In terms of etiquette, there are perhaps only few points to remember. While a majority of public saunas in Finland will be full nude saunas, there are some that require you to wear a swimsuit. And then they like it cold. Drilling a hole in the middle of a frozen lake seems a daft idea on the face of it, but ice fishing is a popular pastime. It is customary for Finns to sauna at least once a week, but some do it several times a week. Alister was big on the relationship between man and dog. View all posts by Megan Arz. Here’s how to sauna in Stockholm for the first time. Some saunas will provide you with a towel, while others may not. To be honest, I didn’t really want to think about sausages at that point. Dehydration and lightheadedness are common side effects that newbies can experience. In Helsinki, which had its first such celebration earlier this year, saunas are such a source of pride that tomoorrow they are doing Helsinki Sauna Day all over again. I tried other winter distractions. Public saunas will give you the full Finnish tradition and with my tips above, you will fully prepared for your first sauna experience in Finland! After about 15 minutes of chucking water on sizzling coals, you’ll be pretty steamed up, so take a cooling shower – or if you’re doing it properly, go for a dip in a freezing lake.
If you’re looking to connect with locals, the best way to do so is at the sauna! There are millions of saunas all across the country in Finland, so it’s not hard to find one— your hotel or AirBnb might even have one in your room!
In Finland’s public saunas, men and women have separate areas, or keep to different hours, but nakedness is the norm. Before you could say sausage, I was back in my towel. Hotel Lilla Roberts in Helsinki offers doubles from €180 (£160) per night, including breakfast (00358 9 6899880; lillaroberts.com).
... best hotels in finland view all. Javri Lodge in Saariselka offers a four-day full-board package with activities including cross-country skiing and a snowshoe tour, from €1,900 per person based on two sharing (00358 40 502 0409; javri.fi). I am a travel and food obsessed Midwesterner living in Chicago and dreaming of the world. The most traditional sauna in Finland is a wood burning sauna. Note: Saunas in Austria, Luxembourg, and German-speaking regions in Europe are similar to German saunas. They are places for families to catch up in, for business people to talk shop and – back in March, at the inaugural Helsinki Sauna Day – for me to worry about how much clothing I was supposed to be wearing. And then, of course, there was the sauna. In my opinion, a generic electric sauna tends to be dry and harsh above 60, a standard wood-burning sauna is best at 65-85, and some other types do best at around 100-120. It turned out that mushing huskies is simpler than snowmobiling, at least at amateur level. There is a good chance that you will be sharing your public sauna with someone else so it’s important to know that the person seated in the hottest part of the sauna (the upper bench closest to the heat source) is the one who decides when to increase the temperature.
If there is only one sauna in a public facility, there are separate turns for men and women. Nice article, with some useful tips – just a note, while a Nordic country Finland isn’t in Scandinavia, (that would be Norway & Sweden).