AIRE Ancient Baths New York · Tribeca — Local services in New York

Before coming here my boyfriend and I looked through all of the bad reviews. We are the type to believe bad reviews, but wanted to experience this for ourselves.

Bad Reviews Many of the bad reviews complain about customer service, but we thought the service was excellent. From the people in the locker room, who dry and package your wet bathing suits after your experience; to the people guiding you through the baths and throughout the building. They were all very polite and friendly. No problems at all. We ended up being around 7 minutes late for our appointment, but called in advance just to let them know. The receptionist answered quickly, and just told us it may take time away from our 130 minute time slot. That’s understandable. We came around 5 and it wasn’t too crowded (at least it didn’t feel like it was). We also didn’t feel rushed at all.

Massage We got 30 minute couple massage, and we were surprised at how much we enjoyed it. I wish we had gotten the longer massage, but my boyfriend was satisfied by the 30 minute one. They make sure to ask if you have any recent surgeries, anywhere you don’t want them to touch, and anywhere you want them to focus on. At some point they do use hot, smooth rocks which was the best part of the massage for me. The girl doing my massage did fantastic! She had glasses and I believe she was Latina. You do have to undress for the massage and there are disposable underwear for women to wear. I am unsure about for men because my boyfriend tried to put it on but it didn’t seem to fit very well for him (he is a bit bigger)

Baths There is definitely an order in which you should go for the baths. They do not specifically tell you what you should do, but this is what my boyfriend and I found the most enjoyable. We started with the jet bath and were unimpressed, water just felt a little warm and the jets were hectic. It kinda felt like you were being punched or drowning. However, when we tried them again later we ended up being more neutral toward them.

The hottest bath is the one you should start with the most. At first it’ll be hot but you eventually get used to it. We wish it was hotter to be honest. I am a big fan of extremely hot showers, but my boyfriend is more of a warm enjoyer. After, you should dip into the cold bath and run into the hot bath. This is where the hot bath really feels good. You get a tingling sensation over your body. And the cold bath is COLD. There are two, one colder than the other. You should then try the colder bath after you get used to the hot water again. Then run inside the hot bath again. You’ll feel the tingling sensation but even more. My boyfriend thought it was addicting.

After that, you should try the warm one. It isn’t hot but it’s just warm, scenic, and relaxing. Once we finished the warm bath, we tried the salt bath, which you float in. I felt the most relaxed in this one. They also have the same salt in a pile which you can use to exfoliate your skin with and shower off. The temperature in the salt bath is also just warm. After the salt bath I would recommend the jets. Theres also a peppermint steam room which wasn’t for me personally. I’m not a fan of peppermint and it wasn’t really hot in there which I expected it to be like a sauna. They have a marble heated seating area, however we felt like it wasn’t heated at all.

My recommended path way Hot bathCold bathHot bathColder bathHot bathWarm bathSalt bathJet bath

All in all, we wish that the water in the warm, salt, and jet baths were hotter. They felt a bit lukewarm. However, when you try them out after being in the hot bath for so long they feel refreshing. They also give you one juice each which are very delicious.

We definitely plan on...

RUINED SWIM SUIT - MANAGEMENT COULD CARE LESS I left more tense than I came in.

Overall the experience was very nice. Wonderful massage, nice pools. I wish I had time after the massage to be in the pools and sauna. The biggest downside was management and how I was left walking away which overshadowed the large price tag for what should have been a trip highlight the experience.

I wore a hang dry cold wash only swim suit (like most people own). While on vacation I only brought 1 option and had very limited time/transportation options. After receiving my massage I noticed my swim suite was warm which was a nice touch.... upon changing I noticed it not only bled all over the towels but also on my body and new clothes I put on. The tags on the suite clearly indicated washing instructions and I realized my wet swim suit had been put in a warmer without my knowing or permission. I was very upset as I loved the swim suit and now it was completely ruined and soured what should have been a very wonderful relaxing ending. I brought this up to the front desk trying to be as calm and cool describing what happened and how it just really soured the entire experience plus after paying good money for something so simple to ruin. It could have easily been prevented and hoped to provide the feedback to management so someone else didn't have the same experience I did. I was almost to the point of tears of sadness, but trying to not be too emotional over an object and mitigate emotions to clearly communicate a way they could improve a customer experience.

It was communicated this happens all the time and they don't intend to change this process. They took no responsibility for what had happened or care to. After a bit of pushing to speak to a manager, the manager didn't seem to really want to listen or care to know about the experience and had the audacity to say "well do you have a receipt so we can reimburse you for the swim suit cost" I'm honestly not looking for reimbursement of my suit, more improve how you work and of course I don't have some random receipt of a swim suit I bought several years ago with me on vacation. It was extremely flippant and careless. My husband spoke up saying it was probably a certain cost and he said ok we'll refund that amount and walked away. While I was happy to have some reimbursement. The experience, time and financial burden to myself was not worth going back to. When a clothing item clearly has a label with instructions to blatantly not follow them, take and ruin the clothes with out asking, and then to not care about the experience left me in such a sour mood when the experience was supposed to leave me relaxed. I left more tense than I came in.

Only reason for not a 1 star was because if it wasn't for the ending experience it would have...

They don’t let cameras in past the changing room so unfortunately no pics.. but I think its a good thing. It disconnects you from the outside world, makes you take in the surroundings and if celebs show up nobody will take pics of them. Ok so the review..

First you check in at front desk, i was 15mins early and they let me in anyway. I’d suggest doing this so you get a bit more time. My fiancé got this for me as a gift so had the juice and massage package.

You get changed in changing room (shock), but the area and service is great. There is a locker room attendant that runs you through what to do and what to wear. Bathrooms are only here so when on the floor you’ll have to come back up (no peeing in the pools!). They give you shoes for the pool, robe and towels. The shoes are more like socks. I thought they’d be annoying but they were actually fine and keep everyones feet clean (nobody wants a verruca).

Once you leave bathroom someone greets you, you get to select your juice at this point. I was a little disappointed that it was just in a plastic bottle. I was hoping for a cup and straw etc. it did taste nice though and you can drink it in the pools. I got the berry one.

When you get down to bottom they give you a tour, tell you the best way to do it. I started back to front, regular pool first (which is a typical spa like pool with pillars) hung out there for a bit, then went into a much hotter pool (favourite), then cold plunge (2 options: 1 very cold, 1 extremely cold), then steam room (steam room wasnt as steamy as i like but very manageable), i would have liked a sauna too but they dont have one, next was the sea salt pool (they make you exfoliate with salt in shower first - which was cool) then you can float in the sea pool. Sea pool has music so when floating its nice. Then finally they have a big kinda jacuzzi style pool, surprisingly i didn’t like it as much as i thought. Then after that lap i went and did it again hanging out in the really hot pool multiple times (best one).

I had the massage package, after 1 hour of pool hoping they call you to the room. I had all body massage, it was pretty good. The quality of the massage beds is high, the masseuse I would say was pretty good. They use oil and hot towels etc which felt premium. I typically just go to no frill massage places which get the job done but its nice to treat yo self every once in a while.

I went on my own, I thought 1 hour would be a lot of time and i’d be bored but surprisingly time flew by. I think this would be better with a friend or a partner to enjoy it together. Its very intimate and candles everywhere. Not sure if its actually an “ancient bath” but it had a great ambiance. Would...