Koreans have this one spot they’ve been hitting up their whole lives. kids go there to mess around, young adults go to binge on food, and older folks go to reset their dead bodies. welcome to the korean spa.
Korean women, especially ahjummas, are literally obsessed. I used to hate how hot and suffocating it felt when I was younger, but being a korean woman means you end up here sooner or later lol. And honestly? The older I get, the more it hits. Going here during a freezing korean winter is actual heaven 😇
While spas in other countries are kinda basic, a korean spa is a whole event. Here’s a quick taste.
💦 What even is a korean spa?
With wellness trending, 20s and 30s women are pulling up to chill and self-care, while ahjummas have been holding it down forever. it gets your blood flowing and melts stress away. Plus, it gives a slight assist with weight loss. imo this is where real-deal k-beauty actually lives.
1. How to use a korean spa
- Throw your shoes in the locker
- Trade your shoe key at the desk for a clothes locker key + pay up
- Change into the matching spa clothes
- Hang out in the common area and use the random facilities
- Hit the bathhouse & saunas
- Return your key, pay any extra balance, get your shoe key back
note: at bigger spots, you just tap your wristband key to buy food/stuff and pay everything when you leave.🫢
2. Korean Spa = sauna(사우나) + jjimjilbang(찜질방) + mogyoktang(목욕탕)
- Mogyoktang(bathhouse): Korean public bathhouses. fully naked zone, strictly split by gender, all about washing and soaking.
- Jjimjilbang(찜질방): co-ed hangout spot where you wear the matching clothes, eat, and roast in hot rooms.
- Sauna(사우나): hot rooms inside the bathhouse, or just slang for the whole building.
- Korean Spa Spots
- Seoul
- Dongdaemun sparex: 70%+ foreigners, packed on weekends, mid overall, open 24/7, food menu open 24/7 (expensive though).
- Dongmyo sparex: clean, spacious, pretty cheap, way more room options than other places.
- Soopsok Hanbang Land: Famous for 3-second pork belly. They place a handy grill loaded with pork belly straight into the 1,500°C charcoal fire used to heat the kiln, flash-cooking it in literally 3 seconds.
- Outside Seoul
- Starfield aquafield: inside starfield malls. super clean, modern, family-friendly, but kinda pricey.
- Icheon seolbong hot spring: hot springs + saunas (they have private family rooms which is a huge vibe).
- Pocheon jeil sulfur hot spring: famous for elite water quality. beauty tiktoker/youtuber woorin said it beats super expensive hot springs in japan.
- Pocheon sinbuk resort: has a water park so it’s good for kids, but the water feels more like a regular bathhouse than a real hot spring.
- Seoul
😶🌫️ Sauna(사우나) Types
- dry sauna: insanely hot and bone-dry.
- steam sauna: lower temp, but super humid and moist.
- hanjeungmak (traditional kiln): old-school dome made of clay/stone heated with real wood.
- women-only kilns: way more low-key and private. spots like spa lei are highly recommended. 🤫 inside scoop: gangnam women-only saunas are super clean, but locals avoid going super late at night/early morning because night-shift workers tend to crowd the spot then.
🥵 Jjimjilbang(찜질방) Stuff
🐏 Jjimjilbang in K-Drama
You’ve probably already seen a jjimjilbang in a K-drama. In those couple date scenes, they’re usually rocking matching brown, orange, or pink-and-blue outfits with towel sheep-heads on. In comedy scenes, they’ll grab baked eggs and smash them directly onto each other’s foreheads to crack them open.
🥚 Jjimjilbang Food
Koreans have an unwritten rule menu for jjimjilbangs. For light snacks, everyone goes for sikhye (sweet rice drink), iced mix coffee, baked eggs, or hot bars. Once you finish sweating it out, the real meal begins: warm seaweed soup to melt your whole body, crispy tonkatsu, or even real-deal K-BBQ at places like Soopsok Hanbang Land.
🧖♀️ Raw Traditional K-Beauty Experience in Mogyoktang(Bathhouse)
- Rinse First: Quick shower before stepping into the tub is a absolute must!
- Jump into hot water to soften up your skin : Half-body bath for blood circulation & opening up pores.
- Scrub your body like sandpaper : Regular physical exfoliation, scrubbing culture, the classic Italy towel standard.
- Hot Tub ♾️ Cold Tub: Tempering your body? : Going back and forth between hot and cold tubs gives you that skin lift-up feeling..
- 🫠 Traditional method
- Waterfalls in some bathhouses..? : You can stand under a waterfall like a martial arts master in an Asian action movie. Why is it even there? Fr, it’s for massaging your shoulders and back with heavy falling water. It’s ice cold and hurts pretty bad. It’s kinda hard to find waterfalls in bathhouses these days. But if you spot one.. you have to win a staring contest against Korean grandmas to try it out, but it’s totally worth it. Still, Korean grandmas are strong.
- Rubbing Yogurt (Even if it’s strawberry yogurt..): Urban legend that it makes skin soft + hydration. It’s banned nowadays due to cleanliness issues inside bathhouses. These days, the Dove Body Scrub, popular as the item TWICE’s Nayeon uses, is trendy.
- Cucumber Pack: Cucumbers have tons of moisture. Slap thinly sliced cucumbers on your face to restore sweat and moisture lost in saunas and bathhouses. Let’s just do this at home tbh. Regular sheet masks are fine though.
- On top of that, in women-only saunas, you can experience the ahjummas’ inside community, massages, shaving, nail art and various other services.
🤫 Inside scoop: The mandatory wrap-up is the chubby banana milk for all ages. Not sure where it started, but Koreans share a collective core memory of going to the bathhouse holding their parents’ hands as kids and sipping banana milk on the way out.
Check out previous posts before hitting up a Korean Spa 👀
[K-Beauty] How to Shop at Olive Young Like a Korean Local
[K-Trend] The Private Sauna in Seoul