Hotel spa (un)dress code

[Nightowl]

Over the years I’ve stayed in many hotels that have very nice spas.  I’ll usually get a good therapeutic massage and spend time in the steamroom and hot tub afterwards.  My dilemma is always whether to go fully nude in the men-only wet room.  My inclination is to carry a towel but let it all hang out but more often than not, some buttoned-up guy comes in with the spa-provided modesty bathing suit and shares the steamroom or hot tub.  What’s the etiquette when you’re the naked guy and the clothed guy joins you?  Some nicer hotels, particularly in the Southwest, have outdoor areas that are part of the men-only area.  It’s particularly inviting to wander around the outdoor areas—hot tub, showers, garden—in the altogether but the buttoned-up guys invariably show up.  What do others do in this situation?  Secretly, I want more of the guys to be nude but that never seems to happen…

[+ sniper]

I think wearing the towel for walking around is the way to go. What I find maddening is when the hotel website says it's clothing optional, then you get there and they apparently bought a generic "spa rules" sign that says swimsuits required, so you get half the people naked and half in suits.

A couple years back I was in the hot tub at the  Mirage spa in Vegas when 4 20something friends came in and only one of them went naked. I thanked him for not making me be the creepy naked guy.

 

[+ poolboy48220]

A gym chain I belonged to had separate wet areas for men. I tried another location that alternated men-only and women-only days, and went into the hot tub naked. I got some odd looks from the older crowd there, and someone must have complained because an attendant came by and asked "Everyone wearing their swimsuits?"

[Nightowl]

7 minutes ago, poolboy48220 said:

A gym chain I belonged to had separate wet areas for men. I tried another location that alternated men-only and women-only days, and went into the hot tub naked. I got some odd looks from the older crowd there, and someone must have complained because an attendant came by and asked "Everyone wearing their swimsuits?"

Interesting that the older crowd complained.  Older guys such as myself grew up at a time when gym class was mandatory in school and you took a shower in front of a hundred other guys every day.  Being naked in a group was usually no big deal.  I’m actually surprised that one of the 20-something guys @sniperdescribed above went naked since younger guys seem to be more modest.  At the gym I attend, none of the younger guys ever undress completely and if they do, they wrap themselves in a towel before taking off their underwear.

[Rod Hagen]

1 hour ago, Nightowl said:

At the gym I attend, none of the younger guys ever undress completely and if they do, they wrap themselves in a towel before taking off their underwear.

I've mentioned it here before, but Long Ago I loved visiting the 13th Street NYHRC (15th street?), largely because the stairs were part of the workout, and also most mornings you could count on Jerry Stiller naked-walking around the locker room and hanging it all out in the steam room.  You could also count the wrinkles :- ) He was a treasure, miss him and his wife terribly.

Edited July 4 by Rod Hagen

[d.anders]

15 hours ago, Nightowl said:

What do others do in this situation?  Secretly, I want more of the guys to be nude but that never seems to happen…

I love nudity, but you really do have to read the room/venue when you travel. Some guys are so buttoned up and offended by free-ballers, they will complain to management (hard to believe but true). I learned to have a towel with me at all times, and use it as a tease. Believe me, the guys that you want to attract will get the message, and they know how to respond if they are interested.

If you just want to view naked men, best to visit a NYC gym. Lots of people here love to be naked and stared at. The buttoned up types are a very small minority.

[Nightowl]

1 hour ago, Rod Hagen said:

I've mentioned it here before, but Long Ago I loved visiting the 13th Street NYHRC (15th street?), largely because the stairs were part of the workout, and also most mornings you could count on Jerry Stiller naked-walking around the locker room and hanging it all out in the steam room.  You could also count the wrinkles :- ) He was a treasure, miss him and his wife terribly.

Stiller and Meara were a classic comedic duo.  Nichols and May were another favorite.  Haven’t run into anything as good as either one of them in years.  Never saw any of them naked though….

[Nightowl]

1 hour ago, d.anders said:

I love nudity, but you really do have to read the room/venue when you travel. Some guys are so buttoned up and offended by free-ballers, they will complain to management (hard to believe but true). I learned to have a towel with me at all times, and use it as a tease. Believe me, the guys that you want to attract will get the message, and they know how to respond if they are interested.

If you just want to view naked men, best to visit a NYC gym. Lots of people here love to be naked and stared at. The buttoned up types are a very small minority.

I always carry a towel too but don’t usually secure it around my waist all that tightly.  Accidents do happen… I haven’t been to NYC in years.  It’s a different world from DC, where I am, when it comes to buttoned-up-ness.

[+ sniper]

4 hours ago, Nightowl said:

Interesting that the older crowd complained.  Older guys such as myself grew up at a time when gym class was mandatory in school and you took a shower in front of a hundred other guys every day.  Being naked in a group was usually no big deal.  I’m actually surprised that one of the 20-something guys @sniperdescribed above went naked since younger guys seem to be more modest.  At the gym I attend, none of the younger guys ever undress completely and if they do, they wrap themselves in a towel before taking off their underwear.

I think he was the "alpha dog" of the group and a showoff in general. There are a handful of young guys like that

[jeezifonly]

I go to the somewhat-Tony Burke Williams locations in LA. Towels/robes are worn, and most ditch just for hot tub and cover up for moving around, and use towel to sit on in steam/sauna. Always fresh towels to grab. 
I never consider such spas a good place for cruising. Any employee can throw you out if there’s inappropriate contact anywhere in the space. I book it for good massage, steam/sauna. An occasional glimpse of something magnificent? I merely bank it for later. 

[CuriousByNature]

4 hours ago, Rod Hagen said:

I've mentioned it here before, but Long Ago I loved visiting the 13th Street NYHRC (15th street?), largely because the stairs were part of the workout, and also most mornings you could count on Jerry Stiller naked-walking around the locker room and hanging it all out in the steam room.  You could also count the wrinkles :- ) He was a treasure, miss him and his wife terribly.

[Whippoorwill]

I too grew up in the era when not only did everyone let it all hang out in the locker room, but swimming was nude at the YMCA, etc. In those days bathing suits were wool, with cloth belts. They pilled and gummed up the filters, so bathing suits were forbidden. I remember at age around 10, my brother and I taking in the wonder of the occasional uncut cock…what was that extra skin for?

By the time I was in high school, we wore bathing trunks, but  nudity in the locker rooms and gang showers was the rule. Swimming at Boy Scout camp was still naked.    
 

By the ‘80s I was living in the Castro and the gym locker rooms, saunas and steam were 100% naked and cruisey. Boyfriends of the cruisers would complain to management that their bf’s were getting it there, and management would post signs such as “masturbation causes blindness and loss of your gym membership.” I had a nice collection of those stolen signs in my garage.

By the 2000’s I was going to the Y and noted that all the young guys got undressed/dressed with a towel around their waist, just like the girls at the beach. Somehow our culture has regressed to the point where young men are ashamed to be au natural. 

 

 

[Nightowl]

1 hour ago, Whippoorwill said:

I too grew up in the era when not only did everyone let it all hang out in the locker room, but swimming was nude at the YMCA, etc. In those days bathing suits were wool, with cloth belts. They pilled and gummed up the filters, so bathing suits were forbidden. I remember at age around 10, my brother and I taking in the wonder of the occasional uncut cock…what was that extra skin for?

By the time I was in high school, we wore bathing trunks, but  nudity in the locker rooms and gang showers was the rule. Swimming at Boy Scout camp was still naked.    
 

By the ‘80s I was living in the Castro and the gym locker rooms, saunas and steam were 100% naked and cruisey. Boyfriends of the cruisers would complain to management that their bf’s were getting it there, and management would post signs such as “masturbation causes blindness and loss of your gym membership.” I had a nice collection of those stolen signs in my garage.

By the 2000’s I was going to the Y and noted that all the young guys got undressed/dressed with a towel around their waist, just like the girls at the beach. Somehow our culture has regressed to the point where young men are ashamed to be au natural. 

 

 

Was there a sign that said masturbation makes hair grow on your palms?…Our culture is definitely becoming more prudish.  If Woodstock happened today, no one would be dancing naked in the mud.

[mike carey]

21 minutes ago, Nightowl said:

Was there a sign that said masturbation makes hair grow on your palms?…Our culture is definitely becoming more prudish.  If Woodstock happened today, no one would be dancing naked in the mud.

Yeah, and you see all the guys look at their palms as they read it ...