Airports and relaxation, two words that seem mutually exclusive, and many times, they are. But we're not talking about the C/D concourse at Dulles or Terminal 6 at LAX, we're talking about Seoul's Incheon airport, the comfiest hub in Northeast Asia.
After a long 10+ hour flight and an even longer journey from home, you feel tired, jetlagged, and probably a bit stinky too. Worry not fellow travellers, it's Spa on Air to the rescue.
Unfortunately for those of you on short transits, this is located outside of immigration, but if you have 3+ hours it's definitely worth it. After exiting customs, go down one level and you'll find Spa on Air on the north/east side of the concourse, worry not, it's open 24 hours, so you shall find respite no matter what time of day you come in.
The entry fee was about the equivalent of 10usd last time I was there, which is the standard entry fee for daytime, although there is a surcharge if you stay between midnight and 6am, as well as additional charges for private rest rooms or massage services.
The counter staff take care of your luggage and give you abag with fresh towels and clothes; afterwards you take off your shoes and are sent off to the locker rooms. Please be aware that the "wet" areas of the spas are segregated and once you're in the dressing rooms, you better be comfortable with nudity ;) . It's easy to get over it though, as there always seem to be someone with more excess flesh in worse spots than you.
Once you're in your birthday suit, take a quick shower and you're free to dip your bottom in the hot tubs, careful, they're hot ! But oh my, feel those bubbles, kissing the exhaustion away. There really is no better way to relax than a nice tub of hot water. There's even a couple of different temperatures to choose from depending on where you sit. So just find the right spot and relax.
After you're done dipping, you can head over to the dry sauna or the steam sauna as well to continue with the heat/water therapy. Personally, I love to go for an extended cycle of rinse/wash/repeat until I feel like a mass of pizza dough that's been kneaded thoroughly by an Italian granny.
Be sure to keep hydrated, but that's easy to do as there's always a watercooler in the dressing room. There's also toothbrushes and all sorts of assorted toiletries to help you make yourself presentable before putting your rags back on and heading to the common areas.
Once you've had enough nakedness, you can take your Spa provided clothes and head out to the common areas, there's a tv and snack area, as well as plenty of couches and mats where you can crash out for a few (or many minutes). I've personally spent a few hours here after arriving on red-eye flights so I could head into town at a more check-in friendly hour and it's amazing how time flies down here.
Once you're done you just go back to the dressing room and put on your street clothes, I guarantee you shall feel completely renovated. There's nothing quite like that fresh out of the spa feeling. And you'll also feel good that you had hours of relaxation for only a pittance.
Keeping true to my blog name, I have been too cheap to try the extra services but they seem reasonably priced. All in all this place is an excellent value for any traveler and a very important asset for Incheon, I'm only sorry that this sort of place isn't more commonplace in airports worldwide, one can dream no?
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