South Korean Half-Day Spa Experience
Seoul, South Korea
Rating: 
Trip Type: Thermal Spas & Hot Springs
Duration: 3 hours (approx.)
Spend a morning in Seoul at an authentic ‘jjimjilbang,’ a traditional Korean spa. Join locals at one of the city’s indoor, communal bathhouses, soaking your muscles in a hot pool and relaxing at the sauna. An expert practitioner completes your experience with a full-body scrub, oil massage, cucumber facial and shampoo — all part of a ritual cleansing process called ‘seshin.’ Afterward, your guide briefly accompanies you to a ginseng and amethyst center. Includes round-trip hotel transport.
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Spend a morning in Seoul at an authentic ‘jjimjilbang,’ a traditional Korean spa. Join locals at one of the city’s indoor, communal bathhouses, soaking your muscles in a hot pool and relaxing at the sauna. An expert practitioner completes your experience with a full-body scrub, oil massage, cucumber facial and shampoo — all part of a ritual cleansing process called ‘seshin.’ Afterward, your guide briefly accompanies you to a ginseng and amethyst center. Includes round-trip hotel transport.
Meet your guide upon hotel pickup and learn what to expect during your time at a Korean spa, or jjimjilbang. As the public indoor bathhouse is separated by gender, you’ll find most everyone — with the exception of your guide, who waits outside — comfortably nude in the showers, pools and sauna.
Soaking in hot water and then scrubbing your entire body to slough away layers of dead skin is all part of seshin, a typical Korean cleansing process. Start with a 20-minute dip in a hot bath before a 1-hour sauna experience with an expert practitioner. When it's time for your scrub, lay down on a table while the ddemiri, or ‘scrub mistress,’ applies a thin, coarse towel to your skin. Follow this rejuvenating process with an oil massage, cucumber face mask and shampoo.
Renewed after this ritual, meet your guide for the drive back to your hotel, making a brief stop at an amethyst factory or a ginseng center for a close look at Korea’s most famous goods.
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