Bathhouse.
The global guide to social bathing.
Near you
Bathing spaces near you
Use your location or type a city to see the closest places.
Bathhouse is the global guide to social bathing, published in English, Portuguese and Spanish. We research public baths, communal saunas, hammams, hot springs and contemporary bathhouses, explain the traditions behind them, and gather places to visit around the world. For anyone thinking of opening a space, design and budget belong here too.
Start here
What it is
What a bathhouse is
A bathhouse is a social space built around rituals that heat the body, cool it, rest it, and repeat.
Almost every bathing culture has its own version: the sauna in Finland, the banya in Russia, the hammam across the Arab world and Turkey, the onsen in Japan, the jjimjilbang in Korea. In much of the English-speaking world the format nearly disappeared for a century, and the venues opening now are rebuilding it from those traditions rather than continuing a local one.
The difference
Bathhouse, recovery club and contrast studio
Many new places with a sauna and an ice tub call themselves a bathhouse. What separates the formats is the program, not the quality: what the place sells, and how long you stay.
-
Bathhouse
The bath is the program. Heat, cold, rest and company in the same place, with a real wet area. People arrive, move between stations for hours, and talk to someone. It is the format of the sentō, the hammam, the banya and the contemporary bathhouse.
-
Recovery club
The body is the program. Sauna and ice come in as a recovery protocol for training, sleep and performance, almost always attached to a gym or a studio. It sells a session and a result, by appointment.
-
Contrast studio
The session is the program. One sauna, one ice tub, booked by the hour: you come in and you leave. It is a common format among new venues. It has no wet area and nowhere to stay.
-
Spa
The treatment is the program. Massage, aesthetics, a ritual performed on you by someone else. Sauna and steam are amenities of the treatment, not the reason for the visit. Day spas and hotel spas belong here.
-
Hot springs
The water is the program. A mineral spring, a hot spring or a circuit of heated pools: people go to soak, to stay, and to return to the water. The stay is long and the socialising is real, as in a bathhouse. What differs is the centre, which is immersion rather than the heat and cold cycle.
None of the five is better than the others, and we cover all of them. What we do not do is call one by the name of another: on the map, every space carries the label of what it actually is.
Kinds of bath
Sauna, hot springs and other kinds of bath
-
Finnish sauna
Dry heat, usually between 70 °C and 100 °C (160–210 °F), with hot stones you throw water on to make steam (the löyly). The savusauna, the smoke version, is heated and vented before anyone goes in.
-
Banya
The Russian cousin: a little less hot and considerably more humid. The house signature is the venik, a bundle of birch or oak branches used to strike the body lightly and move the heat around.
-
Hammam
Saturated steam at a lower temperature, in a room of stone or marble. The centre is the heated slab where you lie down for a scrub with a mitt and soap.
-
Hot springs
The water is the program: a mineral spring, a hot spring or a circuit of heated pools. There may be a sauna in the complex; the reason for the visit is still the soak.
-
Onsen and sentō
In Japan, immersion bathing: the onsen draws on a thermal spring (the close relative of hot springs), while the sentō is a neighbourhood bathhouse with heated water. You wash sitting down, outside the tub, before getting in.
-
Jjimjilbang
A Korean complex with several rooms at different temperatures, a common area where everyone wears the same uniform, and gender-separated baths. Many run 24 hours.
-
Cold plunge and contrast
The dip after the heat, almost always between 5 °C and 15 °C (41–59 °F). Alternating hot and cold in cycles is what most venues call contrast therapy.
A session
How a session works
- Shower first. Going in clean is a rule in practically every bathing culture.
- Heat for 8 to 15 minutes, or less if your body asks for less. The air is hotter higher up: sitting on a lower bench already changes a lot.
- Cool for 30 seconds to 3 minutes in ice, a cold pool or a shower. Breathe slowly instead of holding your breath.
- Rest at least as long as you spent in the heat, with water nearby, until your breathing and skin settle.
- Repeat 2 to 4 cycles. Finish on cold or on rest, whichever feels better.
Drink water and avoid alcohol before and during. Intense heat and cold affect blood pressure and heart rate, so talk to your doctor first if you are pregnant or have a heart condition.
Where to go
Saunas, hot springs and bathing spaces around the world
Where you can actually go depends enormously on where you are: Finland and Japan never stopped, Central Europe and Korea kept the large formats, and much of the English-speaking world is opening its first dedicated venues in a century. The map shows the venues we have researched so far. The view is public; the full listing (price, floor plan, photos) is for subscribers. Subscribing is free, there is no paid tier yet. City guides, lists and visits live on the blog.
Posts
Latest
-
Arab baths in Spain: the Andalusian legacy of the hammam
How the Arab baths of al-Andalus worked, what is left of them in Andalusia, and how that heritage shows up in the bathing spaces Spain has today.
-
Sauna hats in a shared sauna: why bathers wear them and what the house rules say
Why bathers in a banya or an aufguss session wear a felt hat on the top bench, what house rules say about hats, how to keep one clean in a shared room and what else people wear in the heat.
-
Hammam: what it is, how the bath works and where it comes from
The hammam is the public bath of the Islamic world: heated rooms, hot marble, washing and a scrub. See the sequence of a visit, the Roman inheritance and why the European “Turkish bath” is something else.
-
Communal bathing: what it is and how to enter a shared bath
Communal bathing means sharing water, heat or washing space with strangers. Learn what to wear, how the visit works and which etiquette changes from one bathing tradition to another.