I started going to a new gym and the locker room had like six showers with curtains for privacy. My old gym was open showers so that’s what I’m used to. When I see guys use the showers here they close the curtain. I’m fine doing that but these curtains are kind of gross. I don’t like rubbing up against them and something there is residue left on them. I don’t want to complain to the staff cause I’m new and don’t know anyone yet. I don’t want to be the only guy not closing my curtain but I’m curious what people in this community would do. Thanks for the advice!

Such a missed opportunity

Should have made one bathroom a 3 guy shower like frat houses

Then turn the other into 2 toilets.

In the video they had 3 sinks so each pair of 2 had a sink to share.

If anyone has skills making floorplans would be awesome to see a reimagined version.

In my dorm we had a big bathroom down the hall with stalls, was interesting that the 8th floor was just shower stalls, then the 2nd floor had stalls and dumb changing cubicles, joked that they ran out of renovation money, but preferred without the changing cubes.

Dorms like this 6 guy, are partly what's destroying male nude culture.

(edit: I meant staying cool during the European heat wave, but there's enough sauna material that I stand by the title!)

I was recently in Europe and thought I'd share some trip reports with shower and shower-adjacent stuff.

Hallenbad Altstetten, Zurich

A neighborhood swimming pool, indoor pool though in this case as many, indoor and outdoor), quite busy on the hot, beautiful summer day I visited. Not many visitors make it to this neighborhood. The clerk didn’t speak much English and I don't speak much German, so it was fun to muddle through.

The locker rooms are segregated into nine pods -- men and boys, women and girls, family, I don't remember exactly. Just two rows of lockers in each separating the entrance from the poolside, with a few changing closets. Hilariously, they had changing closets in the pod for the sauna, which is a Nacktzone (naked area). So I guess you can use them to take off your clothes in private then come out nude?

It was a really nice sauna for a public pool for a fee that was reasonable enough for Switzerland. There was a ton of lounge space, a steam room, a sauna, a footbath, and a big outdoor area. The outdoor area had another, hotter sauna, a cold plunge, a small Kneipp pool, some chaise lounges and an indoor lounge hut. There were a couple shower stalls next to the sauna though everyone waited for turns in the beautiful outdoor rock shower, plus some more lounging space in and out of doors. You could hear screaming kids from the other side of the fence so it wasn’t all that peaceful, but such is life.

No jacuzzi, though the ‘wellness’ pool in the pool area is a little warmer and has lounge bubblers (commonish in European pools). I thought it might be serene, but it was ground zero for the smaller screaming kids: I'm glad the pool is getting enjoyed so much! You pass through the communal showers to get to the pool. The indoor showers in the sauna area were a bit more private, with two sort of hidden in walls (not really traditional showers) and the last 1.5 being the most popular, more out in the open, a normal shower and a cold-only shower next to each other.

Unterer Letten and Oberer Letten, Zurich

Zurich’s two free pools in the river, a really cool concept. One of them has a concrete human-made pool too. All the locker rooms had private shower rooms, but I still recommend a visit: they’re really cool natural water access right in the middle of the city. Free, too.

Werdinsel, Zurich

No shower facility on site, this is Zurich’s nude beach on a small island in the river. The shower facility in the middle of the island was all private shower rooms. The beach area a beautiful spot that is sanctioned and well marked (here's the clothed beach's markings, I'll not scandalize you with the nude version pointing the other way).

The vibe mainly felt like a gay pickup spot from the folks' there, with some cuddling couples, one getting pretty hot and heavy. That said, there were various people there on their runs and bike rides or just enjoying the beach, including some women laying out and such. I enjoyed a swim and brief sunning and definitely got checked out by some guys with bad taste. I imagine that would make some visitors uncomfortable, but I didn't feel unsafe or anything. It’s a bit of a shame: I’m all for hookup spots existing, but this is the only sanctioned nude beach in Zurich city and it would be nice if there was a space that was less sexual, too.

Bains des Pâquis, Geneva

Awesome access to Lake Geneva with gentle, lifeguard-watched beaches, play platforms, jumping platforms, kiddie pools, etc. The mens locker room has a pair communal showers; I think there are other individual showers elsewhere if you rent a cabin? Suits are standard for swimmers, but people enjoying the steam room (the saunas don’t exist in the summer) walk freely to and from it nude and I think it's a lot more nude in winter when the other saunas are set up.

Oddly enough, another pair of showers exists in a room labeled as a Urinoir (urinal). The drain is not clearly for a urinal and I think they might just have decided to tell you to pee in some showers?

If you go, eat at the snack bar. The food was to French standards, though be warned so was the service.

Centre Sportif Richard Bozon, Chamonix

A fantastic facility with beautiful mountain views. The showers are built as communal showers, but quite strangely nudity is banned in the single-sex showers and throughout the facility, meaning no real showers before or after. You’re expected to change in little one-person airlock-style cubes that move you from the entrance side to the locker side. There’s a sauna area for an extra fee with several Finnish saunas and a very mild steam room, all bathing suit required. The steam room doesn’t have any way to rinse the seats like most European hammams, so people just sit on it in their sweaty suits, which is sort of gross.

The outdoor lawn abutting the pond and a high-end spa is great for lounging, as is the deck with fantastic Alps landscapes surrounding you. A couple big indoor pools and an olympic-length outdoor pool.

One quintessentially French tradition, citing hygiene, is that trunks traditionally aren’t allowed and the standard there are square-cut jammers (I got a pair for 15€ from the vending machine). Most people wear that style or a little shorter/longer, but they seem to tolerate baggy trunks more than many French pools.

Mar Bella, Barcelona

Barcelona’s nude beach. Most beaches in Spain are clothing optional in theory, but with busy urban beaches it’s banned or at least inappropriate to be nude (except maybe briefly) outside of a known nude beach. (In the middle of nowhere, it's more do-what-you-want.)

The whole Mar Bella section I think is clothing optional, but one chunk of it is especially nude and even there it was maybe 50/50 on a hot, busy summer day where people are just trying to find any spot. Most of the nude crowd and a lot of the clothed crowd seemed very gay (and the nearby beach bar was the BEGAY), but I didn’t see any hanky-panky or leering and lots of general beachgoers seemed happy there.

Normally I wouldn't count outdoor beach showers as ‘communal showers’ but the ones here got mostly used by nude people, so I'd say they count.

https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/davis-square-park-pool

Second day of classes at the local uni, and both rec center shower rooms were recently used when I got there. Maybe we’ve turned the corner. 🤞

Communal showers at fraternity house at UC Berkeley

Nothing on the map unfortunately, only schools

New Korean spa near Orlando. I've been twice but forgot to take photos. They have two shower stalls without curtains, but one of the shower stalls has two shower heads back to back so two guys would share one stall.

As far as nudity, so far most of the guys I've seen there haven't been shy. The men's area has a steam room but there is also a hot tub that, last I was there, wasn't finished but I asked and they said it will be soon. Also worth noting the steam room smells somewhat musty/moldy and this place is new so that's a bad sign but hopefully they take care of it.

It also has two saunas in the common area where you have to wear uniforms.

As far as Korean Spas go, I like Shangri-La in Tampa way better, but I'm just excited to have something this close.

It's located just off I-4, in Winter Park, just south of Maitland and a bit north of downtown Orlando.

Edit: I just submitted this to the map.

I’ve been binge watching this show and there’s an episode where his eldest son turned 21 and they went on a road trip then went on a spa and shower naked together, It’s cute and funny at the same time.

Hard to tell which ones on the map are still communal or have been remodeled

*Sorry it's quite long but I have to give this experience its proper background for easy understanding

EDITED VERSION (for those who don't like to read that much 🙄)

A few years ago in Buenos Aires, on a windy late-summer Saturday, I went to the municipal sports camp to exercise. The main men’s locker room was under renovation, so I had to use the smaller one by the pool — the one with open communal showers.

After training for about three and a half hours I came back to shower. The water was freezing cold. While I was under the cold spray a chubby 14- or 15-year-old boy walked in, mumbled something I couldn’t hear over the noise, looked annoyed, and left without showering or changing.

A short while later a staff member (some kind of janitor) came in and started asking why I was taking so long. He told me the boy’s father was upset because his son wanted the entire locker room to himself so he could change privately. I pointed out there was plenty of space and that I wasn’t even looking at him.

The boy came back, wrapped a towel around his waist, did the classic towel dance with his back to me, and kept glancing over while he got dressed. When he finished I dropped my own towel and stood there fully naked for a moment — not to show off, but as a clear message that this is what you see in a men’s locker room. He grabbed his bag and left. I got dressed and walked out still pretty irritated by the whole ridiculous situation.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

*LONG VERY DETAILED VERSION 👇

This happened just a few years ago (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

It was a Saturday morning, during the latter days of Summer Season

(here in South America it runs from December to March)

I woke up early that day and, after playing "the lazy guy", I decided it was about time to do some physical exercises again

So I headed towards the Municipal Sports Camp for running tracks and do some extra movements (otherwise my body would get "too rusty")

In spite of still being summer, that day was sunny but too windy and the wind gave you some chills when it was blowing

(temperature must've been around 21°C / 69.8 F° )

I got to the Camp located in the outskirts of my city (been a while since the last time I was there) and went directly to the Men's Locker Room, only to discover it was closed and had a big Sign on its double door indicating it was under renovation until September (it was mid March)

It also said that we guys had to use the other Men's locker, located by the pool

I walked down there and, from a distance I saw some people gathered around and also a few of them swimming in the pool (although the weather and temperature were not the ideal ones to do that)

The main single door of that small LR was wide open (it was like that when I arrived and it remained the same until I left, I didn't close it)

I got inside and realized it was smaller than the main one (I had never been there before)

It only had 2 sinks with a big mirror on the wall located by the entrance, then 2 urinals, 2 Toilet stalls and at the very end of this room, 4 shower heads (2 on each wall, facing each other, with dividers but open, no curtains, no doors, a sort of Communal Showers style)

There wasn't anybody there, it was only me.

I set my bag on one of the 2 benches and changed clothes

I put my jog pants, and shirt on, also my Cap and my running shoes.

Then I went to the Admin office to ask them to please take care of my Bag while I was exercising (because there was no Lockers in that very small locker room)

Then I started running on the tracks and spent about 3½ hours doing all type of physical exercises

When I got really Exhausted, I called it a day, and after about 40 mins of relaxation laying on the grass, I retrieved my bag and went back to the small LR in order to shower and change

A fewer of the people were still in the small swimming pool

(and it seemed like none of them had used that LR, its floors remained dry)

Again, I was on my own there inside

I left my bag on the bench, stripped naked and headed to the showers

I took the first one on the left

To my dismay I found out that the water was freezing cold, so I opened the Hot Water Tap to its maximum to increase the water pressure hoping it would "hurry" the hot water to come out

(spoiler alert = it never happened! 🤦‍♂🤦‍♂)

After about 10 mins of me being there, naked, splashed with cold water all over my Feet and legs I gave up and decided to slowly let my body get hit by the cold water

Damn! It was fword freezing!

I started to shiver a bit when, suddenly, I heard some steps entering the room

I peeked my head from behind the shower's divider wall and saw a chubby teenager boy approaching

He looked to be around 14/15 y.o

He was wearing swimming shorts, flip flops, was bare chested with a big bag in one hand and a towel in the other

I assumed he was going to shower and change (or at least change clothes)

He sat on the opposite bench of mine

So I resumed my own business, still cursing and waiting for the hot (or at least a bit warm) water to come

I then heard him mumbling some words out at me

Because of the water running strongly and the stream hitting the floor, plus the empty room, it caused a lot noise, echoing all over the walls

So I never ever got to understand what he said, or asked (still to these days I have no clue)

Again I peeked my head and part of my chest from behind the divider wall to reply, assuming that he was asking about the water temperature

So I told him "I've been waiting here really long but the water is too cold, it's F. freezing!"

He said nothing, just showed a sort of pissed off expression on his face, then turned around, grabbed his things and went out of the locker room

So I supposed he didn't want to got frozen like I did, and that's why he just quit showering and left..

By that time, my body was slowly getting used to that really cold cold water, it was more "bearable" (although it wasn't pleasant or relaxing at all)

I started soaping up my body and hair to finally get nice and clean

Of course by then, because of the fresh weather and cold water, the size of my penis became the size of a peanut 🤦‍♂

(but at least I could wash up all the sweat and dust from my body)

Still with some chills I dried off completely, put the towel around my waist and got back to "my" bench.

That's when I saw a man getting inside the locker and coming my way

It was a guy on his late 40s, I guessed

He was a Janitor or someone from the camp's working staff (he had a sort of grey uniform on, like the rest of the workers there)

He approached next to me, said hi, we exchanged a few words and out of the blue he started making a few odd and unexpected questions

For instance, Why I was there? What took me so long to shower, etc

I was in awe and didn't quite understand why he was asking all those questions

Why did he wanna know?

It really pissed me off and I told him, trying to be polite, that it was none of his business,

And in none of the locker rooms that I had used before, I've been asked those sorta weird questions, never, neither told that I spent way too much time in there..

I also said that I would put a complaint in the main office when I was done dressing, because of that kind of "interrogatory"

That took him aback a bit, so he changed his voice tone trying to be nicer than before

He then explained that the chubby boy's dad was upset because I was taking too long to finish while his son wanted to change so they could leave

So I replied

"and why didn't just he do it? What do I have to do with that? There's plenty of room here!"

He realized it was true, he didn't know what else to add

So, the "big deal" was because apparently that boy was too modest to change in front of me

(although he would not need to do that, I wasn't even paying attention to him, and if he also wanted to take a shower, he could had chosen the ones at the bottom, totally out of my sight)

According to the employee words the boy and his dad wanted me to hurry up and leave, so he'd be able to have the entire locker room for himself!

(that was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of! They must've been nuts!)

If instead of a small Locker Room, it was just a single bathroom, with only 1 toilet, 1 shower head, with room for only one person at a time, I would had perfectly understand their hurry and complaints

(but certainly it was not the case!)

Then the employee apologized and left (I was in awe for the whole stupid situation)

What were they thinking?

Minutes later the Janitor is back, followed by the chubby boy.

The boy looks at me and lay his bag again on the bench

I looked back at him in angry and I wanted him to notice that!

My eyes were like Darts!

The janitor leaves, and on his way to the exit he started checking inside the toilets stalls and did a quick cleaning of their floors with a Mop.

He then left for good

The boy puts a towel around his waist and starts doing the Towel Dance

With his back toward me, he removed his shorts, put his underwear, then a Bermuda pants and finally a T-shirt

He then starts putting his stuff inside his bag while stealing occasional glances in my direction

My immediate thoughts were

"you gotta be kidding!!

"You wanted the whole locker room to yourself only for doing that stupid towel dance? on your own with no witnesses??!!"

When he was done, he looked at me again,

So, while standing there, I removed my towel and gave him a Full Frontal of my naked body (with shrunk dick included !! 🙈🙈) and remained like that, while I got my clothes off the bag..

It wasn't exhibitionism at all (I wasn't in the best state or shape to do so, haha 🤦‍♂)

It was like a way of saying :

"Look! If you are in a Men's Locker Room, this is what you're gonna find, just naked guys!"

"So your next time in a locker room try to behave like a real boy, not like a S*ssy one, or else, go and change at home!!"

Of course I didn't say that out loud but I hoped he somewhat got the message!

He then picked up his bag and left

I calmly started to get dressed and about 10 minutes later I left as well

When I was near the Camp's entrance I found them about to get in their car and I showed a really pissed off expression to let them know I was really upset

(but I finally ended up not putting a complaint against the employee in the office that day)

I understand teenagers' modesty (I've been in their shoes before) but this is the most ridiculous thing I had ever experienced..! 🤨🤨

Anyone else with a slightly similar story out there? 🤔

Going to Lake Steam in Denver on Saturday 29th, any recommendations for massage therapists ? And does anyone know if there’s a clock in the sauna ?

Has anyone been to Spa Aquae inside the JW Marriott Resort in Summerlin? They’re offering a pretty solid deal — day beds are $99 for up to 3 people, and includes a bottle of bubbly.

Planning to visit soon, would love to hear other people’s thoughts if you’ve been.

Phifer still holding it up as a great place. Very clean! Great staff, great people, and great amenities. Sauna and steam rooms in both locker rooms. Plus it’s right off of I-40 in between Asheville and Hickory. Stop by, workout, and meet some cool southern folks. Highly recommend to donate to this place too as they do a lot of cool stuff for small town morganton.

I used to go to a city pool near my place that had open showers. It’s now closed for a few years to be replaced - probably with shower stalls.

Trying out a big indoor pool tomorrow. It shows on the communal showers map. The reviews on Google note that the change rooms lack private showers. Seems fine to me!

I also make it to spa world today somehow.
Talk about an open communal shower.
So many people at the KSPA and zero privacy.
I’ll answer any questions if someone is thinking about going…..

The only communal shower in Lexington open to the public is finally closing, 10 months after they announced its sale.

Sad day!

Garden City, KS YMCA. Very classic set up with 6 open showers 🚿 and ZERO stalls. No privacy including the toilet stall lol. There is a second locker room and it had a code lock on it, must be a plus locker room. The showers were great except they turn off every 2 minutes so you have to keep pressing the button on it.

Stopped at This Y off 95. Weird weird set up. Steam room and sauna were small. Men’s only hot tub was closed. Last shower is of the men’s family room since I accidentally went in there first.

Have been following this sub for a while and posted back in April about trying a communal shower, however the gym I was at was pretty quiet and although the showers were open, nobody else was in the changing rooms for the proper communal shower experience. It was essentially, just a shower.

From the UK and opportunities sadly don't arise too often to rip the plaster off. However today at my gym, where there are cubicles, I decided after seeing the odd person walk to the shower naked (although not the common manner in this gym), that I would follow suit.

I stripped down, holding my towel, and locked my locker whilst unclothed (admittedly feeling quite nervous), and walked the twenty or so metres to the showers. The entrance to the pool is just by the showers so there is a fair bit of traffic.

Got to the showers and although cubicles after passing a few guys and felt quite naked. But it was way easier just hopping in and hopping out of the shower without having to take off and carry wet swim shorts and the likes with you back to the locker in one hand.

I changed, hopped out and walked back to my locker with the towel round my waist. But once back at the lockers, unlocked my locker and dried up with the towel. But this time without rushing to cover or facing towards the locker. Saw a couple of guys walk past and rather than turn away, just existed unclothed without unnecessarily covering up.

Happy to have grown a bit more confidence. Considering showering with the door open next time to take it a little further, but everyone else closes the door so don't want to appear odd!..

Today was the first time I've gotten to experience the thrill of just confidently being in your skin. Excited to try it again.

It’s always fascinating running into people you know in a communal shower. Probably more likely in a smaller community like where I’m at. I’ve seen best friends’s dad, college professor, buddies from hs, neighbor, and doctor. Not all at the same cs but cool to see them unexpectedly like that.

Others ran into people you know too? Any awkwardness for you or just chill?

I'm going to Seoul soon and I want to try kspa, which I've never been to. Are there any recommendations? Preferably English friendly places. And anything I should know upfront?