Everything you need to know about Spa Land in Busan

If you’ve never been to a Jimjilbang, or a Korean spa, I can’t think of a better introduction than the gorgeous facilities at Spa Land in Busan to get acquainted with Jimjilbang culture. Spa Land is foreigner-friendly and has enough to do to spend 4-6 hours there.

How to use the spa at Spa Land

Spa Land is located in a mall in Centum City. When you enter, you pay the basic 23,000 won fee, which gives you access to the whole facility for 4 hours. If you spend over 10,000 won per person above that, you get an additional two hours of spa time. It’s incredibly easy to spend that much even if you just have lunch, but I highly recommend doing one of the treatments. But more on that below.

At the cash desk, you get a key, which will work for the shoe locker and a bigger locker in the changing room. When you proceed upstairs, you immediately remove your shoes and place them in the locker according to the key number you were given. Then you proceed to the bath robe desk where they give you a clean spa outfit, which is the only thing you can wear inside, along with two small towels. The “bath robe” actually consists of shorts and a t-shirt. At this point, men go into the men’s locker room and women go into the women’s locker room. From here, you change and leave your items in the locker, and you can begin your exploration of Spa Land.

Throughout your stay, whether you pay for food or treatments or snacks, you will use your locker key to charge all your items. When it’s time to leave, you can settle up your debt at the cash desk on your way out.

The naked part of Spa Land

From the gendered locker rooms, you can either access the hot spring baths, which are nude only, or the saunas, restaurant, etc, which you must wear your spa clothing to visit. A lot of foreigners are really prickly about getting naked in a room full of strangers. I, too, have experienced that kind of social insecurity. But encourage you to overcome this so you can experience the very best part of Spa Land.

The naked hot pools consist of natural spring waters that are pumped up from underground and sanitized continuously throughout the day. There are several pools, some hotter than others, and some with massaging whirlpools. To additionally ensure hygiene in the pools, you are required to shower before you enter. If you’re not familiar with Korean beauty products, trust me, you will want to wash your hair with this shampoo.

The nude pool part of the spa is gendered. Women bathe with other women, and men bathe with other men. Which is kind of a bummer if you’re visiting as a heterosexual couple, but still worth trying in my opinion. As someone who had never done a fully nude bath before, it felt very freeing… empowering even. All types of women of all shapes, sizes, and ages enjoyed the baths with no shyness or reservations.

At the baths, you can also try out one of the spa’s most popular individual treatments, the body scrub. The basic scrub lasts about 30 minutes. You lay own on a plastic bed (yes, in a room with other nude people getting a scrub), and you let one of the women scrub your body to death. It felt like she was trying to sand my tattoos off, but frankly, I needed that service. The amount of dead skin that came off my body during that scrub was unimaginable. And it was only $25. There are also longer treatments that include a massage.

The clothed part of Spa Land

If you’re adamant about not showing off your goods in the natural spring baths, don’t worry. The vast majority of the facilities at Spa Land are clothed and thus, co-ed. From the lockers, you can walk to the sauna area, where you’ll find outdoor foot pools and around a dozen sauna rooms and theme rooms that are not so hot but have other wellness benefits like ion or salt rooms. Unlike European saunas, many of the saunas don’t have seating. People instead sit or lie down on the floor. And the temperatures at many of them are relatively mild so people can and do doze off. Around the sauna area, there are various relaxation areas where you’ll find people napping or playing on their phone.

In the sauna area, you’ll also find a snack bar where you can get some refreshments and redeem your complimentary soft serve ice cream voucher which is included with the price of admission. If you want a more substantial meal, you can head up to the second floor where you’ll find a restaurant with floor seating and a café. Here you’ll be able to get anything from light snacks to a full-blown lunch/dinner. Like I said, even if you don’t pay for anything else, lunch will comfortably get you the extra two hours of spa time.

On the second floor, you’ll also find a small game room, a room where you can do yoga and other stretches, and the Shim Spa, where you can get a host of private treatments. If you don’t want to pay 90,000 won for a massage, you can pay 3,500 won for a 15-minute full-body massage from one of the pod chairs in front of the restaurant. And I do mean full-body, from the bottom of your feet all the way up to your neck.

Individual treatments at Spa Land

At Shim Spa, which is the priciest part of Spa Land, you can pay for full body massages, facial treatments, or foot massages. Located on the second floor of the facility, you can make an appointment at the front desk, but if they have availability, they’ll take you right away. On the first floor, you’ll also find a nail salon where you can get a mani pedi or a foot treatment to get rid of your callouses.

Of course, the most popular treatment at Spa Land is the aforementioned body scrub, which is only accessible through the pool area. Booking it was a little tricky, because there’s only a room where people are giving scrubs. I peeked inside a couple of times and left because I didn’t want to interrupt. Eventually I got lucky, and a couple of the ladies came outside to add something to the schedule, which is a whiteboard just outside the scrub room. They were able to squeeze me in with no wait.

Tips for visiting Spa Land in Busan

The spa is fairly popular with locals and tourists, so the best days to visit are on weekdays when it’s likelier to be quiet and peaceful.

Even though Spa Land is open daily until 10 pm, you’re also likely to experience less crowding in the morning. We arrived at noon and by 1 -2 pm, everything was substantially busier.

You’ll find a tutorial on how to tie your towel into the traditional sheep head/Princess Leia shape at the entrance of the sauna area.

Phones are obviously not allowed in the locker or the all-nude pools, but many people bring their phones for entertainment to the sauna and relaxation areas.

There are also cubbies outside the saunas for you to leave personal belongings while you get your sweat on.

An oft asked-question… yes, tattoos are totally fine in Spa Land. My wife and I both have tattoos, and we saw people with even bigger tattoos in the pools and the spa overall, both Koreans and non-Koreans. The staff obviously don’t care because they were even willing to give me a body scrub with all my ink.

Though you walk around the entire facility barefoot, the entrances to the bathrooms have sandals you can use so you don’t have to be barefoot around the toilet. If there are no sandals outside, there is probably a line to get inside, so you can just wait for someone to come out to use the sandals.

Don’t skip the post-spa shower and treatments. When you’re ready to call it a day, you can shower and use their high-quality shampoo and body wash, and then you can swing by the vanity where you’ll find hair treatment serum and anti-wrinkle cream along with hair dryers.

But my ultimate tip is to clear your day for Spa Land. Don’t plan anything afterwards so you don’t have to rush out when you’re in the throes of ultimate relaxation. It’s probably the best spa experience I’ve ever had anywhere in the world. Spa Land is a 10/10 and is not to be missed when you’re visiting Busan.