Famous saunas in Finland: where to go for your first real löyly

Finland has 3.3 million saunas for 5.5 million people, which makes a list of famous ones slightly absurd. But a handful are destinations: for age, for scale, for architecture, or because they show what a public sauna can be. Here are the ones we would send a friend to, grouped by city.

If you only have one trip: Rajaportti in Tampere is the oldest public sauna in Finland still running (since 1906), Kotiharju is the classic wood-heated city sauna in Helsinki, Löyly is the seaside architecture, Kuusijärvi or Rauhalahti will give you a real smoke sauna, and Sompasauna is free. Book Löyly and the Serlachius Art Sauna ahead; the old ones you simply walk into.

Which saunas in Finland are worth visiting?

The list below is organised by city, and within each city by what the sauna is famous for: history, smoke sauna, architecture, ice swimming, or simply being free and open all night. Opening days, prices, and booking rules change, so check each venue's own page before you go.

Tampere: the sauna capital

Tampere has called itself the sauna capital of the world since 2018, when the International Sauna Association and the Finnish Sauna Society awarded it the title on the strength of having the most public saunas in Finland. Nobody has seriously argued.

Rajaportin sauna. The oldest public sauna in Finland still in use, throwing löyly in the Pispala district since 1906 and run by the neighbourhood association since 1989. Wood-heated, cheap, and full of regulars who have been coming for decades. The heat is soft and the löyly is thrown by whoever is nearest. There is a café in the yard and a yard to cool off in. This is the one to visit if you want to see what sauna meant before anyone thought of it as wellness.

Rauhaniemi and Kaupinoja. Two lakeside public saunas on Lake Näsijärvi, both run by local clubs and both known for winter swimming. In summer you walk from the bench into the lake. In winter you walk into an avanto cut in the ice. Rauhaniemi is the older and more atmospheric of the two; Kaupinoja is the bigger one. Either is the classic Finnish combination of heat and cold water done as everyday life.

Helsinki

Löyly. A long angular building of dark timber slats on the Hernesaari waterfront, a City of Helsinki project that opened in 2016 and collected architecture award nominations in its first year. Inside: a wood-heated sauna, a smoke sauna, and a continuously heated one, all mixed and swimsuit-only, with steps down into the Baltic and a restaurant. It is expensive by Finnish standards and popular with visitors, and it is also a genuinely good sauna. Book ahead.

Allas Sea Pool. Beside the market square, a floating complex of saunas and pools, one of them a seawater pool. The saunas are electric and busy; the point is the view of the harbour and the plunge into the sea pool in January with the ferries going past.

Kotiharjun sauna. The old one. Completed in 1928 in the Kallio district and now Helsinki's only remaining traditional wood-heated block sauna, single-sex, no swimsuits, with regulars who sit on the street outside in towels between rounds. The stove is enormous and the löyly is the softest in the city. Cheap, and the most authentic public sauna in the capital.

Sauna Arla. Also in Kallio, also old, also wood-heated, slightly smaller and quieter than Kotiharju. If Kotiharju is full, walk here.

Kulttuurisauna. A small, calm, wood-heated public sauna on the shore in Merihaka, built by an architect and an artist as a kind of quiet manifesto. No alcohol, no noise, a ladder into the sea. Limited hours, so check.

Sompasauna. Free, always open, volunteer-built and run by an association with no staff, on a scrap of shoreline in Kalasatama. Wood stoves, mixed, swimsuits optional, and whoever is there chops the wood and throws the löyly. It has been torn down and rebuilt more than once. Bring firewood if you can.

Lonna and Suomenlinna. Island saunas a short ferry ride from the market square. Lonna's is wood-heated and faces the sea; a summer evening there with the ferry back at eleven is one of the better things to do in Helsinki.

Beyond the two cities

Kuusijärvi, Vantaa. Public smoke saunas by a lake just north of Helsinki, run by the city. The easiest way to experience a real savusauna without knowing someone with a cottage. Soft, dark heat, gentler than any electric room, and a lake to swim in.

Jätkänkämppä, Rauhalahti, Kuopio. Billed as the world's biggest smoke sauna, taking about 60 to 70 bathers at a time, beside a lumberjack lodge on the shore of Lake Kallavesi. Heated on set evenings, so check the schedule. The heat is gentle enough that people stay in for a long time, and there is a lake outside the door.

Saunakylä, Jämsä. A sauna village: over 20 traditional smoke saunas dating from the 1700s to the 1940s, moved here from around Finland, restored, and kept in working order for visitors. If you want to understand the history in one afternoon, this is it.

Serlachius Art Sauna, Mänttä. Completed in 2022 beside the Serlachius art museum and designed by Héctor Mendoza, Mara Partida and Boris Bežan, the architects of the museum's 2014 building. A sauna as a piece of architecture, with a lake, a courtyard, and a stone-heavy stove. Bookable, and worth the detour.

The Finnish Sauna Society, Helsinki. Not a public sauna, but the keeper of the tradition: founded in 1937, with smoke saunas, wood-heated saunas and one electric sauna at Vaskiniemi on Lauttasaari, members only, with occasional guest arrangements. If you can get an invitation, go.

What to expect as a visitor

Most public saunas have a men's and a women's side and are used nude; the newer mixed ones require swimsuits and say so. Visit Finland's guide puts it simply: Finns typically sauna nude, and a swimsuit or towel is acceptable where the venue allows it. Shower first. Sit on a towel or the paper seat covers provided. Ask before throwing water if you are not nearest the stove. Talk quietly or not at all. Cool off outside, in the water if there is water, and do not rush the rest. Nobody times anything. Between rounds people drink water, or in the evening a beer, and nobody is in a hurry to leave.

If you are logging the trip, the smoke saunas and the old wood-heated ones will give you the gentlest heart rate curves you have recorded, and the avanto at Rauhaniemi will give you the sharpest cold plunge. Both are worth the flight. See the types of Finnish sauna for what each room will feel like before you get there.

Read next: Types of Finnish sauna, from smoke to electric · Saunaolut: the Finnish sauna beer · Finnish sauna terms

Sources

• UNESCO. "Sauna culture in Finland." Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, 2020.
• Visit Tampere. "Tampere, the Sauna Capital of the world."
• Rajaportin sauna (Pispalan saunayhdistys).
• Löyly Helsinki. "Our Story."
• Kotiharjun sauna.
• Sompasauna.
• City of Vantaa. "Vantaa's Kuusijärvi."
• Spa Hotel Rauhalahti. "Jätkänkämppä Lumberjack Lodge & Smoke Sauna."
• Saunakylä.
• Serlachius Museums. "Serlachius Art Sauna."
• Finnish Sauna Society. "The Society's history."
• Visit Finland. "Your guide to Finnish sauna."

Quick answer

• For history: Rajaportti in Tampere, Kotiharju in Helsinki.
• For smoke sauna: Kuusijärvi, Rauhalahti, Saunakylä.
• For architecture: Löyly, Serlachius Art Sauna.
• For ice swimming: Rauhaniemi and Kaupinoja in Tampere, Allas in Helsinki.
• For free: Sompasauna. Bring wood.