Spa Land Centum City In Busan Is The Best Korean Spa In Korea

Whether you live in Korea or are just coming in to visit for a short time, a visit to a local Korean sauna or Korean bath house is an absolute must. The jjimjilbang, or Korean spa, is a part of culture that I have grown to love.

Did it take some time to get comfortable hanging out in the buff with strangers? It sure did. Is it necessary to be nude when you visit? At some point. But is it absolutely worth it to visit a Korean bath house and experience the exfoliating, the heat therapies, and more? Yes yes, 1000 times yes and the premier place to do it is most definitely at Spa Land Centum City (스파랜드 센텀시티) in Busan, Korea.

Feel free to skip around. Here’s what you can find in this post:

• How To Get To SpaLand Centum City
• Basic Information
• What To Know About Spa Land
• What To Do Inside of Spa Land
  • Get Naked… and Dressed
  • Visit The Various Saunas
  • Eat Something
  • Find The Entertainment Zones
  • Head Outdoors
  • Get Naked For The Baths & Get Exfoliated

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How To Get To Spa Land Centum City

If you’re headed down to Busan for your next trip, definitely make this a stop on the itinerary. The best Korean bath house in the country is waiting. Don’t miss it!

If you’re heading down to Busan from Seoul, check out this guide to Busan know how to get there either by flight, train, or bus. If you’ll be visiting Busan, make sure you know where to stay near the things you want to see. The city is long so if you want to see things on the east side, don’t stay on the west side! Check out my guide to hotels in Busan to help you figure out the best areas to stay in for you! Which neighborhood will suit you? Let’s find out.

Address: 35 Centumnam-daero, Haeundae-gu, Busan (부산광역시 해운대구 센텀남대로 35 (우동))

By Subway: If you plan to travel by subway while you’re in Busan, which you should because it’ll really get you all over the place, make sure you have your T-Money card and get it topped up. Take the subway to Centum City Station on line 2 and go out of exit 12. Walk straight for 110 meters to find the entrance to the spa.

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Basic Information

Hours: 6:00am ~ 11:00pm

Admission: 

• Adults: W17,000 (weekdays) & W20,000 (weekends and public holidays)*
• Students 8-18: W13,000 (weekdays) & W16,000 (weekends and public holidays)*
• Discounts: Check out the deal on KKday before you go as they offer discounts throughout the year.
• Notes: The basic ticket is good for 4 hours. Upon leaving, your wrist key will be scanned to add up the charges from inside and should you go over four hours, you pay an additional W3,000 per hour. HOWEVER, if you spend at least W10,000 inside (which isn’t difficult if you get a drink and lunch or a snack) then you can stay an additional 2 hours without an extra charge.

What To Bring: You don’t really need to bring anything other than yourself because they provide you with a tee-shirt and shorts to be worn in the sauna and there are towels, shampoo and shower gel in the washroom. However, if you want your own toiletries, you can take them and use them inside.

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What To Know About Spa Land

Spa Land is gigantic and known for having hot spring water with sodium bicarbonate that is pumped in through pipes that descend 100 meters underground. The hot spring water is close to sea water and fills 18 different hot springs in the building. That’s not the only pull though. Spa Land features 13 different sauna and spa areas, which are sterilized 36 times a day.

There are two types of water that are pumped into the pools. One is a sodium bicarbonate hot spring which is said to remove dead skin cells and make your skin and hair shiny. The other is the sodium chloride hot spring which is more similar to sea water and has heat preservation effects that are good for circulation and help to relieve pain from neuralgia and backaches.

It might just be the best jjimjilbang in the country. It’s definitely one of the most popular. The multi-floor complex is located inside the world’s largest Shinsegae Department Store which is located in Centum City, Busan.

The spa and sauna is pretty amazingly budget friendly for all that it offers. Yes, you do need to spend extra money inside if you want food or the scrub for example, but it’s amazing experience that definitely won’t break the bank is my point.

I half expected the spa to be insanely busy and crowded but was happily surprised to find it practically empty on a recent visit. The current times mean that people are spreading out and generally outside so visiting Spa Land with the Wellness Tourism Supporters worked out splendidly for us and the few other people that opted for a spa day on a recent Saturday.

Unlike other jjimjilbangs, this one is NOT open 24 hours a day. This is something important to note as jjimjilbangs are often popular spots for people to spend the night if they don’t want a hotel because you could easily crash for a few hours and do it on the cheap. However, Spa Land is NOT the place to do that because they just won’t be open.

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What To Do Inside of Spa Land

Get Naked… and Dressed

First things first, get naked… and then get dressed again. Okay, so it’s important to know what you’ll be doing and where you’ll be going and the order in which you should do everything. When you’re going to be sitting in, sweating in, and getting hot in saunas, you don’t need to shower first.

So find your locker, strip and then change into the shorts and tee-shirt that were provided outside. Then follow signs to head out to the male/female sauna space. You should probably take a walk around to see how everything is connected and where everything is because it’s gigantic.

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Visit The Various Saunas

Get your lay of the land and just take in the architecture because it is quite stunning. Each sauna space is interesting too but the overall white industrial feel of the sloping ceiling and the numerous windows is just lovely to walk beneath and check out.

There are 13 distinctively themed sauna rooms which include the: Finnish Sauna, Yellow Earth Room, Roman Room, Pyramid Room, Body Sound Room, Wave-Dream Room, Hard Wood Charcoal Room, Hamam Room, Bali Room, SEV Room, Ice Room. Outside of each room is a placard with the current temperature inside as well as an explanation about the room in both Korean and English.

The Salt Room is kept at a very steamy 50.5C and uses world-famous rough salt stones from the Himalayas. Skin helps the skin while removing body wastes. The salt helps with various skin ailments and diseases and promotes blood circulation and is extremely efficient in increasing immunity. If you can last in the heat, definitely check it out.

The Roman Room was another one of my favorites because of the design and comfort in the space. The room, kept at a comfortably hot 35.8C reproduces an old public bath of Rome and is a steam sauna. Steam activates the metabolism and helps eliminate body wastes.

The Hammam Room, kept at 36.6C is a room that reproduces the old Hammam style public baths of Turkey. This medium temperature room was very comfortable, especially after some of those very hot hot rooms we stopped into.

The SEV Room is a really interesting room that was never empty when we visited even with the small number of people so I didn’t get pictures, but it’s a very coloful space kept around 37.9C. It uses patented technology from Korea, Japan, the US and EU which compounds natural ore and metal to generate electrons.

Emitting these electrons to your body helps your tired body quickly recover by activating cell function while promoting the metabolism. Each corner is a different color with bright magenta, neon green, and blue so it’s quite impressive to see.

The Ice Room was a very welcome break to cool off between some of those hottest of rooms. Kept at 13.7C, the room reduces your body heat and makes your skin pores shrink and discharge body wastes. It promotes blood circulation… but just remember the room when you’re trying to cool off.

The Yellow Orcher Room: This super hot hot room is kept at 65.6C uses high quality ocher produced in Icheon. Applying yellow ocher mortar, it was designed to maximize the effects of yellow ocher. The infrared rays emitted by yellow ocher stabilizes brain waves and is effective in keeping your mental health. It helps to neutralize poisons, fight bacteria, and stops bleeding.

You get the jist, there are a lot of rooms with a lot of healing power. Enjoy enjoy enjoy all of the spaces. Take your time and check them out. If you’re with a group of people or a friend, don’t be surprised if you’re attracted to different spaces and different temperatures. It’s all about finding what suits you so walk around and enjoy them at your leisure.

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Eat Something

There are plenty of standard Korean options to choose from on the menu and most dishes cost around W10,000 so it’s easy to spend the required W10,000 if you want to get that extra two hours inside for free. There’s also a cafe where you can get coffee though the drink of choice while in a Korean sauna is a vinegar drink to help you clean out the system.

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Find The Entertainment Zones

There is also an entertainment zone, relaxation room, beauty treatments room, DVD room, restaurant, cafe and snack bar on the premises so you could feasibly stay there the entire day. We stayed for 4 hours and had plenty to do. Don’t feel like you’re in a rush because the whole point is to have your own unique relaxing experience inside.

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Head Outdoors

There’s also an outdoor co-ed area where you can soak your feet in baths that are various temperatures and the bottom of the pools are covered in little pebbles that you should walk on which Koreans will tell you is good for your health. I think it’s a bit uncomfortable myself but I took a few passes.

There are also some super comfortable places to relax in the outdoor area as well. Lots of relaxing, lots of fun.

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Get Naked For The Baths & Get Exfoliated

Once all of the saunas have been visited, it’s time to head back into the gender-separated locker rooms to undress and then head into the baths. This is where foreigners might have the most discomfort, but light the butterflies fill your belly for a moment and soon enough you’ll realize it’s stranger wearing clothes inside than being nude.

Everyone else is naked so you only stand out when you’re not. If you want to prepare yourself for the step by step of what happens inside of a Korean shower room, then check out this guide to the Korean bath house to help you.

When you enter the bathing room, if you are looking for that all important Korean exfoliation experience, then turn left right after you go through the glass doors to find the sign up board. One of the scrubbing women, who you can easily recognize as they’re the only people wearing any sorts of clothes (underwear and a bra), will come to greet you to figure out when they can get you in.

You need to soak for at least 20-30 minutes before you actually get scrubbed with the iconic Korean Italy Towel so make sure you keep that in mind, but they’ll tell you too.

Now you’ve signed up for a scrub, the next thing to do is shower. Yes, you need to clean your sweaty self up before you go soak in the pools. Don’t forget this step or you’ll get some not so happy looks from the Korean locals also there. Wash thoroughly. There is shampoo and shower gel available and cloths to scrub. After washing, put your hair up or back so that no loose hair falls into the pools.

Washed and ready, now it’s time to experience the numerous pools of water. Take advantage of the numerous pools with varying temperatures and the ones with jets too and then get your scrub on. After the scrub, usually they’ll tell you to rest and relax in a pool a bit more and then rinse off one last time before heading back out to the locker room.

Out in the locker room, there’s a space to put on lotions and ampoules that are provided as well as dry and brush hair. Get dressed and you’re done!

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