There are more saunas than cars in Finland. Your apartment building has one with booked slots, your workplace may have one, and every cottage does. The sauna is where Finns relax, talk and make decisions, and knowing how it works is the fastest way to feel at home.
The basics
- Shower first, without soap or with, but wet. Then sit on a towel or a paper seat cover (pefletti).
- Naked is normal in private and same-sex saunas. In mixed public saunas a swimsuit is expected unless the sauna says otherwise; check the sign.
- Löyly is the steam from water thrown on the stones. Anyone can throw, but ask Saako heittää? (May I throw?) in a shared sauna. Throwing and leaving immediately is the one real faux pas.
- Stay as long as you like, cool off outside or in the shower or the lake, go back in. Two or three rounds is typical.
- The vihta or vasta, a whisk of fresh birch branches, is for gently beating your own skin in summer. It smells wonderful and it is not a joke.
- Quiet is fine, talk is fine. The sauna is the one place Finns talk to strangers.
- Drink water, or a beer after, not before.
Your building's sauna
Look at the notice board or ask the property manager for a weekly saunavuoro (booked slot) for your apartment; it costs a few euros a month. There is also often a shared lenkkisauna on set evenings, men's and women's hours, free.
Public saunas worth a visit
- Helsinki: Löyly (design sauna by the sea), Allas Sea Pool (sauna and pools by the market), Kotiharjun sauna in Kallio (the last wood-heated public sauna, from 1928), Kulttuurisauna, Sompasauna (free, volunteer-run, by the sea).
- Tampere: Rajaportti (the oldest public sauna in Finland, since 1906), Rauhaniemi and Kaupinoja by the lake with ice swimming in winter.
- Everywhere: swimming halls have saunas included in the ticket.
Winter: avanto
Ice swimming means a hole in the lake or sea next to a sauna. Thirty seconds in the water, back to the heat. It is safe with a sauna, popular with pensioners, and the single most Finnish thing you will ever do.
Sauna Finnish
| Finnish | Meaning |
|---|---|
| sauna | sauna |
| kiuas | the stove |
| löyly | the steam |
| Saako heittää? | May I throw (water)? |
| lauteet | the benches |
| vihta / vasta | birch whisk |
| pefletti | seat cover |
| saunavuoro | booked sauna slot |
| avanto | ice hole for swimming |
| Hyviä löylyjä! | Enjoy the sauna! (said when someone heads in) |
| kylmää kyytiä | "a cold ride", the plunge |