<p>jym626, I never took a mud bath at Calistoga Spa. I did have a massage there. My grandparents used to go there every year and I’d visit them for a day each year. Simple accomodations, not upscale. The pools were very good.</p>
<p>jazzymom, I did have a mud bath at the Goldenhaven, That’s where my wife and I first … over 27 years ago. :)</p>
<p>I view the Goldenhaven as a notch below Calistoga Spa, but then I never got burned at the Calistoga Spa. </p>
<p>But the Goldenhaven is fine and the price is great.</p>
<p>I’m not into mud baths. Goldenhaven was my first and last mud bath. Nothing wrong with it. It was nice, but I don’t have to do it again. The photos look like our experience. Doesn’t look like things have changed too much.</p>
<p>^^^^^ Quit bringing back painful memories, jazzymom!! By the time we got to the “blanket” step, the “attentive staff” left us there unattended for quite a while, and I was in pain from the burns on my skin!!</p>
<p>There’s some older, motel style spas and some newer, extremely elegant ones. Here’s a link; maybe jym will spot the culprit. (The Calistoga Village Inn and Spa is motel-cabin style.) </p>
<p>dstark: I’m chuckling over the “notch below” comment, not because it’s not accurate, but because I’m tempted to demand you justify your methodology of ranking. This is CC, after all. </p>
<p>I have to confess my rankings are similar to princetonreviews. I rank the hotels and motels every year but I only visit them every 4 years. :)</p>
<p>jazzymom, do you know the Calistoga Spa? It’s hard to remember which place is what. Most of them have Calistoga or Spa in their name. :)</p>
<p>Calistoga Spa is the one that is one block off the main street across from the fire station. Or did they move the fire station? It’s been a few years. :)</p>
<p>Edit: OK. I just saw the video of GoldenHaven. The bathtubs in the rooms are very nice. I do like the way they do the mudbaths. </p>
<p>I think I stopped in there to inquire about using the hot springs pool without being a guest of the inn. It looked like the kind of place that families return to again and again, over generations. I don’t remember if it even offerred the mud baths or if it was just the hot springs pools. In the end, I think that we didn’t make time for dipping into the springs there. The times we’ve visited, we didn’t actually stay in Calistoga, just drove there from St. Helena. </p>
<p>Such a fun area. I particularly like the “J” winery, which is off the beaten path, but offers appetizers along with the wine tasting and also makes my favorite Pinot Gris.</p>
<p>Vintage Inn has lovely fireplace and balconies. Have stayed at both Auberge and Vintage, but there is a significant price difference.</p>
<p>There was the Lincoln ave Spa in Calastoga, I really liked it because we got giant bowls of herbal mud, was not so keen on going into the whole bath. Personal bowl was great and they you lay wrapped on a steam table!</p>
<p>dstark and jazzy,
For some reason the Golden Haven sounds familiar, but I am not sure. Perhaps I’ve blanked the whole thing out of my mind! H and I were in the same room, but our “baths” were across the room from each other (Caddy-corner, sort of). I remember the shower and the blanket-- don’t recall if we sat in a spatub or not. Probably by then I would have avoided any additional hot liquid, so would probably have skipped it even if it were offered. The place was what I would consider a couple of “notches below” – it was certainy nothing fancy- very basic. We booked it over the phone-- didn’t know what it would look like 'til we arrived. I remember asking about the different muds-- apparently there is a more “natural” mud and then there is this other stuff its a concoction of a bunch of stuff (dont ask me what-- no clue what they mixed in) but it was TOO HOT. I remember having trouble getting into it, but figured my body would acclimate. Well, I was wrong. And when I took my foot out of the mud to see if it was all red (which it was) I really couldnt get it back in-- too painful. So there I sat, contorted like a cirque du soleil acrobat- with one foot sorta sticking out of the mud. I’ll stick to massages. I love deep tissue and hot stone massages (as long as they aren’t too hot!!)</p>
<p>Calistoga Spa is not upscale. Nothing like the Vintage Inn, or Meadowood, Auberge, etc. So that could be the place you remember. I never took a mud bath there so I don’t know the physical lay out of the mud bath rooms. </p>
<p>I am going to Calistoga Spa some time this year. I have a gift certificate for the place.</p>
<p>Sorry—Don’t mean to confuse ya, dstark. I guess the name of that place wasn’t what was burned into my memory! The particular room they put us in had the 2 baths on perpindicular walls-- so my h and and I could essentially fce and ltalk to each other. Don’t know if the rooms were all like that or not. I do know that there weren’t any pools around that I could see. Does that help???</p>