The Best Saunas & Baths in the Nordics

Iceland

Bathing in the Nordic countries follows the water and the cold. Iceland has the warm water: geothermal pools are part of daily life there, and the lagoons are its largest form. Five Icelandic lagoons appear here, in a lava field, on the Reykjavik coast, on the shore of Hvalfjörður, in a forest above Akureyri and floating on a lake in the east. In all of them people stand in warm water in the open air, in snow as readily as in sun, and showering without swimwear beforehand is required.

Norway

Norway and Sweden share the sauna habit, and the two venues from there are bath houses on a large scale. The Well, in the forest south of Oslo, spreads pools, steam rooms and saunas over three floors. Its saunas are textile-free, and in the pools guests wear the house's own swimwear. Sauna rituals with a sauna master run through the day.

Sweden

Yasuragi, in the Stockholm archipelago, is a Swedish idea of a Japanese bath. Guests are given a cotton robe on arrival and wear it everywhere, at the baths and at dinner. The washing ritual before the pools follows Japanese custom, and the outdoor pools look into woodland.

Cold water

Cold water is the common element. Icelandic lagoons keep a cold tub or a ladder into a lake or fjord beside the warm pools, and the sauna houses have plunge pools for the same purpose.