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 39 countries, in a total of 145 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:
| There's a swimming hall in Siuntio! Didn’t realize there was a community swimming hall in Siuntio. And I guess it’s pretty new, previously part of the closed hotel but since the hotel has been revived and the Siuntio community took on the spa part in 2023 … quite nice. Dated, but well done. Two 25-meter pools. Just few people, life guards will say hi unlike in Espoo or Helsinki, etc. Worth a visit. Full story February 2028, Hotelli Siuntio, Siuntio, Finland Swimming (Waterbody-Pool, Indoor); Sauna (Normal) | |
| Swims and saunas in Ulaanbaatar I was in Ulaanbaatar for skiing and caving, but of course I also had to visit the local saunas and pools. I stayed at the Best Western Tuushin hotel and their spa had a sauna. And possibly the best hotel in town, the Shangri-La, has an entire sports club with 25 meter pool, saunas, etc. Full story February 2025, Best Western Premier Tuushin Hotel, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Shangri-La Centre Sports Club, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Waterbody-Pool, Indoor); Sauna (Normal) | |
| Matinkylä saunakontti want Showed the Matinkylä beach to a friend, have not been here during the winter before this. It was a dark night, but people were using the ice swimming hut, which looked funny when the hut made of white plastic was lit up from the inside, and they descended the stairs to the water. The use of the hut is free, same for the changing rooms. However, there's also a "sauna container" (saunakontti in Finnish) where you get your sauna fix, or recover from hypothermia :-) Full story January 2025, Matinkylän uimaranta, Matinkylä, Espoo, Finland; Matinkylän saunakontti, Matinkylä, Espoo, Finland Swimming (None, Outdoor, Waterbody-Sea, Beach); Sauna (None, Normal) | |
| Free sauna in HEL! When one drags a ton of luggage to the airport and is heading for a long flight, it would be nice to visit a sauna. Except if you aren't on your usual airline that has the nice sauna in their lounge... However, to my big surprise I found a new, FREE, sauna on the non-Schengen side of the airport near gate 40. The downside? The sauna is a bit on the cold side... but it was a nice and quiet place to sit and have a conference call, at least. Until some some little people arrived and started playing ... Full story January 2025, Helsinki-Vantaa, Vantaa, Finland Travel; Sauna (Normal) | |
| Porvoo swimming hall Today I wanted to try a new swimming hall, and ended up driving all the way to Porvoo, an hour away from where I live. Porvoo is of course a wonderful historic city with wooden houses alongside the river banks. Their swimming hall was constructed in the 1970s probably, but then more recently expanded. Full story January 2025, Porvoon uimahalli, Porvoo, Finland Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal, Steam) | |
| Back in my swim school, after 48 years When I was in elementary school, our class would get swimming lessons by taking a bus to the Tikkurila swimming hall, a dome construction from 1968 and Finland's first 50-meter indoor swimming pool. Besides that pool, there's a teaching pool and a jumping platforms up to 10 meters. Three saunas at least on the men's side. The hall has been renovated multiple times, but the basics have not changed, exactly same layout and no new fancy pools or saunas for instance. Full story January 2025, Tikkurilan uimahalli, Tikkurila, Vantaa, Finland Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal) | |
| Thermal spa and sauna in Andorra I've been to Andorra couple of times before, but never had the opportunity to visit a sauna or do a swim. Now I did! Hotel Spa Termes Carlemany provided both! They are situated in an area of Andorra la Vella, by the river, where there's 72 degree water flowing from the ground. The water is also used to run interest pipe displays and art work. Full story December 2024, Hotel Spa Termes Carlemany, Andorra La Vella, Andorra Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Waterbody-Pool, Indoor) | |
| Hotel Ramonda pools and saunas Hotel Ramonda (Хотел Рамонда, Ртањ) is named according to a flower that only grows on the mountain it is on, the Rtanj mountain in eastern Serbia. It is a luxury hotel that started out five years ago and has recently expanded with even more rooms and pools and saunas. It has outdoor and indoor pools and several different saunas. Full story December 2024, Hotel Ramonda, Rtanj, Serbia Sauna (Normal, Steam); Swimming (Indoor, Outdoor, Waterbody-Pool) | |
| Space Sauna We visited Cité de l'Espace, a science museum dedicated to space exploration in Toulouse. It is a wonderful museum for the kids to explore, though I was not super impressed as most of the displays were replicas. But one thing that definitely caught my attention was the Mir space station (replica, of course), and in particular the shower and sauna tank they had. Full story December 2024, Cité de l'Espace, Toulouse, France Flying; Sauna (None) | |
| Ireland sauna and swimming experience I was in Dublin for a conference, pretty tight agenda but I did manage to do a cave hike on one morning. And visit a local spa for a quick swim and sauna on the last evening! Full story November 2024, The Spencer Health Club, Dublin, Ireland Sauna (Normal, Steam); Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool) | |
| Sauna, snow, and departure Trip to the IETF conference in Dublin started. But it feels like I’m going in the wrong direction when after a long warm spell it just now started snowing .. fortunately bumped to old friends at the airport. And managed to squeeze in a traditional stop at the airport sauna on the way in, too :-) Full story November 2024, Helsinki-Vantaa, Vantaa, Finland Sauna (Normal); Flying | |
| Day trip to Levi Did a day trip yesterday to Levi for October turns. Levi and Ruka are the only open ski resorts in Finland. Icy experience on the slopes, but glad I went! Full story October 2024, Levi, Kittilä, Finland; Levi Hotel, Kittilä, Finland; Helsinki-Vantaa, Vantaa, Finland; Rovaniemi Airport, Rovaniemi, Finland Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Swimming (Indoor, Outdoor, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal); Flying; Travel | |
| Night sail Had a fun event at work today, a picnic in Suomenlinna (the fortress island in front of Helsinki). But a friend from work invited us to join the trip by a sail boat. Nice! Full story August 2024, Suomenlinnan vierasvenesatama, Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland Travel; Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Outdoor, Waterbody-Sea) | |
| Sauna in Hotel Merihovi Kemi. Never been, but what a nice surprise! Nice, walkable center, boat harbors, nice restaurants, ... and a nice historic hotel, the Hotel Merihovi. We visited the sauna upon arrival, having been in the outback for a week by this time :-) Full story August 2024, Hotel Merihovi, Kemi, Finland Sauna (Normal) | |
| Rantasauna Rantasauna is a legendary party place in Otaniemi, in the student village of the Helsinki University of Technology (now called Aalto University). Full story June 2024, Rantasauna, Otaniemi Espoo, Finland Swimming (Outdoor, Waterbody-Sea); Sauna (Normal) | |
| First mökki-swim in 2024... driving on a Jaguar Too busy, and now without a car I have not been able to visit the summer cottage this year at all. Sigh. But now my car repair shop nicely loaned me a four-liter green '99 Jaguar for the weekend. Very nice! And a fun car to drive. And it was such a bliss to drop into the lake after visiting the sauna. The water was warmer than it probably has ever been on June 1st... Full story June 2024, Arkko summer cottage, Teisko, Finland Car; 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, and set 12.