The short version
Buy only the bath at the counter and you get no clothes. The jjimjilbang is the floor you use in those clothes, shared by men and women, so the outfit is effectively the ticket. The bathing side is naked and separated by sex, and it is priced apart from the start.
Last verified:
Deadlines that matter
Minors without a guardian
By when: Until 10pm
If you miss it: A bathhouse open around the clock has to keep under 19s out between 10pm and 5am. A parent coming along, or a signed parental consent form, is the exception.
Your sauna floor time
By when: Until the hour printed on the price board
If you miss it: Each place sets its own limit, either a number of hours or a time the next day, and going past it means paying again. The board at the counter is where that rule lives.
Right now
- 1Bathing and the sauna floor are priced separately. If you want the jjimjilbang, say so at the counter, because that is what gets you the clothes.
- 2Wash at a shower station before you get into any pool. Getting that order right is most of what separates you from a first timer.
- 3No swimsuits and no underwear in the bathing area. Men and women are in completely separate rooms, which is why it works that way.
What to have ready
- A change of underwear: For after the bath. Towels and sauna clothes normally come from the counter.
- Some cash: The snack bar and the scrub service still refuse cards in some places.
- A hair tie or shower cap: If your hair is long. Keeping hair out of the water is basic manners here.
- Passport or Alien Registration Card (ARC): Worth having if you are with someone under 19, since late hours are checked.
Phrases you can copy and paste
Step by step
- 1
Start by reading the sign
Legally both are the same category. The Public Health Control Act splits bathhouse businesses in two: places with facilities for washing in water, and places where heated stones such as elvan, ocher or jade give off heat you sweat in. The first is what people mean by mogyoktang, the second is the jjimjilbang. That is why signs carry a mix of words: bath, sauna, jjimjilbang, bulgama. Plenty of buildings have both, but neighbourhood bathhouses with only pools still exist, and that is where people who came for the sauna floor find there isn't one.
- 2
Decide at the counter what you are buying
- Where:
- The front desk
You put your shoes in a shoe locker first and take the key out. Hand that key to the counter and they will ask whether you are only bathing or using the sauna floor too. The price board has to be posted at the desk, so you can read the numbers instead of asking. Buying the sauna option gets you a short sleeved top and shorts, which is the jjimjilbok, plus a locker key. Inside, that key works as your wallet. Anything at the snack bar or the scrub table is usually not paid for on the spot; it goes on your key number and you settle everything on the way out.
- 3
In the bathing area you wear nothing
Everything goes in the locker and you carry one towel in. This is not a place for a swimsuit or underwear. The enforcement rule bars anyone aged 5 or older from entering a bathing room or changing room of the opposite sex, so a child past that age goes with the same sex parent. Inside, low stools and shower heads run along the walls. You sit there and wash, and only then get into a pool. Skipping that and going straight in is the mistake people notice. There are usually two or three pools at different temperatures plus a cold one. Photography is not allowed anywhere in here.
- 4
Change into the sauna clothes and the floor becomes mixed
Once you have bathed and put on the jjimjilbok, you can go out to the shared floor. A rule says that a sweating room used by men and women together has to be entered in sweating clothes, so handing you an outfit is a requirement rather than a courtesy. The rooms vary in name and temperature. A bulgama, heated over stone, takes your breath away when the door opens. A salt room or an ocher room is mild enough to lie in for a while, and the ice room is the opposite. The hot ones are not endurance tests: a few minutes, out to cool down, back in. Dizziness or a tight chest means you have already stayed too long.
- 5
Snacks, comics and the night
Half of a jjimjilbang is not the bathing but the hours of lying around afterwards. The snack bar almost always has boiled eggs and sikhye, a sweet cold rice drink. Cracking the egg on your own forehead is an old bit of clowning. The wide wooden floor has shelves of comic books, massage chairs and a television, and people simply lie down on it. If the place runs 24 hours you can sleep in the rest room and leave in the morning, though as a bed it comes with bright lights and other people's snoring. Pillows are usually blocks of wood or plastic.
- 6
The body scrub is asked for separately and paid for separately
If there is a bed shaped table at the back of the bathing area with someone standing beside it, that is the sesin station. Your skin is softened first and then scrubbed, and it is not included in the entry price; each place sets its own rate. To book, write your name or key number down before you get in the water and wait your turn. Half an hour moving between the pools and the hot rooms softens the skin enough, so calling your turn after that feels natural. It can be firmer than you expect the first time. If it hurts, say so rather than putting up with it.
- 7
Hand the key back and pay once on the way out
Returning the locker key settles everything charged to it, and that is when you get your shoe key back. Losing a key usually means a replacement fee, so keeping it on your wrist the whole time is easier. Going in after drinking is a bad idea: blood vessels are already dilated, and long stretches at high heat on top of that is where it turns dangerous, which is why some places will not admit anyone who has been drinking. Have a glass of water before you go, because the hot rooms take more out of you than it feels like. Then you push the door open with your hair still damp and the outside air feels unusually cold, and those few seconds are part of it too.
The Korean words
- 목욕탕mogyoktang, public bath
- The pools. Clothes off, and men and women are separated.
- 찜질방jjimjilbang, sauna lounge
- The shared floor you use in the clothes they lend you.
- 찜질복jjimjilbok, sauna clothes
- The T shirt and shorts handed over at the counter.
- 불가마bulgama, hot kiln room
- The hottest sweating room. Go in for a few minutes at a time.
- 세신sesin, body scrub
- The paid scrub service, also called ttaemiri.
- 신발장sinbaljang, shoe locker
- The rack at the entrance. Its key goes to the counter.
- 탈의실taluisil, changing room
- The locker room, right outside the bathing area.
- 온탕 / 냉탕ontang / naengtang, warm pool / cold pool
- Many places post the temperature above each pool.
Easy to miss
- Getting into a pool without washing first. Sitting at a shower station comes before the water.
- Buying the bath ticket and then heading up to the sauna floor. Without the clothes you cannot go in there.
- Taking your phone into the changing room or the bathing area. Photography is banned throughout, and even the suspicion is a problem.
- A large visible tattoo can still get you turned away at the door in some places. That is house policy rather than law, so a phone call ahead settles it.
- Going to the snack bar without your key. Purchases are charged to the key number, so without it you cannot buy anything.
- Arriving after drinking. The heat and alcohol together are more than the body handles well.
You can skip this if
- If undressing is the sticking point, you can buy only the sauna option. Plenty of people skip the pools and use the hot rooms and the floor.
- If you are after hot springs, that is a different category. Oncheon draw water from underground and are searched for separately from city bathhouses.
- Hotel saunas are usually for guests only and have no sauna floor. It is not the same experience described here.
When it is time for a person
- If you are trying to settle on a regular bathhouse near home, someone who knows the neighbourhood makes it quicker.
Where this comes from
Rules, fees and deadlines change and depend on your exact case. Please confirm the details with the official sources before you act.