The Best Bathhouses & Hammams in the World

City bathhouses

AIRE Ancient Baths is on the list three times, in London, Chicago and New York: candlelit rooms with hot, warm and cold pools and a salt flotation pool. Neptunbad in Cologne occupies an Art Nouveau building of 1912. Banya Forrest in Dubai is a Russian banya, where banya masters run steam rituals every hour.

Korean and Japanese bathing

King Spa & Sauna in Palisades Park and Island Spa & Sauna in Edison are Korean jjimjilbang. Bathing is separate for men and women and without swimwear, and the sauna rooms are shared, in loungewear the house provides. The two Japanese venues are public bathhouses. Goshonoyu in Kinosaki Onsen has three open-air pools fed by a waterfall. Funaoka Onsen in Kyoto has been open since the Taisho era and is a registered cultural property.

Hammams

Four hammams are on the list. Kılıç Ali Paşa Hamam in Istanbul is a 16th-century Ottoman bath built by Mimar Sinan for Admiral Kılıç Ali Paşa, now restored. Attendants lead guests from a warm marble slab to a kese scrub and a foam wash, and tea is served under the dome afterwards. Çukurcuma Hamamı 1831, also in Istanbul, is mixed, so couples and groups go through the ritual together. Alf Layla Wa Layla in Amman and Hürrem Hammam in North Miami are Turkish hammams with heated marble and body scrubs.