By Rudy Owens, MA, MPH
Jump below to see my photo essay on saunas in Finland.
My recent 11-day trip to Finland counts as one of my best travel experiences ever. I took it in a Nordic country, where winter should be experienced in person. It offered fresh insights into a nation now recognized for its policies promoting social and individual wellbeing. Most of all, it gave me wonderful insights into my ethnic Finnish roots.
Between Feb. 16 and 26, 2024, I visited and stayed in the homes of three of my Finnish relatives, who I found and met for the first time in September 2023. On my latest journey, saunas played an important role in all of these family stays and formed my most lasting memories of this past trip.
Two of my slightly younger Finnish cousins, Jo… and An…, agreed to host me in Tampere, Finland’s third largest city, with a population of more than 255,000 residents. My aunt, Me…, also agreed to host me in Kurikka, a much smaller city about two hours to the north by train. Their hospitality truly let me enjoy Finland in the winter with kin, combined with sauna time! (Yes, I did a lot of cross-country skiing too.)
In September 2023, I only had one day to visit Tampere, where my Finnish relatives who lived there and relatives in two other cities convened for a joyful family reunion luncheon. This magnificent and former industrial city sits between two majestic lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, and it has become a global destination for culture and sports.
The city features a walkable urban center, with many buildings dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s, as well as large performing arts and conference facility called the Nokia Center. Opened in 2021, the arena holds up to 15,000 persons and has hosted the World Ice Hockey Championships twice. Tampere remains the reigning epicenter of Finnish professional hockey. It hosts two teams and the national hockey museum—a fun museum in a larger museum, Vapriikki, that hosts a total of five different museums in a section of the historic Tampella factory in the city’s downtown.
Today this city is more known in Europe as a stylish, hip destination. Just before I arrived in Helsinki in mid-February 2024, in Helsinki, Tampere hosted a glitzy, gaudy, and a grandiose musical spectacle on Feb. 13 and 14, 2024, called Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu, Finland’s selection show for Eurovision 2024. The city is setting its sights on becoming the host of the wildly popular Eurovision song contest, punching far above its weight and size.
However, Tampere’s global fame is mostly tied to its ubiquitous saunas. They made my second visit with family all the more special.
The City of Tampere’s tourism website promoting the city’s many saunas provides a fair picture of the facilities. I like that is shows people with all different body types—not one a “smoking hot” beauty. The website, which clearly has caught the attention of journalists reporting regularly on Finland’s sauna culture, notes: “Did you know there are over 55 public saunas in Tampere region for anyone to relax in, throughout the year? Finnish sauna culture is also a part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.”
These honest pictures are important, because they reflect reality, and it matched what I saw of fully and near naked bodies in two of the city’s most famous saunas: Rauhaniemi (Rauhaniemen kansankylpylä) and Rajaportin.
Kudos to the folks in Tampere for showing all of us that the sauna is not the domain of Instagram and social media narcissists. Tampere’s websites show guys half naked drinking beer outside or people of all body types wandering outdoors in the cold after plunging into a frozen lake. That’s how they do it. And they are really wonderful.
My cousin Jo…, who I stayed with in Tampere, took me to Rauhamieni Folk Spa, on a jammed sunny Sunday. That afternoon ranks among my most memorable in years, because of the amazing sauna and being able to share it with my cousin. I was grinning ear to ear most of the time.
It felt like I was in heaven, sharing a crowded space with Tampere locals in the facility’s two sauna chambers and then jumping in the icy Näsijärvi, the lake next to the sauna.
Jo… was much tougher than me. I jumped in the lake and clambered out on the very nice stairs leading into the lake in probably in less than 10 seconds. When I turned around to see how my relative was doing it, I saw her calmly doing the breast stroke and a blissful smile on her face. She came equipped with booties and a cap, like others. Truly, Finnish people have learned how to adapt to cold discomfort and turn it into a joyous and healthy experience.
As I have previously shared in other essays I’ve published on saunas, a 2023 study, published by the Mayo Clinic Proceedings on the health benefits of Finnish-style saunas, notes: “There is a growing body of robust research evidence linking sauna bathing with substantial health benefits, beyond its use for leisure and relaxation. Several observational and interventional studies suggest that regular or frequent sauna bathing reduces the risk of vascular and nonvascular diseases, such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, sudden cardiac death, stroke, dementia, venous thromboembolism, all-cause mortality, lung diseases, and psychotic disorders; improves the severity of musculoskeletal disorders (such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia), COVID-19, and lung conditions (such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]); and extends the life span.”
All told, I had seven sauna outings in 11 days. They all felt fabulous.
My persistent coughing I have experienced since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, subsided by nearly 50 percent, and it remains that way to this day. My mood also was much brighter when I returned home too. I came home fully alive.
I also developed a better appreciation of saunas as an integral part of modern Finnish society. Saunas are also Finland’s great equalizer. They foster communal relations and strengthen interpersonal connections. I saw lots of nice documentaries and read many stories explaining this before my two trips. However, on this trip in winter 2024, I truly felt this.
They are ubiquitous, numbering nearly 3 million in a country with nearly 5.5 million people. As I have seen myself on two visits, they are found in homes, hotels, sports facilities, park facilities, campgrounds, cottages, in backyards, in community facilities, and in communal areas. They define what being Finnish means to nearly all Finns.
Saunas also serve as a beacon to others from around the world.
In addition to my visits to the two famous public saunas in Tampere, Rauhamieni and Rajaportin, I also found time to enjoy saunas at two hotels, and both were excellent: Scandic Park Hotel in Helsinki and the Holiday Inn in Vantaa. I picked both hotels because of their saunas and their locations. At Scandic Park, I saw nationalities from many countries, and all of the sauna users were deeply appreciative of the experience. Any Google search will dig up thousands of personal stories, shared on social media, blogs, and personal videos. These testimonies all share common threads.
I also savored the home saunas of my relatives in Kurikka and Tampere. Doing a sauna with family on a quiet winter night is nothing less than magic. I remember these moments well.
I found that sharing a sauna in someone’s home creates powerful bonds. In my case, I did my two home saunas with men, husbands of my relatives. This was proper sauna etiquette, as I was still an “outsider.” (Here’s a fair summary of “sauna etiquette” in Finland.) One of my hosts was not fluent in English and one was. It didn’t matter.
We sat, we sweated, we cooled down, and we repeated the ritual. We were naked. There were no pretenses being naked and sweating. I felt a more personal bond with them I had not felt earlier.
At my cousin’s house, with her husband, we also enjoyed a cool beverage during the sauna—a great trick of the Finns, to make saunas more fun using can cozies that will keep the drinks cold while you poor sweat. Many Finns will drink beers in or during saunas during the cool down breaks. In my case, we had non-alcoholic drinks. At my aunt’s home in Kurikka, with her husband, we chilled down outside, next to massive snow berms and enjoyed the peace of a Finnish winter night as our bodies radiated steam from our hot flesh.
There are visceral reasons why the Finnish people love their saunas. You can only appreciate this by doing it.
After the saunas in my relatives’ homes, when the men and women and girls all got together again, we all radiated the look of serenity. We felt completely at peace, cozy indoors, feeling alive.
The world has much to learn from this national pastime of Finland. They make me proud to call myself a Finnish-American.
Note: My photos include saunas I photographed in September 2023.
Keywords/Metatags: Finland, Suomi, Kinship, Genealogy, Finnish-Americans, Finland Travel, Finland History, Finnish Happiness, Finland Culture, Tampere, Kurikka, Sauna, Sauna Health Benefits, Näsijärvi, Pyhäjärvi, Rauhamieni, Rauhaniemen kansankylpylässä, Rajaportin, Rauhamieni Folk Spa, Vihta, Sauna Vihta, Sompasauna