every trip I make. I was a little hesitant about the spa aspect of these mineral springs as most mineral springs I have visited were more informal, cheaper public bath houses. I definitely prefer that style but since this was all Indiana had to offer, I decided to go for an aromatherapy mineral bath.
Both hotels offer Pluto Water baths, but I picked French Lick’s spa because they a little bigger Pluto Bath Section. However, looking back, I liked the West Baden Hotel better for overall looks; not sure about the spa though.
The employees were all very helpful and nice. I’ve never really done spa treatments, but I guess it seemed okay. I still prefer the cheaper method. Besides, I like to have my husband with me, and like the public aspect of meeting people. But here you are by yourself in a semi-​dark room in a ladies only section.
What brings this to two stars, though, and that when I got done and started dressing, I looked to see I was turning bright red in the spots which had been in the water the most. I was also itchy and irritated. I hadn’t planned to wash off the mineral waters but let them seep in. But I was worried enough about breaking out in hives, that I went ahead and took a shower. After that, it was obvious I was having an allergic reaction.
Now mind you, I have taken many aromatherapy mineral baths at home. I have been to mineral water baths all over the country, and I don’t remember this kind of reaction after only 25 minutes. When I was checking out, I reported it, and they called someone from some office. There was one lady walking by who flippantly tried to tell me it was due to the increased circulation. Yeah right. It almost sounded rehearsed how quickly that came out. The clerk told me how one person that worked there was very allergic to sulphur. They couldn’t tell me for sure what was in the supposed aromatherapy that was put in the bath, just surmise the sort of things they put in there.
They finally said they were most worried about breathing problems. They said they could call EMT’s if that happened, but otherwise, they were kind to give me a lot of packets of hydrocortisone and a 10% discount (seemed a little flimsy after all the trouble).
I asked my husband if he had seen this happen to me before, and he said no, he hadn’t. So he patiently covered my body in hydrocortisone cream. Luckily, it did improve as the day went on instead of worsen.

Terrible customer service. I came here with 3 other girlfriends for a girls getaway spa weekend to celebrate the soon to be bride in our group. One of us in the group had called ahead (months in advance) and booked the «ace in the hole package» (facial, massage and Pluto bath) for all of us for 10 am on Saturday.
We arrived and checked in at 9:30 and were escorted to the dressing room to change into robes and then instructed to wait in the tranquility lounge. Ten minutes later, an unfriendly manager (Crystal), came out scolding our bride, stating that she was supposed to have her bath at 9:30 and that now she would have to skip it or have it after all of our services. When we pointed out that we scheduled all of our services (months in advance) to start at the same time. Crystal was then waving her pen rudely at our bride. We noted that she was behaving rudely and requested compensation to make up for their mistake. We requested to talk to the director but were denied.
We eventually received an additional 10% off of our packages but they never took accountability or genuinely apologized for the experience. When you’re paying $ 800‑1000 per person for the weekend, you expect a certain level of service and we were severely let down. Also, for the price of the services, I would expect water be served in glassware, not styrofoam or plastic cups.

Spa day was biggest disappointment of the weekend. 3 of us scheduled massages. 1 stone and two Swedish massages. All three felt treatments felt rushed and inadequate. More of a rub than a massage. Definitely not worth the cost.
Then charged for aromatherapy rather than Swedish. Not a huge price difference but was the icing on the very disappointing cake!!!

Went here for the gift shop. They have a much larger selection than the West Baden. Can’t speak to any of the services.

The spa itself was nice enough and my sessions (a massage and pedicure) were fine, but overpriced. My issue is with their gift card policy. I was given gift cards to use at the spa. My husband and I went in for massages in the morning and paid with gift cards (except for the tip of course). I had $ 60 remaining and after a very long time of the front desk calling to their superiors was asked if I wanted to book something else later to use up my gift cards. I booked a pedicure. When I came back that afternoon for the pedicure, I was told I couldn’t use the remainder of my gift card, despite the fact that was the reason I booked a pedicure. I was very annoyed. I got the pedicure anyway because I felt bad canceling on the woman doing it when it wasn’t her fault. My friend was getting a massage at the time and told me that she would just pay for my pedicure with the remainder of her gift card when she checked out. Well, they wouldn’t let her do that either. That didn’t make any sense to me — someone can’t pay for someone else’s treatment?! I ended up having to pay for the pedicure ($ 80 plus tip), meanwhile, between my friend and I, we had over $ 100 in unused gift cards. I was very frustrated to say the least. I will not return and advise french lick to get their gift card policies under control.

My brother and father got the aromatherapy bath at the spa. Seeing that it was the least expensive thing on the menu. I wasn’t aloud to because I wasn’t 18. But I’m 16 going on seventeen but still wasn’t aloud to. They seemed to have enjoyed themselves. I just wish it wasn’t so expensive. Even The pedicures were $ 65.

I went in for a brow wax and walked out with SCARY thin eyebrows that are totally ugly. Oh, and she ripped the skin above *both* of my eyes. I had to file an incident report and be seen by the EMT. I hope it doesn’t scar. This was the worst spa experience of my life.
DO. NOT. GO. EVER.

for my grandparent’s 50^th wedding anniversary, we got them gift cards to go to the spa here. however, before they could use them, my grandmother passed away and the gift cards (which had ‘expires after one year’ printed on them and were worth about $ 500) were put up on a shelf and left unused for over a year. when my mom’s friend was coming to town, we contemplated a spa day and decided to see if we could use these gift cards.
my mom called and spoke with multiple people, including one in accounting who said that despite the ‘expires after one year’ disclaimer, these cards could be used. this was confirmed multiple times and appointments for pedicures were made.
the resort is beautiful, the spa facilities comfortable and nice. tea and flavored water were offered and there was a coffee shop on the way to the spa (but i don’t advise that you go there, as the coffee sucks). the pedicure itself was fine, but at $ 80 a pop, i was expecting a magical experience. i was disappointed. it was enjoyable, but rather similar to a $ 20 pedicure, with the only exceptions being the comfy chair you can control yourself and the lack of loud, unrecognizable conversation between pedicurists.
this would have been an enjoyable day, until we tried to leave. we gave over our gift cards and were told that we couldn’t use these gift cards and, as no one was available on a saturday from the finance department. after a long, drawn out conversation, we were told that we could pay for the day with a credit card and then call back on monday to sort out the situation and, hopefully, get our charges refunded.
the staff was apologetic, but more or less very unhelpful. for a place that was charging us this much money for PEDICURES, they would have been slightly more accommodating, as it was their bookkeeping department which had told us we could use the cards.
eventually we got the charges taken care of using the gift cards, but it really put a damper on what was supposed to be a really wonderful girls day. never again will we be going to the spa at french lick.

Expensive spa but still nice. The massage wasn’t worth the $ 100+ price and I was completely turned off by the LMT wearing gloves. It felt like someone rubbing saran wrap on me. This might have been a quirk of the therapist I used this time. Last time there weren’t any gloves. I probably won’t go back as the price/​benefit ratio wasn’t there for me. The entire facility wasn’t cheap, but it is a classy place.