Entry No. 22 — the Atlanta file — filed under: float tank
Float Atlanta
Instead of the coffin-shaped pods most float spas use, Float Atlanta's private rooms hold open, skin-temperature rectangular pools loaded with roughly 1,500 lbs of Epsom salt each — enough to float you like the Dead Sea while the lights fade to total darkness and the ambient music dies out. It's tucked next door to the Decatur Visitors Center, a few steps from the flower-painted crosswalk everyone photographs but few realize is next to a sensory-deprivation spa.
The story
Most float spas stuff you into a hinged fiberglass pod that feels like a high-tech coffin—a claustrophobe's worst nightmare. Float Atlanta took a different route, filling private, soundproofed rooms in Downtown Decatur with wide, lidless rectangular pools instead. Tucked right next door to the Decatur Visitors Center on Clairemont Avenue, each suite holds a shallow basin saturated with roughly 1,500 pounds of Epsom salt. That salt concentration creates water denser than the Dead Sea, making sinking physically impossible regardless of your body shape or weight.
The real mind trip comes from the thermal symmetry. The pool is heated to skin temperature, so after you shower in your suite and drop into the water, the physical boundary between your skin and the liquid blurs almost immediately. As the ambient intro music fades out and the room lights cut to total blackness, your brain loses its primary sensory coordinates: gravity, sight, and temperature contrast. An overhead infrared heater keeps the room air warm, leaving you suspended in a silent, dark void while downtown traffic hums oblivious a few yards away.
What it's like
Book your appointment online well ahead of time, as sessions fill up. Once inside your private suite, you'll lock the door, strip down, insert the provided earplugs, shower off, and step into the warm salt water. The lights and intro music fade automatically, though there's a manual light button right by the pool if total darkness starts playing tricks on your head. When soft music swells to signal the end of your hour, take your time in the post-float shower—skip a thorough rinse and you'll emerge into Decatur coated in a white salt crust. Give yourself ten minutes in the tea lounge before heading out; stepping straight onto Clairemont Avenue's flower-painted crosswalk after an hour of sensory isolation makes the outside world feel outrageously vivid.
The move: Book side-by-side private float rooms for an hour of shared silence and darkness, then surface groggy and blinking into downtown Decatur and walk the flower crosswalk before grabbing coffee on the square.
- 📍 Downtown Decatur
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Indoor or outdoor
Where: 111 Clairemont Avenue, Decatur, GA 30030
Hours: Added 2026-07-19 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- S.O.S. Tiki Bar — Walk a single block off the square to trade total sensory silence for rum cocktails and midcentury Polynesian kitsch.
- Decatur Healing Arts — Double down on Decatur salt rituals with a six-minute walk to recline on a coarse-ground salt floor against glowing Himalayan brick.
- Plaza Theatre — Follow an hour of pitch-black sensory isolation with an indie screening three miles away at Atlanta's oldest operating movie house.
Good to know
What should I bring or wear for my float session?
Bring nothing. Private suites come equipped with towels, robes, earplugs, and shower products. Most people float completely nude, as swimwear traps salt against skin and creates unwanted tactile friction.
What if I get claustrophobic in sensory deprivation?
Float Atlanta built open, lidless rectangular pools set inside private soundproof rooms rather than enclosed pods. You retain full control over your room's lighting and can turn the lights on or step out whenever you want.
How will I know when my 60 minutes are finished?
You don't need a watch or phone. When your session ends, ambient music gently fades back in through the room speakers and the lights slowly brighten to bring you out of the float state.
Is floating safe if I don't know how to swim?
Yes. The 1,500 pounds of Epsom salt makes the water so dense that floating requires zero effort or swimming ability; your body rests effortlessly on the surface.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site
last checked: 2026-07-19