The last of my Vietnam coverage! (for now) and one of the many highlights of my trip. Lets get to it!
After spending various days in Vietnam and dealing with the overnight trains, our Vietnam Tour guide suggested that maybe we should head to a Spa to recover from our trip so far (and before we boarded another train that night!) Tam Bun Thap Ba Spa, to be exact. I’ve never been to a Spa before, so I wanted to cover my first experience. Especially as it is on a budget! (and we’re all about that, right?)
I paid with my own money, this experience was not gifted or sponsored.
Price converter:
£1 – 30,000 VND
$1 – 24,000 VND
€1 – 27,000 VND
With prices varying from 100,000 VND for the swimming pool or doing the whole VIP package for 2,900.00 VND (around £125) Thap Ba spa has everything you could want that fits in to whatever your budget is. We arrived as a group of 11, so naturally they tried to up sell us in to a VIP package on the soul basis that we would have a private place, but we opted for the Collective Mineral Mud Bath for 200,000 and we still ended up with a private bath anyway! Large group perks!
What was included in the Collective Mineral Mud Bath (200,000 VND):
– Soak in cool mineral mud – public pool (15 minutes)
– Soak in hot mineral water (30 minutes)
– Hydrotherapy Jacuzzi
– Use of the hot mineral swimming pool
– Free bottle of water
Admittedly we ended up staying longer in the mineral mud bath as it is not timed by the staff and we lost track just chatting! We definitely got our moneys worth. There were lockers provided for your valuables and the ability to rent a towel for just 10,000 VND (around 33p) which is soso worth it! I’d also recommend not wearing white swim wear at all as the mud stains. Something else that I recommend is to carry some flip flops around with you. The ground gets really hot and I actually burnt the souls of my feet at one point!
So what was the spa agenda for the day?
- You need to shower outdoors really quick before jumping in to the mud bath.
- End up soaking in the mud bath for accidentally 45 minutes and chat about how weird it feels on your body with your group (or thoughts to yourself, if you go alone) FYI. It feels like warm gritty mud water. (I hope this helps haha)
- Bake in the sun for a while. You’ll feel a bit weird covered head to toe in mud, but look around, you’re not the only one feeling like an idiot.
- Wash off the mud
- Walk through the jet stream corridor to your right. It’s really painful. I didn’t go in, but others advised to cover ya nips and expect pain.
- Head over to hot mineral bath and soak
- I would say go to the Jacuzzi but I don’t think we did. I wonder why we missed that.
- Burn your feet on the ground from the hot sun while on the hunt to find food
- Eat the best food in the Spa restaurant
- Sit by the pool and relax. I avoided actually going in because yeah, I can’t actually swim!!
While the others were relaxing or getting foot massages (40,000 VND) I decided to have a walk around and explore. It was so beautiful and peaceful when we arrived in the morning so I took full advantage of it! A little later on in the day, large groups of tourists came so definitely go in the AM!
Overall, I would definitely recommend Thap Ba if you’re in Nha Trang. It has a good atmosphere, the cleanliness and quality of the baths/overall were great, great food, great price, the staff were really friendly and my skin felt incredible after! Those who got massages also said that they received the best massages of their life while there so all in all, a really great place that I am dying to go back to! It was also a fun group activity but I think it would be very easy to visit even if you were alone.
Have you ever been to this spa? What was your best spa experience? (I am looking for local recommendations!)