How Swedes and Finns use the sauna

A few words first

• Sauna is a Finnish word, and one of the few Finnish words used around the world.
• Bastu is the Swedish word for the same thing. Swedes say *bada bastu*, literally "bathe sauna".
• Löyly is the Finnish word for the steam that rises when you throw water on the hot stones, and for the feeling of the heat itself. Finns care a lot about good löyly: soft, even and not too sharp.

The sauna as an everyday room

Finland has about 3.2 million saunas for a population of around 5.6 million, and almost 90% of Finns take a sauna at least once a week. In 2020, Finnish sauna culture was added to UNESCO's list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, covering not just the bathing but heating the sauna, its customs, and the songs and stories around it. (Finnish Government, 2020)

Saunas are built into apartment buildings, houses, offices and summer cottages. In Sweden they are a standard part of public swimming pools and gyms, usually with separate men's and women's saunas. Nobody books a time slot or pays extra. You go when you have time.

How a normal sauna works

1. Shower first. Always.
2. Heat. Sit on the bench, on a small towel. Someone throws water on the stones now and then, usually after asking.
3. Cool off. A cold shower, a jump in the lake or sea, or just sitting outside in the cool air. In winter some people roll in the snow.
4. Rest. Sit on the porch or in the changing room with a drink of water, or a beer after the last round.
5. Repeat as many times as feels right. Nobody counts minutes.

The mood is calm. People talk quietly, sit in silence, or go one at a time. Music and phones are not part of it.

The summer cabin sauna

The classic Nordic sauna is a small wood-heated cabin by a lake or the sea, at a summer house in the countryside. Heating a wood stove can take an hour, and that is part of the ritual. Between rounds you walk down the jetty and swim, then sit outside in the light summer evening. Families and friends go together, and at home and at the cabin people usually go without swimsuits.

Some Finns use a vihta or vasta, a bundle of fresh birch branches, to gently pat the skin in the heat. The idea is close to the venik of the Russian banya. See what is a banya.

Winter dips

The sauna does not stop when the lakes freeze. Winter swimming, where you warm up in a sauna and dip in icy water through a hole in the ice or from a seaside jetty, is common in both countries and has grown more popular in recent years.

In Sweden, this happens at kallbadhus, cold bath houses built on piers over the sea. They became popular in the mid-1800s as health spas and many are still open all year, with saunas, a jetty for dipping and often a restaurant. Ribersborgs Kallbadhus in Malmö opened in 1898, and the Kallbadhuset in Varberg, built on stilts in 1903, is a nudist bath with separate areas for men and women. (Visit Sweden)

The routine is the same as in summer: heat, a short dip, back into the sauna to warm up.

Swimsuits and nudity

At home and at the cabin, the sauna is nude, with family or close friends. Public saunas in swimming pools and gyms are usually separated by gender and nude. Mixed public saunas, like many cold bath houses and new urban saunas, use swimsuits or have separate sections. Nudity in the sauna is normal and not sexual, which can take some getting used to for visitors.

What US bathhouses do differently

The new American bathhouses borrow a lot from the Nordic sauna, but the experience is different:

• Swimsuits everywhere. Almost every co-ed US bathhouse requires them. See what to wear in a public sauna.
• Timed sessions and prices. In the US you book a 60- to 120-minute slot and pay per visit. In the Nordic countries the sauna is mostly free with the pool, the gym or the house.
• Cold plunge tubs instead of lakes. Most US places use chilled tubs. The water is often colder than a summer lake, but the setting is different.
• More of an event. Music, guided breathwork, aufguss shows and big social saunas for 40 to 100 people.
• Electric and infrared heat. Wood-fired saunas are rarer in US cities, and private infrared studios are a much bigger part of the scene.

None of this is wrong. It is a new sauna culture that suits American cities. But if you want something close to the Nordic original, there are places that get very near.

Where the US feels most Nordic

• Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Minnesota's Finnish and Scandinavian roots show in winter, when wood-fired saunas set up on frozen lakeshores. See saunas in Minneapolis.
• Seattle. Wood-fired saunas float on Lake Union and sit on the beach at Alki and Golden Gardens, with the lake or Puget Sound as the plunge. See saunas in Seattle.
• Portland. Löyly takes its name and its style from Finnish sauna bathing. See saunas in Portland.
• Boston. Kelo Spa & Steam in Newton has a sauna built from kelo logs from Finnish Lapland.
• Anywhere with a lake or the sea. See the national lists of floating saunas and wood-fired saunas.

How to do it the Nordic way, anywhere

• Shower first, sit on a towel and keep it quiet.
• Ask before throwing water on the stones, then enjoy the löyly.
• Cool off properly, outside if you can, and rest before the next round.
• Do not count minutes. Leave when you feel ready.
• Finish with a long rest, water, and if you like, something to eat.