Massage near Menlo Park, after work and until 10 PM

Until 10 PM, seven nights a week, and doors open at 9:30 AM. Leave Menlo Park at 7 PM and even a 90 minute session ends well before closing.

For most people, an hour of Swedish massage. It covers the whole body in long, even strokes at light to medium pressure. If the day has settled into your neck, shoulders or lower back, book deep tissue instead: the same hour, worked slower and firmer with more time on the areas you name, for $10 more.

On a night when you would rather be home by nine, 30 minutes of deep tissue is enough for one problem area.

Hot stone and cupping are $20 each, and a body scrub is $30. Each is a ten-minute add-on attached to a massage you have booked, so an hour of Swedish with hot stone comes to $100. Cupping can leave round marks that take a few days to fade, so leave it off before an occasion where they would show.

Right outside the door. There is street parking in front of W Spa, and the streets around it are free to park on, so most visits start with a space on the block. The City of Palo Alto lists short-term downtown parking as free with no permit, which covers a 60 minute massage and the walk at either end.

On-street spaces downtown are generally limited to 2 hours. Downtown is also split into four color zones, and once your time runs out, re-parking in the same zone on the same day can be ticketed. The city's color-zone map says those limits apply from 8 AM to 5 PM, Monday to Friday, holidays excepted, so parking for a weekday visit after 5 PM falls outside the hours the map states.

Where a posted sign says something different, the sign governs. Read it on Saturdays in particular, because published guidance on weekend limits is inconsistent.

Walk to the 400 block of Waverley Street, between University and Lytton avenues. A 7-Eleven sits at the Lytton Avenue corner of the same block, a minute or two from the spa.

Pick the length first and count back from when you want to be home. An hour on the table, the drive each way and a few minutes to park and walk over come to about an hour and a half door to door.

How much pressure you want, where you want the time spent, and anything medical. The NCCIH summary of massage therapy describes the risk of harm as low, with rare reports of serious problems such as a blood clot, nerve injury or bone fracture, some of them after vigorous techniques such as deep tissue massage.

Mention recent surgery, a clotting problem or blood thinners, a recent fracture or osteoporosis before the work begins, and say if you are pregnant. Prenatal massage is its own booking at W Spa, from $100 for 60 minutes, usually worked side-lying with pillows for support.

If you book aromatherapy massage, mention any scent that bothers you before the essential oils go on.