Day 3: Shinsegae Spa Land, Haeundae Beach, around Haeundae

Shinsegae Spa Land
Address: 35, Centumnam-daero, Haeundae-gu, Busan

We didn’t plan much for day 3 other than the spa. Unfortunately Eugene wasn’t feeling too well in the morning so we decided that I would go for the spa/sauna alone while he waits for me in the mall (he ended up catching a movie). I was pretty worried that I might break any rules while in the spa so did a lot of googling the night before. I thought it’ll be helpful if I post some of my experience here to share with others who are worried as well.

We reached the Centum City mall a little earlier than 10am so it wasn’t open yet. It took us a while to find the entrance to the spa. Look for Exit 12 and walk all the way straight (see the map on this page for reference: https://www.koreatodo.com/shinsegae-centum-city-spa-land). We ended up asking the departmental store staff for help (one wasn’t particularly friendly oh well) and got to the entrance just fine.

Upon reaching the counter, you pay for your entry and the cashier will hand you a receipt with a number. This is the number that you need to remember. Upon entering, it will be a shoe locker area – head to your number, place your shoes inside the locker and remove the key at the locker. Then you use that key to enter the spa area.

Upon entering, head to the respective gender locker room. Again, look for your locker number and use that same key to open and lock your locker. Do note that in the locker room, there will be others who are changing or walking around in their birthday suits so don’t use any cameras for privacy.

After getting into your birthday suit (aka nude), and bring along your soap, shampoo, conditioner etc. For ladies, I headed to the “pool area” where the showers and scrubbing areas are at and look for an empty seat to sit and clean yourself.

After you are done washing up, you can head to the various hot spring pools to soak. There were about 6 of them and the outdoor ones but it was raining when I went so I wasn’t able to go to the outdoor pools.

After about 30minutes, I wore the given clothes and went to the mixed gender area. There were various hot rooms for you to enjoy and sweat it out!

My leg muscles were not so sore after that. Also tried the massage chair which made me relax after that.

As always, the “traditional” way to enjoy a Korean sauna is to buy sikhye (rice water) and eat boiled eggs!

Shinsegae Mall

After meeting up with Eugene, we had a quick meal at the foodcourt and tried their Jjajiangmyeon – a Korean version of the Chinese 炸酱面(zha jiang mian). I always thought that it would be salty but it was tasty! The sauce was made with a lot of mushrooms and I totally understood why people would eat it – I would too!

There were other stalls at the foodcourt and an ice skating rink if you would like to visit.

Haeundae Beach

We took the train back to Haeundae, and walked to the Haeundae Beach. There were various routes to the beach, but all in all it was about a 10mins walk from the Haeundae station.

It’s a big stretch of the beach and we had fun walking around and watching the locals play in the water.

There were floats provided as well which I thought was quite a nice touch!

Be sure to also take a picture by the “Haeundae” sign.

60계치킨 (60 Chicken)

We found this fried chicken place operated by non-locals by the street along the way back to our hotel. Their name is called “60 chickens” because they only sell 60 chickens everyday.

I wanted to mention it as it’s pretty good! Do check it out.