the Nordics
The 10 best saunas in the Nordics
Last reviewed June 2026
The Nordics are where sauna began, and the bathing runs from the sacred to the civic. Finland has smoke saunas and old public baths, Norway has floating fjord saunas, and Sweden has open-air pier bathhouses.
Denmark brings harbour heat. Across the Baltic, Estonia has its UNESCO-listed smoke-sauna ceremony. These ten span all five countries, heritage rooms and floating decks, the Arctic and the archipelago.
It is also the only way the smaller scenes get to sit beside Helsinki's best. A single Copenhagen yard and Estonia's farmhouse ritual would not otherwise make the cut.
- 1
Löyly Helsinki
Helsinki's waterfront icon · Helsinki
Helsinki's most striking public sauna. A timber-lattice building on the Hernesaari waterfront where a smoke sauna and a wood-heated one open side by side onto the Baltic. It earns the hype.
- 2
KOK Oslo
Floating on the Oslofjord · Oslo
Wood-fired floating saunas on the Oslofjord, one beneath the Opera House, plunging straight into the fjord. A cruising variant glides the inner harbour between rounds.
- 3
Ribersborgs Kallbadhus
An 1898 sea-pier bathhouse · Malmö
An open-air bathhouse on a pier into the Öresund off Malmö, running since 1898. There is a wood-fired sauna, a ladder into the sea, and a long Aufguss tradition. Sunset over the strait is the move.
- 4
Mooska Smoke Sauna
Estonia's UNESCO smoke ritual · Haanja
A Haanja-hills farm keeping the UNESCO-listed Estonian smoke-sauna tradition. The ritual runs three hours of chimneyless heat, birch whisking and a cooling pond. By arrangement only.
- 5
Rajaportin Sauna
Finland's oldest public sauna · Tampere
Finland's oldest public sauna, running since 1906. A dark, low-ceilinged, wood-heated room essentially unchanged in over a century. A pilgrimage for anyone who cares about the tradition.
- 6
CopenHot
Copenhagen's harbour heat · Copenhagen
Copenhagen's wood-fired sauna and hot-tub garden on the Refshaleøen waterfront. Stoke your own fire, then plunge in the tubs or the harbour. You can sail a hot-tub boat around the city if you book it.
- 7
Pust Tromsø
Arctic floating sauna · Tromsø
A floating sauna in Tromsø's harbour, well above the Arctic Circle. Harbour-facing glass, and a plunge into the cold sea. In winter it is the dark-and-aurora version of the ritual, with Tromsdalstinden across the sound.
- 8
Kuusijärvi Outdoor Sauna
Forest smoke sauna and a frozen lake · Helsinki
A lakeside complex in the Sipoonkorpi forest, thirty minutes from Helsinki. There is a proper smoke sauna heated for hours, and a frigid lake to plunge into. The winter weekend sessions, snow underfoot, are as good as it gets.
- 9
Bastun i Frihamnen
A free, design-collective sauna · Gothenburg
A free public sauna in Gothenburg's regenerated docks, designed by the collective Raumlabor. Shower walls are built from twelve thousand recycled bottles. Twenty-five places across men's, women's and mixed sections, with sea pools alongside for the dip.
- 10
Kulttuurisauna
Quietly beautiful, on the Baltic · Helsinki
A 2013 public sauna on the Helsinki waterfront, birchwood-lined and quietly beautiful, with direct access to the sea. The rare modern sauna that earns the word without apology. Book ahead.
