Your First Jjimjilbang: The Order, the Cost, What You Wear

A jjimjilbang is not hard because the rules are complicated; it is hard because the order is fixed. Shoes, desk, locker, wash, dress, sweat, settle up — skip a step and the next one stops you. The part that trips people up most is that the dress rule inverts between zones: the wet baths are fully nude, the sauna floor requires the uniform.

Last checked: 2026-09-22·Desk-researched — not yet verified on site

1. 1Shoes off, then the desk

   Put your shoes in a locker at the entrance and take the key. You hand that key over at the desk, pay, and get back a wristband, a uniform (short-sleeve top and shorts) and one or two small towels. The desk step depends on the shoe key, so do them in that order.

2. 2The fee is only the entry price

   Entry is usually ₩10,000–20,000. But the wristband records everything you buy inside and you settle once on the way out, so a scrub, snacks and a few extra hours push a realistic total to ₩35,000–50,000. The body scrub is a separate service, typically around ₩25,000, and is booked rather than walked into.

3. 3The wet baths — fully nude, and wash first

   The baths are separated by gender and you wear nothing at all, swimsuits included. Before any pool you sit at a station and wash thoroughly with soap — this is a precondition, not an etiquette nicety. The usual progression is warm pool, then hot, then cold. Skipping the bath zone and going straight upstairs is the most common first-timer mistake.

4. 4The sauna floor — here you wear the uniform

   After bathing you change into the uniform, which is what lets you go up to the mixed-gender floor. There are several rooms at different temperatures and themes — salt, charcoal, jade, ondol — plus a snack counter selling sweet rice drink and eggs baked in the sauna heat. You stay dressed up here; the rule is the inverse of downstairs.

5. 5Settling up — leaving ends the visit

   Hand the wristband back at the desk and pay everything at once. Stepping outside the building ends the visit, so popping out and coming back often means paying entry again. A lost wristband carries a replacement charge in the ₩10,000–20,000 range.