Balian Springs — Local services in Franconia

A Truly Disappointing Experience from Start to Finish

Where do I even begin? My visit to this day spa was nothing short of a letdown, and while I had high hopes based on the pricing and supposed luxury, what I actually encountered was far from relaxing or professional.

My friend and I arrived early on a weekday morning, right when they opened. The front desk staff greeted us with minimal enthusiasm—not rude, but certainly not warm or welcoming. We made our way to the locker room to change into robes and slides, only to find there was no attendant available to assist us. After waiting several minutes, another guest kindly went to locate someone on our behalf. Not exactly the seamless start you'd expect from a high-end spa.

While we did get a few moments to relax in one of the saunas before our scheduled treatments, the experience quickly unraveled from there. I had both a facial and a massage booked. The facial was fine—nothing memorable, but acceptable. The massage, however, was hands down the worst I’ve ever received.

Let me preface this by saying I get massages regularly and have had a wide range of experiences from different practitioners all over the world. I understand that every therapist has a unique style and touch, and I respect that. What I don't accept is paying for a massage and receiving nothing more than someone lightly rubbing lotion on my limbs while entirely ignoring my back—especially after I specifically upgraded to include hot stones to help with back pain. Rather than utilizing them for relief, the therapist merely pressed warm stones against my skin with no technique or intention. It was incredibly disappointing and, frankly, upsetting.

When I voiced my concerns to the front desk, I was told that all massages are Swedish style. That may be true, but "Swedish" still involves actual massage techniques, not aimless lotion application. I was then informed that my therapist, Curtis, simply has a “lighter touch.” That kind of information should absolutely be disclosed during booking, especially when customers are paying premium prices and expecting therapeutic service.

Eventually, I was referred to a manager, Keith, who said he would "find me and make it right." His solution? A free day pass to return in April. Given the overall experience, I can assure you that driving over an hour to return—even for free—isn’t worth it.

Lunch didn’t redeem the visit either. The menu was limited, the food was mediocre (we had sushi, which was just okay), and the staff again seemed disinterested and unfriendly. No smiles, no warmth—just people clearly not enjoying their jobs. Drinks at the spa were also laughably overpriced—$25 each. For that price, you’d expect something impressive, but what we got was average at best.

On the rooftop, the pool area had potential—it was a beautiful day. But our attempt to enjoy the hot tub was interrupted by an overly intimate couple whose behavior made us and others visibly uncomfortable. A spa should foster relaxation and respect for everyone’s comfort. There was clearly no staff monitoring the space.

We then tried to explore the various rooms inside, but each one fell short of expectations. The aromatherapy room had no discernible scent unless you physically picked up the tiny diffuser on the floor. The immersion lounge featured a screen saver-like display, no sound, and an awkward silence where everyone could hear each other’s conversations. The media room was more of the same: multiple TVs, no way to listen, and no captions for context. It all felt unfinished and poorly thought out.

To top it all off, if you forget something in your car—like sunglasses or earbuds—you’re out of luck. Once you leave the building, you're not allowed back in. That policy alone speaks volumes about their lack of customer consideration.

In short, this place is all style and no substance. Overpriced services, indifferent staff, poor amenities, and a complete lack of professionalism. Save your time, your money, and your energy—this is not the relaxing spa experience you're...

I don't know why people are giving this place bad reviews. I think people's expectations are too high. Briefly, the place is huge and immaculately clean, all facilities are spotless including all bathrooms and locker rooms. You pay one admission fee, a little less during the week, more on the weekend. And you get SO MUCH. Floor 1 has a beautiful and huge thermal pool with various features, 4 plunge pools (2 cold 2 hot), 4 or 5 different kinds of huge saunas, a huge steam room, a huge cold room. Then on the 3rd floor, a gorgeous outdoor thermal pool with two little lazy river features that were fun. The rooftop overlooks a canopy of trees, another hot plunge pool, 2 other hot tubs.

Note some of the jets can be very strong. So if you have pain spots, turn them on first before sitting, (by pressing the obvious button) and ease into them. In particular on the roof there are these 4 jets that spew water from above your head, and they are like fire hoses! LOL. They are hard to stay under because the force of them will push you away. Just beware. They are still fun though.

Our food was good, and not too expensive...$30 for the two of us to have a decent lunch. Chipotle prices! We got a turkey club wrap with french fries and a shrimp noodle bowl. Both were very good. The non alcoholic smoothies, a bit overpriced at $22. Note: service charge included in the bill for the smoothie. But really delicious. The way I see it, you are already paying between 130-160 dollars to enter the place. So obviously this is not a budget outing. So just go with it. My husband and I shared a smoothie. You can bring your own empty water bottle and there are places to refill it at no charge, since it is very important to stay hydrated. Also they provide small plastic cups next to pitchers of water w lemon and lime slices and you can help yourself. We didn't get anything at the rooftop bar, so I cannot speak to that. Also we did not get any extra services, like massages or whatever. NOTE: You cannot just book a massage without paying the entrance fee. If you book a massage, you will pay for the massage and also the entrance fee. So plan on spending the day there. If you only want a massage, go to your neighborhood strip mall. We just wanted to go and have fun in all the pools and saunas. We were there for 6 hours and never got bored. We could have stayed until closing, we enjoyed it that much. Alas, we had somewhere to be in the evening.

All of the staff were helpful and friendly. We went on the Tuesday after Labor Day, deliberately, so while there were other people there, it was not very busy, which was super nice.

I would agree with other reviewers that I don't understand the max capacity for the plunge pools/whirlpools. They could easily accommodate double the amount of the max without an invasion of space. But since there weren't many people there, we didn't have any issue using anything we wanted whenever we wanted.

The overall vibe of the place is super chill. Everyone is there to just relax, and so everyone respects everyone else's space. At least this was our experience.

This place should be considered a special treat, and if you are going to pay that much to get in, just enjoy it and go with the flow. I would rather pay 130/160 to get in here and enjoy all the therapeutic pools and saunas for literally HOURS, than pay that much for a 60 or 90 minute massage at your local strip mall spa.

Just go. It really was an amazing experience that I hope to duplicate sooner rather than later. Also, I am telling all my friends about it so they go too. It is a beautiful way to spend the day. I have no idea what it is like on the weekends. Probably busier. I hope people go because we need a place like this in the area, and they've only been open about 2 years. I imagine it was a major expense to build this place out and also maintain it, so they need people to go.

Elevator is out. Unacceptable for a public facility. The one downside. So 4 stars. But for most not an issue, we...

My husband purchased two Groupons as a gift for Mother's Day from him and our young sons. At first, I was going to write off my less than stellar experience as a "one off". I am not a high maintenance person and I worked in the hospitality industry for 12 years, so I have a high tolerance for things going wrong and am very understanding of hospitality and service industry professionals. The facility is beautiful and has a lot of potential. However, less than 24 hours after spending all day at the spa, I was diagnosed from my health care provider with a "mold migraine" or a severe allergic reaction to the black mold in the rooftop pool. I do not suffer from headaches and have spent the last several hours with a critical migraine, the result of exposure to black mold in an unclean rooftop pool.

When my husband and I were sitting in the rooftop pool, black mold spores and mildew was coming out of the jets and full strips of black mold longer than my hand came up from the surface area. There were lines of black mold coming out between the grout. As a lifelong pool owner and former lifeguard, this is due to lack of maintenance of pool chemicals and cleaning. Black mold algae grows due to the chlorine levels being too low and phosphate levels being high. Black mold spores survive and thrive in a sunny environment. To prevent black mold in pools, you need to scrub the surface/liner with a bristle bush, shock the pool (add 3x or more the normal level of chlorine) or superchorlinate (add 3 lbs per 25K gallons of water). You also need to add algaecide to the pool weekly.

Additionally, there were a lot of issues with our visit yesterday: Check-in took over an hour and we were asked to pay $65 each on top of our already purchased Groupon because it was a holiday. I felt like my husband was coerced into this additional payment because of the lack of communication to guests who purchased Groupons. We had to use a separate credit card because it needed to be two separate transactions and your system treated it as a "duplicate". The holidays do not state federal holidays or specific holidays online. Check-in could have avoided this line if they had alerted us about the holiday fee. We could have used it a different day. Next, we had to remove our shoes and walk shoeless from the shoe lockers to the women and men's changing room. I do not like walking on the floor without slippers in a public restroom or pool. It would be better to have the shoes available in the shoe locker room. I understand they don't want street shoes in the facility, but no one wants to walk in a public spa without shoes. We were not sure what services were available to us and it seemed that there were upcharges for everything except the fitness facilities, pools, sauna and hot tubs. The restrooms were not located in the locker rooms (only one) and it was challenging finding restrooms to use. Despite the no cellphones policy, there were guests with cell phones in lanyard carriers and taking selfies and social media photos. The plants on the third level were all fake. The bar only had two people working upstairs. The cafeteria had a long wait. We were quoted 45-50 minutes for our sliders and charcuterie. The wait was an hour and 15 minutes. The water carafe was not refilled. In the shower, there were large clumps of hair on the shower wall stall.

I will saw that the facility is beautiful and has a lot of potential. the staff were polite and helpful but didn't seem to think outside the box or troubleshoot (for example, explaining the Groupon and how it would not be honored on Juneteenth). The facility was grossly understaffed and the sushi bar was closed. It would have been nice if they had healthy grab and go salads or other items. I was planning on giving this place another chance due to the holiday experience, but after getting sick from the black mold exposure, I do not want to suffer having a migraine and allergic reaction. And I took three showers (one after the spa day, one last night and one...