Sauna etiquette around the world

The rules change a lot depending on where you are standing, and the mistakes are usually made by British people abroad rather than the other way round. Here is roughly what to expect.

Finland

The original, and still the most relaxed about it. Nude is normal and swimwear is unusual, though public saunas are often single-sex or have separate sessions. Family saunas are mixed and nobody thinks anything of it.

Sit on a towel, always. Löyly is poured freely and you do not need to ask permission every time, though it is polite to check if the room is full of strangers. Conversation happens but it is quiet, and the sauna has a slightly sacred status. There is an old saying about behaving in a sauna as you would in church.

Germany and Austria

Textile-free is mandatory in the vast majority of saunas, not optional. Turning up in swimming shorts will get you asked to remove them, which is a genuinely common and quite awkward experience for British visitors.

You carry a big towel to lie or sit on, and you wear a robe between rooms. Silence in the sauna is expected rather than preferred. Aufguss sessions run on the hour and have their own etiquette, covered in our Aufguss guide.

Sweden, Norway and Denmark

Broadly like Finland, nude and often single-sex, though Scandinavian cold water clubs and harbour saunas have got much more mixed and swimwear friendly in the last decade. Copenhagen and Oslo harbour saunas are closer to what Bristol does than to a traditional Finnish one.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

Smoke saunas are still alive here and are worth going out of your way for. A savusauna has no chimney, gets smoked for hours, then the fire is let die and the smoke cleared before anyone goes in. The walls are black, the heat is soft and heavy, and it smells extraordinary.

Whisks are standard. Expect to be beaten with birch and to enjoy it more than you expected.

Russia and the banya

Wetter and cooler than a Finnish sauna, and much more of a social event. People wear felt hats to keep their head cooler than the rest of them, which looks ridiculous and works.

The venik, a bundle of birch or oak twigs, gets used properly here, often by someone else working on you while you lie down. Rounds are short, the cold plunge after each one is not optional in spirit, and food and drink between rounds is part of the day.

Turkey and the hammam

Different tradition entirely. Wet heat, marble, and a scrub from an attendant that removes more of you than you expected. You wear a peştemal, a thin cotton wrap, and it stays on. Usually single-sex, or separate hours.

Japan

Sento and onsen are bathing culture rather than sauna culture, though sauna rooms are common inside them. Wash thoroughly at the seated showers before you get in anything, and get in with nothing on. Swimwear is not worn. Tattoos are still restricted at plenty of places, though this is loosening.

The UK, and Bristol

Swimwear by default, almost everywhere. Sessions are booked in advance rather than dropped into. People talk more than they would in Helsinki, and the vibe at a Bristol community sauna is closer to a friendly pub garden than to a temple.

That is not worse, it is just different, and the trade-off is that it is a much easier place to go on your own for the first time.

A few local specifics worth knowing:

• Book ahead, especially in winter, and turn up ten minutes early to change.
• Shower before you get in. Everyone is asked, not everyone does it.
• Phones stay in the locker. This is taken more seriously here than almost any other rule.
• Ask before you pour water on the stones if the room is busy.
• Silent sessions exist at several venues, including Orchard Sauna and Bristol Community Sauna, and the silence is real rather than nominal.

The one rule that travels

Whatever the local custom is, watch what everyone else is doing for thirty seconds before you commit. Every sauna culture forgives a polite foreigner who is paying attention.