Avila Hot Springs
Avila Hot Springs
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4.0
60 reviews
Excellent
22
Very good
16
Average
14
Poor
4
Terrible
4
Leah
1 contribution
May 2023 • Couples
They've cleaned this place up and it looks fantastic!! New chairs and tables, and I could be wrong but it appears they resurfaced the pool bottoms too. They've painted, added planters here and there, and are clearly caring for this property once again. I'm so glad to see it - 60 years old and have been coming here since I was a baby. The hot spring is the perfect place to destress after a hard day's work, and the big, cold pool is the perfect temperature to gently cool off after a nice hot soak. The staff is friendly and engaging, but prices have gone up. $15 even after 5:00 p.m.
Written 12 May 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
bitbytravelbug
Henderson, NV139 contributions
Apr 2021
It's old, it's not fancy, and for $8 pp it was great. We swam in the big pool, and soaked in the mineral springs pool, while enjoying good conversation with the locals on a Wednesday morning. Use caution in the mineral springs pool. It is heated to 104 degrees and has a distinct sulfur smell. Make sure you have a water bottle nearby and listen to your body. We arrived around 10:30 and left at noon. An hour and a half was just about right. The changing rooms are open. Bring your own towel.
Written 2 May 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Susanne Evancho
Scranton, PA3 contributions
Sept 2019 • Friends
Great friendly staff. I had a wonderful massage. Very relaxing. I hope to get the opportunity to come back.
Written 16 September 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
AptosAmy
Aptos, CA605 contributions
Jul 2019 • Friends
Avila Hot Springs at 250 Avila Beach Drive, Avila Beach, CA 93424, is right off Hwy 101 and you hear traffic noixe. Crowded and Old Fashioned Nice - Not Fancy. Camping sites without privacy or shrubs.
Written 26 July 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
JanN216
Los Osos, CA987 contributions
Aug 2018 • Family
This is a great place for the family to go and we have had great fun birthday parties over the years here with the kids and recently the grandkids loved it. There are locker rooms with showers to change, along with lockers, which I suggest you use (I once had all my cosmetics stolen while swimming - no they weren't locked up). The pool is warm and the hot tub - HOT. The mineral water very healing (and stinky). There is food to purchase if you are hungry.
Written 19 July 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
monethetripper
Sydney, Australia162 contributions
Sept 2018 • Friends
If you like hot springs then why not pop in here for a good soak? Seemed to be a lot of locals there. My friend left/lost $200 in the bathroom (his own fault) but otherwise enjoyed it.
Written 8 May 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
fantasticalice
5 contributions
Jan 2019 • Solo
Shocking no one reads about a place before they go? Take a tour before leaping and writing a bad review? With that in mind, I have been coming here 40 years. I have seen it go through many changes. A lot of repairs. If you need a Harbin then you will have to drive a few hours up the road cause baby, this is NOT it. This is a rustic, no frills place to swim and soak, not much more. The showers are outdoors (there are 2 indoor showers for the handicapped) they have a large change/dressing room so you don't have to change outdoors, in front of everybody. If you are a true swimmer and not a winer, this IS the place to swim laps, it's huge, fairly clean (lot's of bugs, can't be helped, they skim all day long) and it has a slide for the kiddos. The mineral count is displayed on their hot tub wall and I love it. If we could keep the Trump talk out of there it would be even better.
Written 27 April 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Alex G
Avila Beach, CA17 contributions
Nov 2018 • Couples
I've been visiting this place since I was a kid and it's always been a great place to go either with family or on your own. They have a large swimming pool with a diving board and a small naturally heated soaking pool. Expect boardwalk style food. Not fancy but fun.
Written 15 April 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Yuki
Kochi, Japan682 contributions
Feb 2019 • Friends
This is one of my favorite places in California. You can enjoy hot bath and pool with your friends. I could relax and felt better.
Written 15 March 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Mithra
Saratoga, CA322 contributions
Jan 2019 • Couples
THis is a two parter - the property, and the massage.
WHen you book a massage at a spa and hot springs what comes to mind? Ok now take the opposite and this is what you have here. Yes it has mineral springs so it is technically a spa.
However the place is so run down as to be laughable to still be in business. THe front desk people are affable, but unprofessional to the max. "No we don't have towels" . "But this is a spa right?" "Well it's more like a public swimming pool" - "Oh. Well why call it a spa?" "Ask the owner." It turns out the owner owns 3 or 4 other places that he actually maintains and hasn't put a lick into this place in years - according to the local scuttlebutt.
WHen you go to a spa for a massage you expect robes, slippers maybe something warm to drink -none of that happens here THis is basically a local swimming hole that had a building spring up around it - or so it feels. Most of the people coming here are locals. it is not a destination for anything.
THe lobby is shabby, the floors are dirty, the locker rooms such as they are don't provide locks or anything for the visitor - such as chairs in the lobby even.
The building housing this whole shebang is dark and dank and looks like it would be right at home in some Steven King movie. Right off the lobby is some kind of twisted idea of a kids game room with gumball machines that saw better days in 1955. The vending machines all over the place look like rejects from the vending machine hall of shame. On one side of a long corridor is the remains of what used to be some kind of food stand - tastefully decorated in spider webs and old cardboard.
THe massage rooms are inadequate to the task being too dark too cold and too small. There was barely enough room for me to walk down one side of the massage table.
THis is basically 3 or 4 long corridors joined at the front desk Very poor lighting, very small rooms of nondescript use - you walk one of the corridors until whoops there is a massage table- must be the massage room.
The therapist i had deserves a much better place to work and should probably find such a place before she ruins her reputation here .
The front desk is for the spa and only incidentally deals with massage but they act like they know everything about it. They don't. In fact once you are there they don't even deal with prices or charges- that is up to the therapists and their boss.
THey booked my massage after giving me all kinds of assurances, then they lost the booking, then they changed the booking because someone else got my slot when they lost it. That should have been a big enough hint to just keep moving along.
WHen i asked if certain kinds of massage were done here i was assured that the person I was getting did that kind of massage. Not really. Nobody in their right mind does myofascial release after oiling you up - it doesn't work that way. For all that I would rate the therapist at 4* as long as she sticks with swedish and gets more training in other modalities that the spa claims it offers. While she handles bodywork well - intuitively, more training would benefit her. But she should really move on.
It actually looks like two separate businesses are being run out of this one building , but they try to make you think it is one happy spa experience.
If you don't mind wallowing around in a an outdoor mineral swimming pool in the middle of winter with no heating other than the water that has seen its best days 40 years ago then this is the place for you. On top of that you have to walk a fairly decent distance in the cold, sopping wet- ie no way to move from the pool inside quickly or through a heated corridor. I guess it makes you tough.
If you are looking for a SPA experience- keep looking this aint it.
Oh and make sure you have good car insurance because they dont grade or pave their long driveway which is full of potholes and will eat a miata or fiat for lunch. IT was all i could do in a RV to keep from bouncing off the roadway.
Finally the prices charged for the massage under the illusion that this is a SPA are egregious. A fairer pric would b about half, but it would still not make up for the poor environment..
In case you didn't get the gist from my story - find some place else - Sycamore hot springs is just down the road. That at least looks like a SPA. And no i don't work for them or any other spa.
WHen you book a massage at a spa and hot springs what comes to mind? Ok now take the opposite and this is what you have here. Yes it has mineral springs so it is technically a spa.
However the place is so run down as to be laughable to still be in business. THe front desk people are affable, but unprofessional to the max. "No we don't have towels" . "But this is a spa right?" "Well it's more like a public swimming pool" - "Oh. Well why call it a spa?" "Ask the owner." It turns out the owner owns 3 or 4 other places that he actually maintains and hasn't put a lick into this place in years - according to the local scuttlebutt.
WHen you go to a spa for a massage you expect robes, slippers maybe something warm to drink -none of that happens here THis is basically a local swimming hole that had a building spring up around it - or so it feels. Most of the people coming here are locals. it is not a destination for anything.
THe lobby is shabby, the floors are dirty, the locker rooms such as they are don't provide locks or anything for the visitor - such as chairs in the lobby even.
The building housing this whole shebang is dark and dank and looks like it would be right at home in some Steven King movie. Right off the lobby is some kind of twisted idea of a kids game room with gumball machines that saw better days in 1955. The vending machines all over the place look like rejects from the vending machine hall of shame. On one side of a long corridor is the remains of what used to be some kind of food stand - tastefully decorated in spider webs and old cardboard.
THe massage rooms are inadequate to the task being too dark too cold and too small. There was barely enough room for me to walk down one side of the massage table.
THis is basically 3 or 4 long corridors joined at the front desk Very poor lighting, very small rooms of nondescript use - you walk one of the corridors until whoops there is a massage table- must be the massage room.
The therapist i had deserves a much better place to work and should probably find such a place before she ruins her reputation here .
The front desk is for the spa and only incidentally deals with massage but they act like they know everything about it. They don't. In fact once you are there they don't even deal with prices or charges- that is up to the therapists and their boss.
THey booked my massage after giving me all kinds of assurances, then they lost the booking, then they changed the booking because someone else got my slot when they lost it. That should have been a big enough hint to just keep moving along.
WHen i asked if certain kinds of massage were done here i was assured that the person I was getting did that kind of massage. Not really. Nobody in their right mind does myofascial release after oiling you up - it doesn't work that way. For all that I would rate the therapist at 4* as long as she sticks with swedish and gets more training in other modalities that the spa claims it offers. While she handles bodywork well - intuitively, more training would benefit her. But she should really move on.
It actually looks like two separate businesses are being run out of this one building , but they try to make you think it is one happy spa experience.
If you don't mind wallowing around in a an outdoor mineral swimming pool in the middle of winter with no heating other than the water that has seen its best days 40 years ago then this is the place for you. On top of that you have to walk a fairly decent distance in the cold, sopping wet- ie no way to move from the pool inside quickly or through a heated corridor. I guess it makes you tough.
If you are looking for a SPA experience- keep looking this aint it.
Oh and make sure you have good car insurance because they dont grade or pave their long driveway which is full of potholes and will eat a miata or fiat for lunch. IT was all i could do in a RV to keep from bouncing off the roadway.
Finally the prices charged for the massage under the illusion that this is a SPA are egregious. A fairer pric would b about half, but it would still not make up for the poor environment..
In case you didn't get the gist from my story - find some place else - Sycamore hot springs is just down the road. That at least looks like a SPA. And no i don't work for them or any other spa.
Written 27 January 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
How much does it cost
tvvvv2016
Los Angeles, CA115 contributions
I agree with the above traveller. It's $6.00 for seniors from 8:00 AM until noon, and $10.00all day.
Otherwise, I'm pretty sure the daily rate is $12.00 for adults and $8.00 for kids.
Is your pool and slides open to the public?
Mindy S
Los Angeles, California, United States17 contributions
Yes, they are... for a fee. I think it was $10 per person to get in to the pools and hot springs.
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Claim your listingAVILA HOT SPRINGS: All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)
Frequently Asked Questions about Avila Hot Springs
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