Finnish sauna: traditions, löyly and how to do it right

Finland has about 3.3 million saunas for 5.5 million people, and for most Finns a sauna is a normal part of the week. The habits behind it are simple and old. Once you know them, any sauna in the world makes a bit more sense.

What makes a sauna Finnish

The basic parts haven't changed in centuries: a small wooden room, a stove (kiuas) piled with stones, raised benches and a bucket of water with a ladle. The air is hot and fairly dry until someone throws water on the stones. The usual range is 80–90 °C (176–194 °F), and some go hotter. Our guide to sauna temperature explains why the top bench feels so much hotter than the bottom one.

What makes it Finnish is less the room than the habit. In its 2020 listing, UNESCO describes the sauna as a place to clean body and mind, traditionally treated as a sacred space, "a church of nature". In practice that means calm. People talk quietly or not at all, nobody shows off, and nobody times anyone.

A short history

The first Finnish saunas were smoke saunas: log rooms with a stone stove and no chimney. The fire was lit for hours, the smoke filled the room and seeped out, and once the fire died and the air cleared, the soot-blackened walls gave off a soft, even heat. Some are still in use, and our guide to the smoke sauna covers how they work.

According to the Finnish Sauna Society, a chimney was added to the sauna only a couple of centuries ago, letting the smoke out through a flue. Electric heaters came later still and made it easy to fit a sauna into a flat. UNESCO lists the forms in use today as electric, wood-heated, smoke and infrared, and treats none of them as more authentic than the others.

Löyly: the steam

Löyly is the steam that rises when you throw water on the hot stones, and the heat that rolls down onto the benches a second later. Finns don't use their everyday word for steam for it. Löyly is an old word that originally meant spirit or breath, and a "good löyly" is soft and lasting, never harsh.

A ladle or two at a time is plenty. Watch how the people near the stove do it, and if you're the one holding the ladle, it's polite to ask "Saako heittää löylyä?" (may I throw löyly?) or simply look around before you throw. In Finland, bathers throw their own water. That's different from German saunas, where a sauna master usually does it.

The vihta

A vihta (called vasta in eastern Finland) is a bundle of leafy birch branches. Soaked in water, it smells of fresh birch and is used to tap and brush your skin in the heat. It feels good, it spreads the heat across your body, and the scent fills the room. Birch is cut from around midsummer, when the leaves are tough enough to last, and whisks are dried or frozen for winter. Our guide to sauna whisking covers how to make and use one.

In public saunas, ask before you whisk if the bench is crowded. Leaves end up everywhere, so check the house rules first.

Public saunas and home saunas

Most Finns use a sauna at home, in their building or at a summer cottage. UNESCO notes that traditional public saunas in cities almost disappeared after the 1950s, as more homes got their own. A few old ones survived. Kotiharjun sauna in Helsinki's Kallio district has been open since 1928 and is heated by big wood-burning stoves.

In recent years new public saunas have opened, often by the sea or a lake, many run by winter-swimming clubs or as sauna restaurants. They are usually mixed, so swimsuits are worn. Older neighbourhood saunas tend to have separate men's and women's sections where people bathe naked.

Etiquette

• Shower before you go in. Every public sauna expects it.
• Sit on a towel or a small seat cover. Bring your own or rent one.
• Naked or swimsuit: follow the place. Single-sex saunas are usually nude. Mixed ones usually require a swimsuit. The Finnish Sauna Society's own saunas ban swimsuits for hygiene reasons. Our guide to what to wear in a sauna covers the differences.
• Keep it calm. Talk quietly, and never turn the heat into a contest. The Sauna Society bans heat competitions outright.
• Don't lean over the stove when you throw water, and close the stove hatch if there is one.
• No phones. Nobody wants to be photographed half-dressed.

How to do it, round by round

1. Shower and dry off. Dry skin sweats faster.
2. First round, 8–12 minutes. Start on a lower bench if you're new. Throw a little löyly once you're warm.
3. Cool down. Step outside, take a cold shower, or swim in the lake or sea. In winter, Finns dip into a hole cut in the ice, called an avanto.
4. Rest for as long as you were in. Sit outside, drink water, let your heart rate settle.
5. Repeat two or three times. Use the vihta in the second or third round if you have one.
6. Finish with a wash and a long rest. Drink plenty of water, and give yourself half an hour before you head out into the cold.

See how long to stay in a sauna for timings, and skip the cold plunge if you have a heart condition until you've asked your doctor.

Where to try a Finnish sauna

Find My Sauna lists 2,616 places with a Finnish sauna. These cities have the most:

Kotiharjun sauna

Helsinki · Wood-heated since 1928

Turun Avantouimarit – Ispoinen beach sauna

Turku · Winter-swimming club sauna

Saunatemppeli

Tampere · Wool yurt sauna by a lake

Frequently asked questions