wood-fired saunas.

the last public wood-burning sauna in helsinki, men downstairs, women up, cooling off on the pavement in a towel.

the black timber wedge on the waterfront: a smoke sauna, two wood-heated rooms and a ladder straight into the baltic.

a small white concrete sauna on the water, built by an architect couple, run on silence and firewood.

1928 neoclassical swimming hall where the pool is traditionally swum naked and the saunas are the point.

free, open all hours, run by whoever turns up and puts wood on the fire. bring your own everything.

wood-fired loft saunas on a small fortress island a short ferry ride from market square, open in summer only.

a tiny wood-fired box on the harbour edge with a wine bar attached and a ladder into the water.

wood-fired hot tubs and a sauna on the industrial waterfront, steam going straight up over the harbour.

the contemporary copenhagen sauna club — löyly ceremonies, sea dips, a lot of people who take it seriously.

the wood-heated bathhouse inside christiania — cheapest heat in copenhagen, and it feels nothing like a spa.

floating saunas moored off kalvebod brygge — you climb down a ladder into the harbour and back up again.

tampere's best-loved lakeside folk sauna since 1929, open every day of the year with an ice hole into näsijärvi in winter.

finland's oldest public sauna still operating (1906), a volunteer-run pispala institution where tampere was named sauna capital.

a lakeside tampere sauna with a continuously heated wood stove that time out says gives intense but moist löyly.

south africa's first mobile sauna: wood-fired trailers parked by cape town's tidal pools, so the plunge is the atlantic or false bay.

a wood-fired mobile sauna running 80-95 °c that parks beside the camps bay tidal pool, saunders' rock and blouberg, with the atlantic as the plunge.

the 2021 original, in the car park of eastway baths: six wood-fired saunas and one electric, with plunges from 3 to 15°c.

wood-fired sauna boats docked at west india quay, with cold plunge pools on the roof and a traditional bucket shower.

the first member-owned sauna co-op in the us, running mobile wood-fired saunas such as the forge at theodore wirth park each winter.

a year-round backyard sauna village in south minneapolis with three saunas, five cold tubs and 20-seat community steam sessions.

a riga public bathhouse with what it calls the two largest wood-burning sauna stoves in the baltics, an 8 °c pool and a shashlik bar, for about €13 an hour.

a russian-style wood banya in ķengarags built around a 20-tonne stove, with oak, birch and eucalyptus brooms for sale and €15 entry.

lakeside sauna in an old dynamite factory's back garden, with a jetty for the cold part.

a pontoon sauna off tantolunden, fifty kronor as a guest and straight into lake mälaren.

men-only sauna hotel in ikebukuro with four saunas, one heated by a wood stove, and four cold baths, the coldest in single digits.

a park-side spa next to the national stadium that won saunachelin 2024 outright and placed again in 2025, open to women and men on separate floors.

a wood-fired sauna floating on a forest-ringed lake in tasmania's mountain-bike town, with floor-to-ceiling windows and the lake as the plunge.

countryside outdoor saunas on the boso peninsula, including a forest mountain sauna with a wood-fired hearth and a waterfall sauna that releases a cascade every 30 minutes; saunachelin 2025 #4.

a heritage-listed 1898 cold-bath house at the end of a pier, with wood-fired saunas and the öresund straight below.

wood-fired sauna boats that cruise lake union with a captain, stopping so guests can jump off the roof into the lake.

the last seoul jjimjilbang with outdoor pinewood charcoal-burning kilns, on the forest edge above sinchon; now drawing a young crowd.

a small wood-fired pop-up on the vaucluse beach paddock that time out called sydney's most scenic sweat, with the harbour as the plunge.

tallinn's 1928 art deco neighbourhood bathhouse in kalamaja; the men's side keeps the city's only wood-heated public sauna.

a boutique urban sauna on kalvarijų street with wood-burning stoves, a 14-person themed sauna run by sauna masters daily, and courtyard ice baths; its sister 'vytautas beats the gong' is an igloo sauna at the old lukiškės prison.

a wood-fired sauna with a big mountain window at the outlet of lake wānaka, with guided, social and silent sessions and the lake as the plunge.

a working charcoal-kiln sauna an hour from seoul: five kilns graded from warm to 'scorching', an open kiln at the door, and pork grilled on the fresh charcoal.