
Bywater Sauna’s parking spot is true subsequent to the Puget Sound chilly plunge.
Get scorching, get chilly, repeat. No, it isn’t the yo-yo climate patterns of a Washington winter or the shorthand for an unhealthy relationship; that is the rhythm of soaking and sauna tradition. It is a leisure exercise that takes you from a room hotter than Phoenix in July, or possibly a scorching tub with lobster pot vibes, to waters precisely as chilly as Puget Sound in January.
The distinction is well-studied for its well being advantages, from enjoyable sore muscular tissues to strengthening cardiovascular techniques. However its roots hint again to Nordic traditions, the place having fun with a sauna is as frequent as taking a stroll, and to the social Roman baths of the traditional period.
Seattle has seen a current growth in locations that provide soaking and sauna-going, whereas the remainder of the state continues to get inventive with methods to heat up. (Our sister publication Portland Month-to-month is on high of the Oregon scene.) A large wood-fired human soup pot? A Japanese spa on a seaside campground? Seize your bathing go well with—all of the beneath require ’em—and heat up already.

The Bywater Sauna has two wooden fireplaces, so heat a chilly plunge comes as a aid.
Bywater Sauna
West Seattle, Ballard
Passerby do double takes at this barrel-shaped sauna parked at Golden Gardens or Alki seashores, like an enormous Twix bar with two little chimneys poking out one finish. For all of the indoor warmth Nate Gerberich gives along with his touring setup, it was impressed by the very frigid; the thought largely grew out of chilly plunge group Coldwater Collective. The Minnesota-built construction holds 16 individuals who alternate between excessive temps. Admission is out there by way of a one-time $35–40 move or a month-to-month membership.
The form is conducive to even a full home, social however by no means a sardine-can state of affairs. The dual wooden fires make one finish particularly scorching for sauna specialists, however the door facet is often milder. Positive, customers get stares after they climb out in a washing go well with and run to the lapping Puget Sound waves, however on one chilly plunge at Golden Gardens we obtained to share our swim with an enormous, curious sea lion.

The Seattle Bouldering Challenge’s new financial institution vault sauna has heat on lock.
Seattle Bouldering Challenge
College District

When the mountaineering chain opened its College of Washington–adjoining outpost in a 112-year-old financial institution constructing, there was an apparent use for the enormous vault: a co-ed sauna. An infrared model was chosen for a lot of causes, from necessity (there are limitations on what you possibly can put in a closed room lined with security deposit containers) to infrared’s associations with muscle therapeutic. The benches can maintain 26 individuals and the yoga workforce generally does breath programming within the area. Glass partitions keep open to the round vault door, so it is nowhere as claustrophobic because it sounds. Day passes ($30) for the climbing health club embody sauna entry.

After just one season, Von Sauna in Kirkland added a second floating scorching room.
Von Sauna
Kirkland
Impressed by the floating saunas of Oslo, Norway, David Jones designed his personal barge setup and had it constructed in Louisiana (the barge half) and Michigan (the wooden room). As soon as delivered to Seattle, he moved them throughout Lake Washington by towing them with a jetski, lastly tying up at Carillon Level Marina in Kirkland.
Open since January 2024 (however closed June–September), Von has grown to 2 saunas with 18 bookable seats ($32–40 every) between them, the large glass home windows searching on the sailboats and yachts anchored throughout the water. The chilly plunge roulette features a ladder right down to the lake, a bucket on a string for self-dousing, and a small seaside in entrance of the close by Woodmark Resort for mild wading. The area cannot compete with the Pacific Northwest’s most beautiful floating sauna, in Tofino, however the on-water location provides a nice bobbing sensation to a sweat session.
Soak and Sage
Renton
Aching from accidents acquired throughout her half Ironman races, Leslie Goeres imagined a distinction remedy—that is scorching meets chilly—spa in Seattle that would additionally thaw the Seattle Freeze. Her socially minded Renton area, which debuted in November 2024, performs pop music and permits chatter among the many indoor heat soaking pool, moist and dry saunas, and chilly plunge, although a temazcal room, modeled after an Indigenous sweat lodge, is extra of a quiet, meditative area. As soon as a month, the sauna permits free entry (usually $60) to group members in monetary want.
Do not eat the snowballs stacked in a single nook of the spa; they’re infused with important oils and are supposed to be taken into the extremely popular sauna and used on sore spots. Among the many therapeutic massage and physique scrub spa choices, customers can ebook an aufguss sauna ceremony to learn to rotate by means of the saunas, do breathwork, and use the snowballs. The holistic ethos right here is broad sufficient to incorporate med spa requirements Botox, fillers, and weight reduction medicines; it may be disconcerting to comply with a soak session with an e-mail promotion providing compounded Ozempic.

The Paradise Village scorching tub is completely distinctive.
Paradise Village Resort
Ashford
The Paradise Village scorching tub is so weird and admittedly so cool that we needed to do a deeper dive; examine it later this week. However the quick model is that Ukrainian hotelier Anatoliy Zaika wished to recreate the soaking experiences of his native Carpathian Mountains, so he had an enormous cauldron shipped from Ukraine and put in in his small resort close to Mount Rainier. The wooden hearth beneath supplies the warmth and the cannibal connotations, and the household’s bakery has post-soak treats. It is a worthy day journey to the foothills of Rainier, definitely worth the $140 rental price in novelty alone.
Snow Peak Campfield
Lengthy Seaside
Finest recognized for light-weight, Japanese-style tenting gear—there is a bodily store in Portland—Snow Peak pivoted final 12 months to open a campground in Lengthy Seaside, a couple of mile inland from the waves, providing tents and even small wooden cabins as lodging, with a wash home and indoor gathering area to improve the tenting expertise.
However the property spotlight is the Ofuro spa, a semi-outdoor area with three partitions and a roof however one open-air facet. A large heat soaking pool supplies escape from blustery Washington seaside climate, and a big sauna features a window out onto the timber. Youngsters over 6 are allowed, and the ethereal area retains it chill even when persons are speaking. Day passes ($35) are reservable as much as three days upfront and the final session of the day is adults solely.

A soak with a view: Tokeland Resort’s wood-fired scorching tub has a pure setting.
Tokeland Resort
Tokeland
With a loving renovation of the state’s oldest resort (that made our greatest resorts in Washington listing) and a cool Southern-inspired restaurant (that made our greatest eating places in Washington listing), Tokeland Resort is already bringing so much to a tiny tidal group within the southwest nook of the state. However proprietor Heather Earnhardt didn’t relaxation on her laurels, including a guests-only wood-fired scorching tub on a raised platform within the brushy fields across the historic construction. A chilly plunge joined quickly after, and this 12 months one other scorching tub will go up close by, in addition to wood-fired saunas all through the property. There may be really no purpose to depart.
The Springs
Leavenworth
So new that it isn’t even open but—however the out of doors hydrotherapy spot discovered the right location within the outdoorsy Bavarian city, wedged between the KOA campground and the brand new climbing health club below development. Marco Scheuer and Vincent LaBelle constructed a small community of swimming pools and sauna, turning the plot of land right into a hangout supreme for post-ski, post-climbing, or simply post-bratwurst restoration.
Scheuer already envisions a second sauna and extra swimming pools in part two; snow will fill the areas between the walkways and firepit in winter, although the pair is contemplating a snow maker for when Mom Nature does not do her responsibility. Presently slated to open in early February, the area is proof that Leavenworth can not be thought-about pure kitsch. Between these new swimming pools and the elegant spa at Posthotel, it is a soaking city too.