The 10 best saunas in Finland
Last reviewed September 2026
Finland's public saunas tend to be kept going by somebody rather than owned by someone — a winter swimmers' club on Näsijärvi, two workers' organisations in Rauma, a sauna society in Jyväskylä that bought a 1951 quarry sauna and got it running again. That is a different proposition from a business.
#1 · Rajaportin Sauna
In operation since 1906 · Tampere
Tampere has had this sauna since 1906 and has never seen a reason to modernise it. The stove burns wood, the room is low and dark, and the century sits in the timber rather than on an information board. If you make one sauna journey in Finland, the argument for this one is that everything else came after it.
Smoke · € · Drop-in
#2 · Sauna Jatkankamppa - Rauhalahti
A hundred bathers at once · Kuopio
The smoke sauna here has taken more than a hundred people at one time, which tells you what sort of room it is. Tuesday is the traditional evening — buffet dinner, live music — and it runs year round rather than as a summer turn. The cabin was put up for loggers in the 1950s, and Kallavesi supplies the cold half.
Smoke · Finnish · € · Cold plunge · Drop-in
#3 · Kaupinojan Sauna
Winter swimmers keep the ice hole · Tampere
A wood-fired public sauna on the shore of Näsijärvi, run by Tampere's winter swimmers' club, with an ice hole held open right through the winter. Entry is pay-at-the-door and there is nothing to book. Quiet hours are set aside at some sessions, and a smaller yurt sauna shares the changing rooms.
Finnish · Ice · € · Cold plunge · Drop-in
#4 · Yläkaupungin saunaseura
A 1951 quarry sauna, restored · Jyväskylä
Quarry workers built this in Halssila in 1951; the local sauna society bought it, restored it, and had it open again by 2019. The room is wood-heated, with underfloor heating, an outdoor hot tub and a view towards Jyväsjärvi. Public shifts sell alongside private hire for groups.
Finnish · € · Drop-in
#5 · Merskan Rantasauna
Rauma's old sea-bathing house · Rauma
Merska stands on the Fåfänga headland at Otanlahti, Rauma's old sea-bathing house, with three saunas inside it: a large one, a small one and a log sauna. Two local workers' organisations keep the place up between them. Public shifts alternate with private hire.
Finnish · € · Drop-in
#6 · Kavalton Savusauna
Two smoke saunas, one ice hole · Kaarina
A farm at Piikkiö with two smoke saunas and an ice-swimming hole cut into a pond in the woods. Through the winter it sells open Tuesday evenings that anyone can book online, using one sauna or both depending on the night. The rest of the year they go with private hire of the estate.
Smoke · € · Cold plunge · Session-booked
#7 · Saunamaailma
Iso-Savu and Pikku-Savu · Oulu
Three saunas in the woods on the Tervatoppila estate: a VIP room and two smoke saunas, Iso-Savu and Pikku-Savu, with a hot tub out in the yard. The stoves stay lit year round, and a booking takes the Tervatupa cabin and its fireplace with it. One group at a time, ten people minimum.
Finnish · Smoke · €€ · Private hire
#8 · Forum sauna
One family since 1926 · Turku
A Turku sauna house running since 1926, in the Kurjenmäki bath building since 1981, and in the same family throughout. The public sauna opens on Friday afternoons, separate men's and women's sides, oil-fired stoves. Cupping, peat and other traditional treatments are booked separately.
Finnish · Infrared · € · Drop-in
#9 · Kesän Sauna
Volunteer raft on the Oulujoki · Oulu
A wood-heated sauna on a raft moored at Tuira beach, run since 2014 by volunteers from the local shore sauna society. Swimsuits on, changing rooms separate, and the cooling is the Oulujoki going past. It runs from May Day into autumn, with a quiet sauna on Wednesdays.
Finnish · Floating · € · Drop-in
#10 · Lapin Rantasauna
Lit every day of the year · Rauma
Three wood-heated saunas on the shore of Narvijärvi, twenty minutes out of Rauma, lit every single day of the year by the family who took on the old municipal beach sauna in 2019. Summer swimming is off the sand, winter is an ice hole. A heated outdoor pool and a café sit alongside.
Finnish · € · Cold plunge · Drop-in
Take the atlas with you
Save saunas and log your sessions with Ember for iPhone.
That's the shortlist. See every curated sauna in Finland in the full Finland guide.