For millions of North Americans, the first experience of communal social nudity happens not at a naturist resort or a nude beach, but in a city spa. The Korean jjimjilbang, the Japanese sento and the Chinese bathhouse arrived with immigrant communities and quietly built a continent of places where being nude with strangers is simply how bathing works: unremarkable, hygienic and entirely non-sexual. This is the first of three parts of our definitive North American census: every venue we could verify as operating in 2026 with single-sex wet areas where nudity is required or permitted. Russian banyas and LGBT bathhouses, both rich traditions, are separate stories for another day.
How These Spas Work: The Etiquette Primer
The genre’s rules are consistent and worth learning once. The wet areas – soaking tubs, cold plunges, steam rooms, scrub stations – are strictly single-sex, and swimsuits are forbidden there: hygiene, not modesty, is the reason, since fabric carries contaminants into shared water. Shower thoroughly before entering any tub. The co-ed floors, where they exist, are clothed: you wear the provided uniform, carry a towel to sit on, and leave phones in the locker. The body scrub (ddemiri in Korean) is the signature ritual – a brisk, professional exfoliation that is one of the best-value treatments in world spa culture. Women-only Korean spas are a significant subgenre of their own, and appear throughout this census.
Los Angeles: The Capital
Koreatown is the largest concentration of Korean bathhouses in North America. Wi Spa (Wilshire Blvd) is the genre’s flagship: a 24-hour mega-spa whose nude single-sex wet floors sit beneath a co-ed jjimjilbang of salt, clay and jade rooms, a Bulgama kiln sauna and a full Korean restaurant; day passes run 30 to 40 dollars. Crystal Spa and Century Day & Night Spa (Olympic Blvd) are the established traditional alternatives at 30 to 40 dollars, and Grand Spa Plaza rounds out the core. Aroma Spa & Sports adds golf and a gym around its nude wet areas, and Spa LA (the former Natura Spa, rebranded under new management) keeps the traditional bathhouse format. Two singular entries complete the map: Beverly Hot Springs, the only natural thermal spring inside Los Angeles, pumped artesian and strictly gender-segregated; and the women-only pair Olympic Spa and Hugh Spa, the latter with its jade steam rooms and herb-steam treatments. Context for the region is in our California guide.
Orange County and San Diego
Orange County’s row runs through Irvine Spa (Barranca Parkway, 35 to 40 dollars), K Spa and Beach Spa in Buena Park (both around 35 dollars). One correction from our verification: Imperial Health Spa in Fullerton is permanently closed. San Diego’s Convoy District carries two more: Yu Spa and Aqua Day Spa, traditional bathhouses at 30 to 40 dollars.
San Francisco: The Sento Outpost
The Bay Area contributes the census’s most Japanese entry: Kabuki Springs & Spa in Japantown, a genuine sento-style bathhouse where nudity is the norm on single-sex days (women Wednesday, Friday and Sunday; men Monday, Thursday and Saturday) and Tuesday is a co-ed swimsuit day. Its neighbors: Pearl Spa (Korean, women-only), Imperial Day Spa, the gender-scheduled nude sessions at Onsen SF (co-ed hours are swimsuited), and Bay Spa in Santa Clara serving Silicon Valley.
Seattle, Las Vegas and the Gaps
Washington state is a Korean spa stronghold with a twist: the Olympus Spa pair (Lynnwood and Lakewood) are both strictly women-only, while Palace Spa in Federal Way serves both genders with the standard nude-wet, clothed-dry arrangement. Las Vegas has two: Imperial Spa (East Sahara) and Gangnam Spa (Decatur Blvd), 40 to 55 dollars. Two honest verdicts from the census: Sacramento has no qualifying venue (Asha Urban Baths is co-ed, swimsuit-required), and Portland has no Asian bathhouse at all – the notable Common Ground Wellness Cooperative there is clothing-optional but not Asian-run.
Honolulu: The Pacific’s Quiet Spa Town
Oahu, with its Korean and Japanese communities, supports three traditional bathhouses, and they are the cheapest venues in this entire census: Loess Spa in Iwilei (yellow-clay hwangto sauna tradition), Aloha Sauna & Spa and Honu Sauna Spa near Ala Moana, all between 25 and 35 dollars – genuine working bathhouses rather than destination spas. For the island’s broader naturist picture, see our Hawaii guide.
Part 2 covers New York, New Jersey, the East Coast and the South; Part 3 covers Canada, Mexico and the US territories.
Where to Stay
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