From admission fees to gender-separated bathing rules, what foreign visitors need to know before a jjimjilbang visit

Adam, a Canadian traveler, showed up at Spa Land, a bathhouse-sauna complex on the first floor of the Shinsegae Department Store Centum City branch in Busan, at eleven at night, trusting a blog post that said "Korean jjimjilbang saunas are open 24 hours." He had to turn around right at the ticket counter, because it had already closed at 9 p.m. and he could not even buy an entry ticket.

At a glance: Spa Land (35 Centum-nam-daero, Haeundae-gu, Busan, 1st floor of Shinsegae Department Store Centum City) hours 09:00-22:00 (last admission 21:00), admission adults 26,000 won, students 21,000 won (one ticket covers 4 hours, with a 5,000-won surcharge per extra hour), inquiries 1668-2850 / Riverside Spa Land (45 Guuigangbyeon-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul) open 24 hours every day of the year, admission daytime sauna adults 13,000 won, daytime jjimjilbang adults 15,000 won, nighttime jjimjilbang (20:00-05:00) adults 17,000 won, inquiries 02-455-3737.

Korean jjimjilbang saunas are widely known as places that "never close," but that is not true of every one of them. Neighborhood-style sauna-jjimjilbang such as Seoul's Riverside Spa Land often really do run 24 hours a day year-round, but a large hot-spring theme facility inside a department store, like Busan's Spa Land, closes nightly at 10 p.m. and stops admitting guests a full hour before that. Without checking the hours in advance, a visitor can lose travel time and taxi fare only to be turned away at the door, exactly as Adam was.

The entry routine itself can also feel unfamiliar on a first visit. According to Korea.net, run by the Korea Culture and Information Service under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, a visitor buys a ticket at the counter and receives a cotton set of loungewear called jjimjilbok, then enters a gender-separated public bath, showers, and only after that changes into the jjimjilbok to step out into the shared common area used by men and women together. In other words, the bath itself is not a swimming pool but a communal bathhouse entered with no clothing at all, men's and women's sections are kept completely separate, and swimwear is not permitted inside it.

Exactly how much of a towel or toiletries is covered by the admission fee differs by facility, and no official source lays out a common standard for it. Both Spa Land and Riverside Spa Land include the jjimjilbok as part of the ticket price, but whether a large bath towel or shampoo is provided on top of that is not spelled out in detail on either website, so a first-time visitor does better to bring a small towel and toiletries of their own.

Not knowing the fee structure also means paying more. At Busan's Spa Land, a single admission covers only four hours, after which a 5,000-won surcharge applies for every additional hour, while at Riverside Spa Land entering after 8 p.m. means paying 17,000 won for the same jjimjilbang that costs 2,000 won less during the day. Knowing this pricing in advance, on the other hand, lets a visitor work out which time of day to go in order to avoid spending more than necessary.