Last updated: 22.06.2025
The Finnish sauna is an inseparable part of boating in Finland. Any marina or guest harbor worth its name has a sauna facility. And if you get invited to visit someone with your boat, you can rest assured that part of the hospitality is the offer of a sauna. in this post I will be introducing the Finnish sauna for boaters; everything you need to know to immerse yourself in the sauna scene and enjoy this integral part of the Finnish sailing and boating experience.
What is a genuine Finnish sauna?
So let’s start with the fundamentals. In the video below, I’ll delve into the essence of the Finnish sauna; what is the purpose of the sauna and how it works.
So to iterate, the key elements of a Finnish sauna are:
- a sauna hot-room (“löylyhuone”) with a stove with stones that is appropriately sized for the space
- the stove can be heated by wood or electricity so that the room temperature reaches 80-100 degrees Celsius
- fresh water in sufficient quantities to throw on the stones to create that key element of the Finnish sauna, the “löyly” (löyly is the puff of steam created as the water boils off the hot stones)
- washing facility in the hot-room or in an adjacent space
So facilities with just the a facility to heat the room but you cannot throw water is not a proper sauna, nor is any facility using infrared.
I’m on my way to the sauna, what do I do!
The next video will guide you to enjoy a sauna.
The Finnish sauna experience is really very simple. There are four main parts to it:
- Enjoying the damp warmth of the sauna hot-room (the “löylyhuone”), note that you need to throw some “löyly”, otherwise the sauna is just dry-hot and not very pleasant
- Enhancing the warmth by throwing water on the hot stones of the stove, ie throwing a “löyly”
- Taking a break from the heat and cooling down, either in the dressing room or outside (this is called “vilvoittelu” in Finnish) or even taking a swim.
- Wash
- Rinse and repeat as many times as you feel like (or your sauna reservation allows, see next video)
There are no rules for how hot the sauna should be, how long you stay in the “löylyhuone”, how often and with how much water you should throw “löyly” (the more water, the hotter the löyly). Just do what feels good to you. Simple, isn’t it?
What types of sauna facilities can boaters expect in marinas?
Pretty much every marina and guest harbor has some form of sauna facility available for their guests. Two main types of saunas dominate:
- Authentic. A sauna (mostly a separate building) that you book for your exclusive use, typically for 1 to 1.5 hours. This type of sauna is normally not included in the harbor fee, you pay separately for it when you book it. The sauna can comfortably fit the crew of a normal boat (5-6 persons). The sauna is essentially mixed as there typically is just one dressing room and one hot-room.
- Most common. A service building with a sauna, showers and other facilities. The use of the service building is normally included in the harbor fee. Saunas and showers are shared, no personal changing rooms. Normally there is a men’s side and a women’s side, mixed public saunas are not the norm.
- Rare/occasional. Single sauna but timeslots for men and women. This setup is sometimes used when there is just one sauna but there are a lot of boats in the harbor. Typically the use of the sauna in this case is included in the harbor fee.
In the video below I visit a number of saunas in different guest harbors to give you an overview of the types of sauna facilities that you can expect to find.
If you check out the services of harbors on a site like vierassatamat.fi/ availability of a sauna is typically marked with this type of sign: 
Normally you cannot deduce from the service description whether the sauna is a bookable sauna or part of the services of a service building. Below is an example from Jurmo (one of the marinas featured in the video):
In this case, the sauna sign refers to a bookable sauna while the shower might refer to the use of the saunas for morning showers. So the best thing to do is to check in with the harbor master right after you arrive.
Finland has two national languages, Finnish and Swedish. Swedish is quite common in the archipelago and dominating on the Åland islands. In Swedish, the sauna is called “bastu”. However, in Finland, “bastu” refers to a traditional Finnish sauna, which is quite different (and of course better) than the “bastu” you will find in Sweden (often with just dry heat and no “löyly”).
Bara bada bastu
And I guess no presentation of the Finnish sauna would be complete without the international hit song “Bara bada bastu” (roughly “Just enjoy your sauna”) by the Finnish group Kaj. Kaj got to represent Sweden (!) in the 2025 Eurovision song contest with the song and it was an immediate hit in Sweden after Kaj preformed it at Melodifestivalen, the Swedish qualifying competition for the Eurovision song contest. It also became a huge hit in Finland and internationally.
The good thing that the song features proper (= Finnish) sauna culture. Also note that Kaj sings the song in a Finnish-Swedish dialect from their home municipality Vörå with some Finnish words thrown in.