What to bring to a sauna

One towel for sitting on the bench, one towel for drying off between rounds. Some people add a third, a smaller hand towel, for the face. If the venue provides towels, fine; if it's a small barrel outfit, bring your own and assume you'll need them.

Microfibre dries faster and packs smaller than cotton. For long sessions, quick-dry matters more than plushness.

Outside of single-sex Finnish saunas, assume swimwear. Bring a dry spare if you're staying out after the session. Putting wet togs back on in a winter car park is the most preventable discomfort in sauna.

Shared wood decks, cold concrete between cabin and plunge, occasionally sharp shingle on a beach sauna: any of these reward a pair of cheap sliders. They also protect your feet from the hot bench edge on a poorly designed barrel.

You'll sweat hard. Most venues sell water, but on a remote or outdoor sauna there may not be anywhere to buy it mid-session. A 1 L reusable bottle, sipped between rounds, is a straightforward baseline.

On coastal saunas in the UK and Ireland, the walk between cabin, sea and car turns on your cover layer. The same goes for any continental outdoor setup in winter. A dryrobe or heavy towelling robe is the biggest quality-of-life upgrade there is.

Phones cook in the heat, and nobody on a shared bench wants to be in your reel. Metal jewellery conducts heat, and contact lenses dry out fast in a hot room. Strong perfume and cosmetics get amplified by löyly, and the room is shared.