The 10 best saunas in the UK

London's community sauna flagship · London

The flagship of London's community sauna movement: seven wood-fired saunas in a converted bathhouse by the canal at Hackney Wick. It is non-profit, the heat is uncompromising, and the range of rooms keeps regulars cycling for hours. We have been going since it opened, and it keeps getting better.

“Since they first opened, they’ve made a bunch of changes, added quite a lot of new saunas.” · James

Finnish · £ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

Peckham's sauna listening bar · London

A sauna listening bar in a Peckham railway arch, with ice baths and aufguss through the week and DJ sets at the weekend. On our visit the owner led the aufguss themselves. Two decent-sized saunas, plunge baths at a range of temperatures, and the social half of sauna culture taken seriously.

“A bit of a trek, but worth a visit.” · Josje

Finnish · £ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

Loch Tay's full-service contrast spa · Kenmore

The most complete day out in British sauna: a lochside spa at Taymouth Marina with a wood-fired sauna, steam room and heated outdoor pool. The cold plunge is fed straight from Loch Tay. The same operator runs HotBoat, Scotland's first floating sauna, from the jetty out front.

Finnish · Steam · ££ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

Shetland heat, North Atlantic plunge · Bigton

Scotland's first mobile wood-fired sauna, most often stationed above the tombolo at St Ninian's Beach in south Shetland. Six share an Estonian hut on a HUUM stove, and the cold side comes straight off the North Atlantic. Nowhere else on this list asks more of the journey, or repays it better.

Finnish · £ · Session-booked

Britain's first sauna and ice bath cafe · Manchester

The UK's first sauna and ice bath cafe, in a railway arch by Angel Meadows in Manchester. Three saunas and three ice baths run in short sessions, and the cafe side is deliberate: it is built for lingering afterwards, not rushing out. Clean, sociable, and stitched into its neighbourhood through local collaborations.

“Nice, urban sauna.” · Josje

Finnish · Infrared · £ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

Hoxton's industrial Russian banya · London

The list's one Russian entry is an industrial-scale banya in a Hoxton warehouse. The parílka is hot enough to make you reconsider your choices. The venik birch-branch beating is the draw, and the restaurant takes the food as seriously as the heat.

Banya · Steam · £££ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

Heat beside a restored tidal pool · Cellardyke

Set beside the restored Cellardyke Tidal Pool in the East Neuk of Fife, looking east across the Firth of Forth to the Isle of May. Book a session and drop straight into the pool between rounds. Nowhere else on the list pairs its heat with a cold side quite like it.

Finnish · £ · Session-booked

Ord beach, facing the Cuillins · Isle of Skye

A wood-fired barrel on Ord beach in the south of Skye, with sessions looking out to the Cuillins. The cold side is Loch Eishort, a sea loch, or a river nearby. It is the kind of setting the whole outdoor sauna movement is chasing, and here it comes as standard.

Finnish · Ice · ££ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

The Gower's wood-fired sauna · Swansea

Wales makes the list with a wood-fired sauna on Oxwich Bay, on the Gower Peninsula. Sessions can be booked or dropped into, and the bay itself is the cold side of the cycle. Heat, then a sea swim, and not much else in the way: the format at its purest.

Finnish · ££ · Drop-in

Atlantic contrast on Crooklets Beach · Bude

A wood-fired beach sauna on Crooklets Beach at Bude, with a panoramic window on the Atlantic. You step straight off the bench onto the sand for the sea dip between rounds. Cornwall has a run of coastal saunas now, and this is the one we would send you to first.

Finnish · £ · Session-booked