How to get the most out your visit to Arasan

Arasan is a sauna complex located in central Almaty, and it is well worth a visit. Let me describe how I spent some of my recent visits to Arasan, with my wonderful friend who helped guide me. Thanks Zhanar!

Now anyone who comes from a sauna/spa culture will probably think all this is VERY OBVIOUS. But it is not a regular thing to do for most Australians and it was all quite new for me! So please read this – with its perhaps overly generous helping of details – with that in mind.

What is so special about a visit to Arasan?

Arasan is an iconic wellness centre in Almaty which many locals visit on a regular basis. In this part of the world, folks take their regular skincare seriously and this involves lots of exfoliating and heat therapy (aka sauna!). Arasan meets this need and can cater to more than two thousand people in a day. Built in 1982, with separate sections for women and men, it has swimming pools, several types of sauna, skin treatments, massage, manicures and restaurants. Children from age four can visit Arasan with a guardian. I can only attest to the female section but it is a great experience and very worth the price.

What to wear when you visit Arasan

Inside you will be in a gender segregated space, and most of the other guests will be naked. If you like you may wear a bathing suit, even just the bottoms. You can wrap a sarong around you as you move between the saunas and treatment rooms. A sarong or wrap is important if you wish to visit the restaurant! The restaurant is also segregated – there is a separate one in the men’s section.

What to bring on your Arasan visit

There’s a few things to bring with you on your visit to Arasan that will make your stay more enjoyable. And of course you can always buy it or rent it!

Bunches of oak leaves for sale outside Arasan — One of the many things you can buy for your ultimate sauna experience when visiting Arasan: a bunch of oak leaves to beat yourself (or your friend) with, in the russian sauna

Water bottle – saunas are thirsty work!
Pool slippers or some other grippy slide-on shoes for the wet floors.
Shampoo and conditioner if you prefer your own. Put them in a little toiletry bag because you’ll want to carry them in with you to the showers. There is shower gel and shampoo in all the showers.
A wrap/sarong, to cover yourself as you go between saunas, and definitely if you will be sitting in the restaurant. This is separate from the towel you use after the shower at the end.
A towel to dry yourself off after the final shower.
Sauna hat – This is essentially a felt tea cozy for your head to keep yourself from losing temperature too quickly. They also help long hair from getting too hot and crispy in the saunas. Lots of the ladies have them.
Hair oil – it feels so nice to put this on after your shower at the end.
Oak Leaves – these can be bought from the little shop outside the entrance, and are for beating your skin with while in the russian sauna.
Moisturiser – if you have done the sauna properly then your skin will be thirsty so bring some moisturiser!
A brush for the long haired folks. There are communal hair dryers because no one wants to go out in the cold with wet hair.

Procedure (what to do!)

Step 1: Go in

Enter and go to the reception (its near the barriers to the right of the stairs). The best value option is to ask for an hour entry and then pay for a treatment which gives you unlimited (rest of day) access to the facility. There are English menus for the treatments at the reception. You’ll be given a locker band with a number on it. This locker band gives you access to your locker and it also allows you to collect invoices for any treatments that you choose once you’re inside. Go through the barrier using your locker band, and if you don’t need to hire anything then you’ll find entry for ladies on the left and gentlemen on the right. If you need to hire anything go to Step 2.

Step 2: Rent your stuff

First stop once you’re past the barrier if you need to hire anything is the rental counter. Its just to the left and around the corner, where you can hire towels, sheets (if you don’t have a sarong) and other sauna stuff.

Step 3: Stash your stuff

Next stop is the lockers so locate yours, based on the number of your locker band, and then get undressed. Put your phone and watch, and any other jewellery you are wearing, in the locker with your clothes and other stuff you’ve wandered in with. Take your water bottle, towel, felt hat (if you wish to use one) and sarong, as well as your toiletry bag. Make sure you’re wearing your pool slippers (no one walks around barefoot).

Step 4: Book your treatments

Book your treatments, if you want to do them, when you first get inside. Your Arasan visit will be satisfying without, but there is something wonderful about having a treatment while in a spa. It can be a bit of a maze to get to the treatment room:

Finding the main Treatment Room

Go through the door into Shower Area 1 (this is my naming convention – the area is not actually called this!), turn left, passing through Sauna Area 1, up the stairs and past the pool, then go through Sauna Area 2. You’ll now be in Shower Area 2. Turn left and you’ll see a sign, in English, for Peeling Room. This is it! Find a spot on any of the shelves to place your towel and your toiletry bag. Then pop into the Peeling Room and ask the ladies about booking in a treatment, preferably in about 45 minutes, so that you have time for a round of saunas first. There is usually a number of workers in there so I think you’d be fine with English. You can just ask for a “peeling” (refers to a body scrub treatment) and make it a “coffee” one.

The Coffee Scrub is quite comfortable and goes for about 20 minutes. You will pay for the treatment when you leave the facility – for now they record your locker number and put it on your account. There are plenty of other treatments which you can find in this price list, which is unfortunately not in English. Take some screenshots and run them through Google Translate.

There is another treatment area a bit further through the facility, beyond the restaurant, which is known as the Eastern Bath/Moroccan Bath. This area is beautiful but they do a smaller range of treatments in here – there is no Coffee Scrub for example. To get a scrub here you need to book at a dedicated reception located further on.

Finding the Eastern Bath

Go through Shower Area 2 and into the restaurant, where you turn left, then follow the signs for the Eastern Bath. This involves going through a small locker room and then into a lounging room. There is a reception desk to the left of you as you enter and you can book in your treatments here. If the reception lady isn’t there she’s probably floating around with her clipboard (she’s usually easy to spot). The entry to the large Eastern Bath is to the right, just next to the entry way to the cosmetology room. This space is very pretty and light, with different sauna rooms opening up into the central room. It doesn’t tend to get as busy as the first two sauna areas. You’ll also find massage and manicure facilities just outside this room.

Step 5: Sweat it out

Now that you’ve booked in your treatment, you can try out the saunas. We used Sauna Area 2. First, if you have purchased a bunch of oak leaves, now is the time to prep them. Collect one of the green buckets from the shelves, and fill it with cold water at one of the taps next to the entrance to the russian sauna. Put your oak leaves in there and let them soak.

You can just go into one sauna, or you can try all three. But as soon as you’re uncomfortably hot do come out and cool yourself down under one of the many showers, or, if you’re feeling up to it, tip the wooden bucket down onto yourself. It’s filled with lots of refreshingly cold water! You can also sit down on one of the benches to cool down between the saunas. There are three types of sauna: Finnish, Turkish and Russian.

Finnish Sauna

Your typical western style sauna. You’ll know this type if you’ve ever been to a pool or hotel with a sauna room. These saunas are hot and dry, with regular benches built into the room, and everything is made of pine. There are stones on an oven in the corner which you MUST NOT pour water onto. A good sauna to start in if you’re new to sauna culture. We began in the Finnish Sauna and spent 10-15 minutes here.

Turkish Hammam

The Hammam is very steamy, and more warm than hot. Everything is tiled. There is a big hose in there that we used to wash down the bench before we sat down. Hygienically this is a good idea. I can usually only last 5 minutes in hammams because of the humidity.

Russian

A hot sauna, with lots of different free standing benches, the Russian Sauna is more humid than the Finnish one. This ultimately translates to just feeling more hot. The room gets even hotter when the lady comes in and tips water into the oven. If you bought yourself the oak leaves this is where you use them, either by smacking yourself gently with them, or having someone else smack you with them while lying down on one of the benches.

We had incredible timing and entered right after the the oven had been refreshed with more water. It was so hot! We tried doing the oak leaves thing on a bench on the top level but it was so uncomfortable that we had to retreat down to the lower level and do it there. Even so we only spent a few minutes there before retreating outside to the shower area to douse ourselves with frigid bucket water.

Step 6: Get treated

Once you’ve finished the process of getting warm, go get your treatment. The therapist will show you to a warm stone bench where you will lie face down before being thoroughly washed and scrubbed. They use exfoliating gloves and will show you that they are new by opening the packet in front of you. If you get the Coffee Scrub then you will have several bowls of warm water tipped over you, then be scrubbed with liquid soap. Finally, the therapist sprinkles aromatic coffee grounds over you and rub them into your skin (without the gloves).

If you get a “Dry Scrub”, such as what they offer in the Eastern Bath, then a gentle warning that it is quite rough and abrasive compared to the Coffee Scrub.

Step 7: Eat

After finishing your treatment you can do another round of saunas, or you can visit the restaurant and have some refreshments. The new restaurant here caters to a variety of appetites and you can eat a full meal here. The bar looks well stocked with anything you might want to drink, both alcohol and non-alcoholic. Anything you order will go onto your account (your locker number).

Step 8: Have a shower

The final thing to do before leaving is to wash yourself in one of the many showers. There are no doors or screens but by now you may well be desensitised to being naked around others. If you’re feeling modest you can always choose a shower away from the doorway. If you’ve had a scrub or massage you may have product in your hair so give it a wash. There are several hair dryers in the locker room to dry it off after.

Step 9: Pay your bill and rejoin the world

Once you’re done and have all your stuff, leave your locker open, as the staff will want to give it a quick clean. The lady at the entrance of the locker room will collect any rented items, such as towels or sheets which need laundering. Then you exit the locker room, and present your locker wristband at the barrier to pay your bill. Your Arasan visit is at an end.

When to visit

To avoid the crowds, plan your visit to Arasan with care. This is a popular bathhouse in the city so you are best visiting during the week before everyone gets off work. Weekends can also be busy. The hours are 07.00-23.00. Recently I have been at 11.00 on a Tuesday and also at 10.30 on a Sunday. On the Tuesday visit it was easier to get bench space in each of the saunas and we got the times that we wanted for the scrub treatments. On the Sunday visit there were many more people, but the Eastern Bath was not so busy. We spent about 3-4 hours in the complex each of the days, using all three saunas, and getting a scrub treatment, followed by a restaurant visit.

Where to eat

Recently the small kiosk got upgraded to a proper restaurant, which sits between the second shower room and the Eastern Bath. I didn’t see any other places to eat inside the facility. But the restaurant looks good and the menu is expansive. My beef ramen was delicious. The bar is also very well stocked. The bill goes straight onto your account (the number of your locker band).

How to get to Arasan

Arasan is right across the road from the western edge of Panfilov Park. The entrance is on the pedestrianised path between Kunaev and Tolebaev Streets.

There are plenty of buses that you can take to get you close to Arasan. If you’re coming down Dostyk Avenue then buses 141, 5 and 5B will get you within a 10min walk from the Tole Bi stop. For those of you taking the metro, then the closest stop is Zhibek Zholy. Yandex taxis will also take you to the bathhouse without a problem. From Dostyk Plaza, a comfort grade Yandex at 2.30pm on a weekday will be around 1,500T. You can also walk there if the weather is fine; once you reach Dostyk Avenue you just need to start walking down the hill. A visit to Arasan is just a 40 minute walk from Dostyk Plaza.

What do I know about Kazakhstan?

I’ve been living here since mid 2021 with my family. Visit my About Me page to understand more about my perspective. And check out my Kazakhstan page to find out more about why I think why you should travel to Kazakhstan!