Visiting the Siloam Sauna (실로암 사우나) in Seoul

Happy Tuesday everyone! I’m back with a Travel Tuesday post after a really really long while.

I got lazy, busy and was losing a little motivation.

I gave myself a short break on Travel Tuesday but I’m back now!

It’s kind of weird that I’ve never been to a Sauna in Korea, or rather a 찜질방 (jjim-jil-bang), when it was my 4th time visiting Korea this past Summer.

I guess it was the culture shock that I wasn’t ready to see or the fact that I didn’t know how it’ll go.

I went with my boyfriend this time and I’m not sure when I’ll come back to visit Korea again, but yes, we decided to visit Siloam Sauna because we were staying really near Seoul Station!

This was situated close to Seoul Station too and why not?

The building says 실로암사우나 (sil-lo-am sa-u-na) at the top and if you try to recognise these words, you won’t miss it.

Btw, I recommend staying in Seoul Station because I realised how convenient it was. Lotte Mart was just right there and there’s taxi driver restaurant (기사식당 – ki-sa shik-dang) nearby that I really like.

I’ll probably do a post on why Seoul Station is a good place to stay next time. I think that would be more appropriate!

If you want to know the name of that restaurant though, let me know!

So upon walking closer, you’ll see a pathway up that hill. You just go alllllll the way up THEN turn left. Because the sauna entrance is not at the end of that hill.

You’ll see this and just follow the arrows and you’ll see the door!

Upon arriving, as we went at about 7pm, we were only charged 11,000 won per person.

We read from other sources that it’d be 9,000 won but I guess their prices went up!

Here’s a screenshot from their website on the prices:

Tbh, we weren’t comfortable enough to bathe naked in front of other people so guess what…

We literally went there to sweat it out, and decided not to bathe at that area.

However, do note that you still have to pay for the Bath (Sauna) + Jjimjil rate even if you didn’t bathe.

If you’re comfortable enough to bare it all, then just do it!

There are even different kinds of baths in B1 that you can access. Check the website for more!

So we paid at the reception and the nearest entrance we saw was the one on the right, which happens to be for ladies.

My boyfriend and I didn’t know the other side was for the gents and the lady shouted “YA!” ????

Omg it was so funny and embarrassing for my boyfriend. We separated then and went into our respective lockers with the clothes and keys given to us.

When you come in, take out your shoes right before the small step up, then put the shoes into any shoe locker of your choice with your key.

Remember the locker number and on the left, you’d see a counter with some ahjummas.

She’ll probably be asking for your shoe key, before assigning you with another clothes locker key and some towels.

If I’m not wrong, orange towels were given here.

Get your bags and stuff towards the number you’re given (directions of locker numbers will be at the top so try to keep a lookout).

This was where something awkward happened…

A mother and daughter (around my age, 20s?) were about 3 lockers away from the locker I was assigned to.

Naked and bare. Omg, I had to do my best to put my eyes right at eye level and avoid the fact that I can actually see everything without trying.

So, I pretended to be okay and acted normal lol.

I opened my locker, stuffed my bag in and went to the toilet that was super near to me.

Thank goodness lol.

It was kind of weird walking in a toilet barefooted though. So I changed into the sauna t-shirt and shorts, stepped out and saw a Caucasian attempting to follow in my footsteps.

I took that as a sign that not all tourists are as comfortable as the locals too! Haha.

After changing, I put my clothes into the locker with the key that was wrapped around my wrist.

Do note that you can bring your phone and wallet from this time on.

I didn’t take my phone because I didn’t know there was a phone locker outside the sauna rooms.

I actually went back again to take phone after a while.

At this sauna, you don’t pay with your wrist key like some saunas you see. They still use cash so yes, bring your wallets!

Follow instructions to go to the Meeting Lounge at Level 2 and that’s where both male and females can gather to meet.

When you come up from the stairs, you’d see a food court on the right with a play room for kids and parents.

This is the first thing you’ll see before turning to your right.

A foot bath and on the left, there’d be a nail salon (additional charges) and a bigger resting space.

We decided to go up to the 3rd floor and there was a table tennis room, PC room, and even a gym and arcade.

I don’t remember how much it costs to play this Time Crisis 2 game (which I love playing lol and we did) but there were some other Street Fighter games too.

Nostalgia.

There was a snack bar / coffee shop on one of the floors, that sell snacks and drinks. Even some of the eggs.

But we purchased it at the food court later on.

Here’s my legs visiting the gym room and exercising a little bit. I couldn’t take pictures of the other stuff because we weren’t alone and I didn’t want to disrupt the others haha.

Here are the prices of the food at the food court – click to enlarge. I feel that it’s quite expensive but my boyfriend and I decided to share a Dolsot Bibimbap, a Sikhye and 3 맥반석 계란 (maek-ban-seok gye-ran) stone-boiled eggs.

Oh they give you a packet of salt for your eggs too if you like.

The bibimbap came with a seaweed soup – 9,000 won.

3 eggs came up to 2,000 won. And I believe I bought the 4,000 won sikhye at the coffee shop!

After that pretty delicious bibimbap, we were filled and ready to sweat everything out.

The eggs were… eggs.

So there were 6 rooms that were tolerable for me.

I couldn’t show a proper view of what’s inside but the website has good pictures of it.

My favourite was the Loess Ball Fomentation Room. There were huge amounts of red balls in that room and you basically just lie in it.

There’d be wooden head rests (unmovable) and if it gets too hot, you can use the towel you were given earlier on to put on top of the head rest.

At first, this was a little hot for me but after a while, it was quite relaxing and I could bear it.

Do try NOT to sleep in the rooms that are above 28 degree celsius or bring your phone in.

The jade and salt fomentation room, I doubt you’d be able to do that because it was a place I could stay 3-5 minutes max.

The hottest sauna there was this.

86 freaking degrees. The farthest I went in was right before the door closes.

Do you wanna know how it smells?

It smells just like when I use the hair curling iron to curl my hair and when it starts getting hotter.

Except this was felt throughout my body lol.

I couldn’t stay in that area for even 5 seconds! But my boyfriend did for about 15 seconds haha.

Try giving this place a try if you dare.

Anyways, after going back and forth to the hot places, I went to the ice room and remember chatting to a little boy who tried his best to speak English to me even though he’s from Russia. ❤️

Too cute.

It goes all the way down to negative 10 degrees celsius so do not lick the pipes with your tongue lol.

Don’t bring your phone in too.

It’s definitely a good place to just cool everything down.

We then repeated that process a few more times, headed back to the locker room, changed, return our stuff, got back our shoes and left!

Do remember to wear your shoes after you’re out of that locker room though.

Shoes are out of bounds there.

And that’s it!

This was a picture and info-heavy post but I hope I helped you out!

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Siloam Sauna

Jungnim-Ro, Jung-gu, Seoul Metropolitan Government 49

Siloam Sauna Jjimjilbang

By subway

• Line 1 & 4: 5 min. walk from Seoul Station-Exit 1
• Line 2 & 5: 5 min. walk from Chungjeongno Station-Exit 5

By taxi or car

• From Yongsan and Mapo-take a left after Seobu Station
  If near Seoul Station,
• Pass the Yeomcheon Bridge and take a left, towards Samsung APTs

By bus

• Get off at Seobu Station
• Green bus – 06, 0015, 0016, 7013, 7024
• Blue bus – 104, 163, 261, 262, 503

By walking

• From Seobu Station and Lotte Mart (behind Seoul Station), walk 30m towards the Korea Economic Daily and take a left.

• From Myeongdong and Namdaemun, pass the Yeomcheon Bridge, take a left, and walk approximately 50m.

Directions taken from the Siloam Sauna website.

Have you been to a Korean Sauna before? How was your experience? If not, would you give it a try? 🙂

With ????,

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