Public saunas: how they work and where to find them

You don't need a gym membership, a hotel room or a garden sauna to have a good sweat. Most cities have saunas anyone can walk into, and more are opening every year. This guide explains the different kinds of public sauna, how a visit works and how to find one near you.

What counts as a public sauna

The simplest test: can a stranger turn up, pay and go in? If so, it's public. That covers a lot of different places:

• Municipal saunas, run by or for the city, often attached to a swimming pool or public baths.
• Community saunas, usually small, often outdoors, often run by a not-for-profit or a group of volunteers.
• Bathhouses, from Budapest's thermal baths to hammams and Japanese sento, where the sauna is one part of a larger bathing routine.
• Commercial sauna clubs and sauna parks, privately run but open to anyone with a ticket.

Hotel saunas and gym saunas are usually for guests and members only, so they don't count, although some sell day passes.

Finland and the Nordic countries

A century ago, most people in Finnish cities had no bathroom at home, so the public sauna was where they got clean. According to the City of Helsinki's own history, the city had around 70 public saunas by the 1880s and more than 120 at the peak in the 1940s. Washerwomen scrubbed customers down, and many saunas offered massage and cupping for an extra fee.

Then bathrooms arrived in new flats, and by the early 1980s fewer than ten public saunas were left. A few survived. Kotiharjun sauna in Helsinki's Kallio district was completed in 1928 and is still heated with wood. Yrjönkatu swimming hall, Finland's first public swimming hall, opened the same year. It still has saunas, and swimsuits weren't allowed in the hall until 2001.

Since then public saunas have come back in a big way. Helsinki now has design saunas on the waterfront as well as Sompasauna, which volunteers built and keep running. It's free, open around the clock and can't be booked, and since 2025 it has stood on Mustikkamaa island. In Oslo, a non-profit sauna association runs floating saunas on the fjord.

The community sauna boom

Outside the Nordic countries, the biggest change of the past few years is the community sauna. These are usually wood-fired or electric saunas in a car park, on a beach or by a river, with a cold plunge or the sea for cooling off and prices kept low on purpose.

The UK has seen the fastest growth. The British Sauna Society counted 45 public sauna sites in 2023 and 147 by early 2025. A typical example is Community Sauna Baths, a not-for-profit that started in 2022 with two small saunas, one of them in a horse box, in an empty car park in Hackney. It now runs several sites across London, with sessions from £9.50 and concession prices from £5.

Communal bathhouses and sauna clubs have also been opening in cities across the US. Prices vary a lot between them, so check before you go. Our guide to how much a sauna session costs has real examples.

City pools and bathhouses

In much of central Europe, the cheapest sauna in town is at the public pool. At the Winogrady pool in Poznań, for example, you pay 0.70 zł for each minute you spend in the sauna area, on top of your swim.

Bathhouses are a step up. In Budapest the thermal baths have saunas and steam rooms alongside the hot pools, and Strasbourg's Bains Municipaux, opened in 1908, keep their historic Roman baths and hammam next to an 80 °C sauna. Japan has its neighbourhood sento, Korea its jjimjilbang, and the Middle East and North Africa their hammams. See our guides to onsen and sento etiquette and the hammam if you're heading to one.

How sessions and booking work

Every place is different, but most follow one of a few patterns:

• Timed sessions. The most common set-up at community and city saunas. You book a slot of 60–90 minutes online and share the sauna with whoever else booked it.
• Pay by time used. Some pool saunas charge by the minute or by the hour and add it up when you leave.
• Day tickets. Thermal baths and big sauna parks usually sell entry for the day or for several hours.
• Turn up and wait. Free and volunteer saunas often take no bookings at all. Go early at busy times.

Many public saunas also run ceremonies at set times, where a sauna master pours scented water on the stones and fans the heat around the room. At Széchenyi in Budapest these are free on weekdays, and the sauna is used without swimwear during them. Check the timetable when you arrive. Some saunas also keep single-sex or naturist sessions on certain days. Strasbourg's baths, for example, hold naturist evenings on Tuesdays and Thursdays from October to June.

If the session includes the sea or a lake, take it seriously. Volunteer saunas rarely have a lifeguard. Never swim alone in cold water, and read our cold plunge guide before your first dip.

Etiquette in a shared sauna

• Shower before you go in, and again after a cold dip.
• Sit or lie on a towel, so no bare skin touches the wood.
• Keep your voice low, and don't take your phone into the heat.
• Ask before throwing water on the stones. Others may not want more heat.
• Close the door quickly so the heat doesn't escape.
• At free or volunteer saunas, leave the place tidier than you found it.

Whether you wear a swimsuit depends on the country and the venue. Our guide to what to wear in a sauna explains the customs. We're also writing fuller guides to sauna etiquette and your first time at a sauna.

How to find one

Find My Sauna lists saunas, bathhouses and spas in around 245 cities, from tiny community saunas to big thermal baths. Search for your city to see what's near you, with opening hours and a link to each venue's own site for prices and booking. A few to start with:

Sauna Wisła

Warsaw · Floating sauna

Sauna Tauferky

Brno · Small neighbourhood sauna

Dandár Gyógyfürdő

Budapest · City thermal bath

Frequently asked questions