Chung Dam Spa & Fitness

Chung Dam Spa & Fitness is a Korean/Japanese-style bathhouse in the Melrose Shopping Center, right on the Cheltenham-Philadelphia line. It's billed as the first of its kind in the city and the only one of its type in Pennsylvania, which gives it a different flavor than the usual hotel-spa fare in the area.

The core of the place is its set of themed heat rooms: a Hot Jade Stone Room, a Hot Yellow Clay with Charcoal Room, and a Warm Granite Room, each offering a different kind of dry or radiant heat. There's also a Lower Body Bath Tub and a Herbal Steam Sauna for the more traditional wet-heat side of things. Beyond the bathing facilities, the spa offers hands-on services including therapeutic massage, whole body scrub, and combined body scrub and massage treatments.

A fitness center rounds out the facility, so a visit can double as a workout day rather than just a soak. The spa is family friendly and operates on a walk-in basis, meaning no advance reservation is required to get in the door, though specific treatments may need booking ahead. Parking is free and described as ample, a practical plus given the shopping-center location.

Hours run long and consistent, 8:30am to 9:30pm every day of the week, which makes it easy to fit a visit around a work schedule or weekend plans. The spa sits at a moderate price tier, positioning it as an accessible option rather than a splurge destination. For anyone in the Philadelphia area curious about Korean bathhouse culture without traveling to a bigger city, this is one of the few local places set up for it.