Russian & Turkish Baths

Traveller reviews for Russian & Turkish Baths (1)

• 
  To write a review sign in, register or  

  Recommend

   

  Add your experience

  Your experience “ ”

  Say more…

  Write your review

  Your review

  Tags

  Good for…

  Not good for…

  Photo Upload

  Add a photo

  Note: when you submit posts to our site (including images), you’re giving us permission to reuse your material elsewhere and also to pass it to others for use. Full website terms here.

  Post your review
• 

  A unique New York experience on a winter Sunday morning!

  bendigo 1 1 -1 recommends this, October 17, 2010

  • 
  • 
  • 

  of

  Previous image Next image Enlarge Close

  Getting Hot in the City

  With a large influx of generally poor immigrants living in the lower east side of Manhattan in the nineteenth century, there were sanitary as well as social reasons for continuing the bath-house traditions of the old countries.

  One such place has endured since its founding in 1892. The Russian & Turkish Baths in the East Village continue to offer the full range of heat and steam options.

  I visited on a winter Sunday morning during one of the two male-only sessions for the week (there are also female-only sessions, with co-ed for the remainder of the week, when shorts / bathing suits must be worn).

  Be warned however – this is not one of your new-age, glamorous spa facilities designed for genteel souls, and offering luxurious, attentive service. Rather, it speaks of authenticity, with the facilities well-worn, but clean and functional, and the service rudimentary (although the offers of additional services were persistent).

  The centre piece of this old facility is the Russian Radiant Bath – a large granite lined room with a huge brick oven in one corner that gives off an unbelievable amount of heat. The granite seats are topped by wooden planks, but it is advisable to give them a thorough dousing with cold water before you take your seat. For an extra fee you can “enjoy” the traditional Platza treatment, during which an attendant soaps you and beats your body with an oak-leaf platza soaked in olive-oil soap. This is obviously valued by the number of regular customers who received the treatment while I was there, but I found that the room was so hot that I was unable to stay for more than a few minutes at a time, even with a regular sousing with a bucket of cold water drawn from a central tub, and tipped over my head and body.

  A range of massage and body-scrub services are also available at various prices - this is when the up-sellers become a bit annoying.

  However I found plenty of bathing options to fill my time and have me feel thoroughly cleansed by the time I left. There is the traditional, dry Redwood Sauna that those of us in the West are most familiar with. The facility also contains a eucalyptus-scented wet sauna, to which I attribute the curing of my persistent head-cold that I had dragged around the USA for two weeks!

  I also enjoyed the hot, Turkish sauna – again with a cold-water shower inside to help the less stoic of us persist, and the seemingly cool steam-room that was a pleasant place to relax.

  My morning was spent journeying between the experiences of these rooms, with the occasional dip in an icy plunge pool that had the core of my body aching with cold in less than a minute.

  By donning a pair of shorts ( a concession to the neighbouring residents who over-look the roof!), I was also able to enjoy the sunshine on the rooftop terrace – even though it was only 7 C, the sun felt surprisingly warm – either I was getting used to the Northern winter, or my internal thermostat was totally blown!

  The Russian & Turkish Baths are at 268 East 10th Street, Manhattan, New York.

  www.russianturkishbaths.com

  Good for: relaxing, experience collectors

  Not good for: shy, body-phobic types

  report