The head spa in Overlake, Redmond sits above a free garage

You need two street names. 152nd Ave NE runs north-south along the west side of the block; NE Shen St runs east-west along the south side. The garage under the block opens onto both of them, so whichever of the two your map app hands you, you are arriving at a working entrance rather than the wrong side of a building. Put 15220 NE Shen St, Redmond, WA 98052 into the app and drive to the block itself, not to a shopfront.

Overlake is built out of big blocks, and this one is mixed use — hotel rooms, offices, suites, and a garage running underneath all of it. That mix is why first-time guests circle twice. The signage you can read from the road belongs to the Aloft and the Element; what you actually want is a suite number inside the building, and suite numbers are not legible from a moving car.

Park before you look, not after. Driving the perimeter hunting for a spa front is the slow way round, and on a wet Tuesday at 9:40 at night it is the miserable way too. Take the first garage entrance you reach, leave the car, and do the last stretch on foot — the walk is short and the numbering is easy to read once you are out of the driver's seat.

The car stops in the garage and the studio is in the building above it, so there is a short walk in between and no spa entrance anywhere among the parked cars. Look for the banner with the lotus mark on it; the red arrow is pointing at the way up. From there the route runs north and into the block rather than back out to NE Shen St.

Once you are on foot the job changes from scanning for a sign to reading numbers, and the numbers you want are suite numbers rather than hotel room numbers. One hundred and ninety. The door carries the studio's name and, printed on the glass, the fact that walk-ins are welcome.

That line on the glass is a real policy — a therapist who is free will take you — but it is a policy with an evening queue behind it, and the two rooms built for two guests each are the first things to go on a Friday. Print on a door is not the same as a slot in a book. If the plan involves a particular hour, or a second person, call (425) 497-9700 first.

A bag can come up with you or stay in the car, and neither choice commits you to anything, because the car is parked under the same building you are standing in and fetching something is a walk rather than a trip. If a second guest is driving separately, agree on the front desk rather than the kerb. NE Shen St outside is hotel frontage, and two people trying to spot each other on it will spend longer than either of them took to park.

If you end up turned around — it happens, especially in the dark, especially the first time — call (425) 497-9700 and someone will talk you in. That is quicker than another lap of the block, and the phone is answered until 10 PM every night.

The studio runs 10 AM to 10 PM every day of the week, which is what makes an Overlake stop work on either side of a workday — a 10:30 booking on a work-from-home Wednesday, a five o'clock before dinner, a nine o'clock on the way home. The open-late guide has the last usable start time for every length.

The head spa ladder has six rungs and the table below carries all of them, $70 at the bottom and $130 at the top. Every massage length, facial, scrub and package sits on the head spa price guide, which is where to look if you are pricing a longer visit. Whichever tier you land on, the hands-on part of it is massage — scalp, neck, the tops of the shoulders — which the American Massage Therapy Association frames as part of a general health and wellness routine rather than a medical appointment.

If you are choosing between the two halves of the menu, the pillar guides are the place to start. The head spa guide covers what happens at the basin and which tier suits which hair; the massage guide covers pressure, length and cupping. If this Overlake trip is a post-work one rather than a weekend one, the after-work page is about the six-to-ten window specifically.

Redmond is the home address, but on any given evening the garage takes cars from Bellevue, Kirkland, Sammamish, Bothell, Woodinville, Issaquah and Duvall. The approach is identical from all of them: reach the block, take either garage entrance, park, then walk up to a door with a number on it.

• Massage runs 30 to 120 minutes: $50 for a 30-minute back massage, $80 at 60 minutes, $120 at 90, $160 at 120. Cupping is sold inside a massage rather than on its own: $70 at 30 minutes, $100 at 60, $140 at 90, $180 at 120.
• Add-ons carry their own minutes: eye steam mask 10 minutes, $10; essential oils 15 minutes, $20; ear candling 15 minutes, $30; Scalp Analysis 10 minutes, $30.
• Packages fold two services into one visit: 90 minutes at $130, 120 minutes at $160, 150 minutes at $200 — each one the sum of its two parts rather than a discount.
• Two guests, one room: couples massage is 60 minutes and $160 for the pair, and the double packages run $260 to $420.