The Best Saunas & Baths in the Netherlands

A day at the sauna

The Dutch sauna is a place to spend a whole day. A typical house has ten or more saunas at different temperatures, indoor and outdoor pools, a garden, rest rooms and a restaurant, and guests move between them in a bathrobe. Bathing is mixed and without swimwear. Most houses set aside a few swimwear days each month for visitors who prefer them, and it is worth checking the calendar before going.

Opgieting

Opgieting, the Dutch word for the sauna infusion, is taken seriously. A sauna master pours scented water on the stones and moves the hot air with a towel or fan, and the bigger houses turn it into a show. Thermen Bussloo and Thermen Berendonck each have a sauna built as a theatre with tiered benches around the stove. Spa One in Oosterhout holds its infusions in panorama saunas facing the garden.

Settings

The settings vary more than the routine does. Thermen Bussloo and Berendonck each lie beside a recreational lake that guests can swim in. Fort Resort Beemster is built into a fort of the old Defence Line of Amsterdam, with saunas in the bunkers. Sauna Drôme near Putten is a former barn in the woods with a sauna boat on its pond. Sweet Lake in Zoetermeer is new and large, with self-service check-in and a landscaped garden. Centre du Lac in Pijnacker is the small one, a garden sauna that rarely gets busy.