Welcome to the cool Saunablogger blog, stories from saunas around the world, from Finnish smoke saunas to luxury spa saunas. Not to mention hotel saunas! The Saunablogger has explored saunas in 41 countries, in a total of 171 saunas. You can also click on the map below to see where in the world they took place.
The Saunablogger articles appeared originally in the Blogspot Planetskier series, at TGR posts, or at the Relaa website. See also the articles about skiing, caving, urban exploration, climbing, cycling, flying, and swimming.
All sauna-related articles:
| Secret sauna on an island Yesterday I sailed to a company event on my friends boat. The views going there in the morning and coming back in the night were wonderful. We also tested a secret sauna island far out south of Espoo. Full story September 2025, Gåsgrund sauna, Gåsgrund, Espoo, Finland Sailing; Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Waterbody-Sea, Beach, Outdoor) | |
| Hämeenlinna's swimming hall Yet another swimming pool visit in nearby (max 1+ hour drive) swimming halls, as I've run out the ones closer. This time in Hämeenlinna. A large, quite nice swimming pool. The dressing room, shower, and saunas are really top notch. Really liked the glass walls in the saunas and the fact that they had not just a steam sauna but also an infrared sauna was really, really nice. Well done. Full story September 2025, Hämeenlinnan uimahalli, Hämeenlinna, Finland Swimming (Indoor, Water, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal, Infrared, Steam) | |
| Saksalan uimahalli - Saksala swimming hall in Lahti Given the loaner car I have this weekend... I can extend my driving range beyond towing distance. Hence a visit to Lahti, for a Sunday evening swim at the Saksala swimming hall. Full story September 2025, Saksalan uimahalli, Lahti, Finland Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal) | |
| Swimming in Salo Given that I still had the loaner car for an extra day, I felt it was an opportunity to use reliable transport now that it was available. I drove to Salo's swimming hall (link) after work. A long drive, hour and fifteen minutes, but a nice hall! Full story September 2025, Salon uimahalli, Salo, Finland Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool, Water); Sauna (Normal) | |
| Hanko's Luxurious Regatta Spa I continued my quest to swim in more places in the evenings after work. Inspired in part by having a reliable loaner car that can take me 100+ km away without a need to worry about breakdowns :-) But obviously mostly inspired by the desire to swim in more nice places. Full story September 2025, Hotel Regatta Spa, Hanko, Finland Swimming (Indoor, Water, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal, Steam); Sauna (Infrared, None) | |
| The 2M€ smoke saunas Tested the new 2M€ smoke saunas in Kuusijärvi that were opened today. They were very, very nice. Didn’t know they were opened today, just happened to want a sauna visit and Kuusijärvi was on my route. Full story August 2025, Kuusijärvi, Vantaa, Finland Sauna (Smoke); Swimming (Waterbody-Lake, Beach, Outdoor) | |
| Vršac castle and the Helvecija 1880 spa Vršac is a small city in northeastern Serbia, close to the Romanian border. The city has been built on the foothills of a striking hill, and on the top of the hill there's a castle dating back to 1439. It has been abandoned for centuries, but reconstruction started in 2009. The main tower of the castle is today in good condition, other parts remain as ruins. Full story August 2025, Vršac castle, Vršac, Serbia; Helvecija 1880, Vršac, Serbia Urban-Exploration (Historic, Castles, Ruins); Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal, Steam) | |
| It is the Hype season While all the community swimming pools seem to be closed during the summer, I realized that the parking-garage looking building on my way to work is actually a multi-function place, with not just parking but also an ice hockey arena, gym, cafeterias, nightclubs and restaurants... and a rooftop saunas and a pool. Very, very nice experience. Loved the sauna with a view. Full story July 2025, Hype Hybridiareena, Espoo, Finland Swimming (Waterbody-Pool, Outdoor); Sauna (Normal) | |
| Martinlaakso swim Another swimming hall visit! This time in Martinlaakso, a suburb of Vantaa. They have a nice swimming hall, and at least now in the summer it seemed almost completely empty. But open, unlike most of the other community swimming halls sigh... Full story July 2025, Martinlaakson uimahalli, Vantaa, Finland Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool) | |
| Throwing water to the stove in the sauna A common sauna discussion is the one about the effect of throwing water on the sauna stove, and how it affects the temperature in the sauna: whether it just feels hotter due to the humidity, or if the temperature actually rises? Full story July 2025, Arkko summer cottage, Teisko, Finland Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Outdoor, Waterbody-Lake) | |
| Metropolitan Sport Club & Spa in Madrid's Eurobuilding While at a conference in Madrid, I stayed at the NH Collection hotel in the Eurobuilding. This hotel has a spa and gym. While it was separately paid and not inexpensive (30€), it was a quite nice for a hotel spa! Nice big Finnish sauna, a Turkish sauna, ice bucket, multiple pools, etc. The main pool was maybe 15 meters long and narrow, just enough space for 2-3 at the same time. But very much enjoyed this visit! Full story July 2025, Metropolitan Sport Club and Spa, Eurobuilding, Madrid, Spain Sauna (Normal, Steam); Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool) | |
| Norway swim fail Having hiked, caved, and skied I was ... not ready to sit in a packed airplane. A swim or at least a sauna would be so good! Initially, it looked like it would be possible in Norway's many swimming halls. But none of them turned out to be actually open, or open to public at all. Nor did the airport hotel let anyone except guests in their gym that would have had a sauna. Sigh. Full story July 2025, Fjellhamar arena, Oslo, Norway Swimming (None); Sauna (None) | |
| Midnight swim at the cottage Arrived late from Madrid. And not only that, but the car's ventilation was broken, so drove to the cottage only late in the evening. Arrived shortly after 11pm, and did a swim at midnight. Such bliss, water was very warm but still cooled us down a bit, everything was quiet, the darkness had set in, lake had no waves. Nice! Full story July 2025, Arkko summer cottage, Teisko, Finland Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Outdoor, Waterbody-Lake) | |
| Ice bears from the streets of Helsinki rescue my ski trip! Ski trip in the surroundings of Kista is going badly. Can’t find open skating rinks or their excess snow piles. And I dragged my mini-skis all the way to Sweden for this! Sigh. But, as you know we have ice bears walking on the streets of Helsinki... and they bring the cold, good stuff. Full story June 2025, Ritorps ishall, Ulriksdahls idrottsplats, Solna, Sweden; Medley Solna Simhall, Ulriksdahls idrottsplats, Solna, Sweden; Myyrmäen jäähalli, Myyrmäki, Vantaa, Finland Skiing (None); Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Waterbody-Pool, Indoor); Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts) | |
| Just a hole in a wall - Toravuori I was driving back from a very nice midsummer visit to a friend's cottage when I spotted a grand, 20+ meter cliff by the roadside. I had seen this before, but never had an opportunity to stop. But now I had to, because there was a hole on the middle of the wall, staring me in the eye :-) The question was though if I could get to it without climbing equipment. It turned out that a steep ledge was leading up to it, not great and not for wet weather, but still climbable carefully. So I got to the hole! It turned out to be a pretty small though, maybe 3 meters long. Still something, but as a too short cave I had to return it back to the nature :-) Full story June 2025, Toravuoren kolo, Salo, Finland; Kuharanta, Perniö, Finland Caving (Basic, Surveying, Rock, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Crack); Swimming (Waterbody-Sea, Outdoor); Sauna (Normal) | |
| Green weekend at the cottage Early June is a perfect time to enjoy the Finnish summer. The nature is so nicely light green at this time of the year. We visited our summer cottage in Teisko, including of course plenty of stops at the sauna and the lake. Summer 💚 Full story June 2025, Arkko summer cottage, Teisko, Finland Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Outdoor, Waterbody-Lake) | |
This is the 1th set of articles. The next sets are set 2, set 3, set 4, set 5, set 6, set 7, set 8, set 9, set 10, set 11, set 12, set 13, and set 14.