The Best Bathhouses in NYC: Saunas, Banyas and Korean Spas

New York has more serious sweating options than any other American city, and they barely resemble each other. A $29 day pass on Atlantic Avenue buys you a 194°F banya and no time limit. A $60 walk-in on East 10th Street buys you a basement that has been doing this since 1892. A Korean spa in Koreatown expects you naked in the gender-separated baths and in a cotton uniform upstairs. Picking wrong isn’t dangerous, just expensive and awkward.

Every price below comes from the venue’s own website, checked September 2026. Bathhouse pricing in particular moves by day and time slot, and several venues run seasonal promotions, so treat these as the number to budget against and confirm on the booking page before you go.

Start here: which one do you actually want

The fastest way to choose is to name what you’re after and work backwards.

• Modern social bathhouse with guided steam rituals: Bathhouse, at Flatiron, Williamsburg or Atlantic Ave.
• Old-school schvitz, no app, no booking: Russian & Turkish Baths on East 10th Street.
• The biggest banya: World Spa in Brooklyn, which calls its Grand Banya the largest in the US.
• Korean spa in Manhattan: The SPA Club in Koreatown. With kids: Spa Castle in Queens.
• Candlelit and expensive: AIRE Ancient Baths in Tribeca.
• Guided sauna and ice bath as a class: Othership, Flatiron or Williamsburg.

New York is in the middle of a bathhouse boom: Wallpaper* counted a whole new generation of them opening across the city in 2026, alongside the schvitzes and banyas that have been here for over a century. Several announced venues hadn’t opened yet at the time of writing, so this guide sticks to places you can book today.

Bathhouse: the default modern pick

Bathhouse runs three New York locations: 14 West 22nd Street in Flatiron, 103 North 10th Street in Williamsburg and 540 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, all open seven days a week, 8am to 11:30pm. Day passes start at $39 at Flatiron and Williamsburg and at $29 at Atlantic Ave, rising with day and time slot. You book a check-in time, then stay as long as you want. There is no time limit and no re-entry.

The Flatiron facility lists a banya at 194°F, a dry sauna at 185°F, an infrared room at 135°F, a steam room at 115°F, hot pools at 104°F and cold plunges at 45°F and 50°F, all as stated by the venue. Williamsburg adds a rooftop pool plus a tropical sauna and an event sauna, both at 185°F by the venue’s figures; Atlantic Ave is the leaner, cheaper room. Sauna Masters run 15-minute guided Aufguss sessions through the day, the German towel-waving ritual where an attendant throws scented water on the stones and moves the heat around the room.

Bring a bathing suit and a water bottle. Towels, slippers and toiletries are provided; robes are not. It’s a no-phone zone, which is the single best thing about it.

Russian & Turkish Baths: the schvitz

268 East 10th Street, between 1st Avenue and Avenue A. The baths date themselves to 1892 and describe five saunas and steam rooms (a Russian Room, a Turkish Room, a Redwood Sauna and an Aromatherapy Room among them) plus an ice cold pool, a roof deck and a restaurant. One admission is $60 before sales tax and card fees.

Two things surprise first-timers. It is walk-in only: the house takes no reservations for the baths, massages or treatments, full stop. And it’s run on alternate weeks by two separate operations descended from owners Boris Tuberman and David Shapiro. It is open 365 days a year, coed most of the time, with men-only sessions Thursday noon to 5pm and Sunday 9am to 2pm.

Minimum age is 18, and you must be covered during coed hours. Robes, towels, shorts, slippers and lockers with locks are provided, so a swimsuit is optional, which makes this the one venue you can walk into carrying nothing.

Banyas: Brooklyn Banya and World Spa

Brooklyn Banya at 602 Coney Island Avenue is a walk-in banya open seven days, 11am to 11pm, with steam rooms, cold plunge pools and platza treatments. A day pass is $60, capped at five hours on weekends and unlimited on weekdays, with a $40 rate if you check in after 11am on Monday or Wednesday and leave by 4pm. Swimsuit required. The site carries men-only hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it also still shows a Presidents’ Day banner, so call before you make the trip.

World Spa at 1571 McDonald Ave is the opposite kind of operation: large, adults-only, and built around what it calls the largest banya in the US. The Grand Banya runs 176°F to 194°F by the venue’s own figures, alongside petite, event, clay and hay, aroma and infrared saunas, Turkish and Moroccan hammams at 85°F to 125°F, a snow room, onsen pools and a cold plunge held at 48°F to 55°F. It doesn’t publish a base admission price, so check the admission page before budgeting.

World Spa’s practical rules matter more than most. Weekday passes are unlimited; Saturday, Sunday and holiday passes run four hours with extra hours at $25 each. It’s 18+, with 16-year-olds admitted alongside a parent or guardian. Reservations are strongly recommended (the venue says it often books up weeks in advance) and you need a government ID matching your card at check-in. Robes and towels are included.

Korean spas: Manhattan, Queens and across the Hudson

The SPA Club at 22 W 32nd St, fourth floor, is the Koreatown answer and runs on the jjimjilbang model: three dry saunas, a steam room, gender-separated hot pools, spa loungewear and a towel set, open daily 8am to 11:30pm across 15,000 square feet. General admission is $63 bought online in advance, or $70 on weekdays and $90 on weekends and holidays at the door. Online tickets activate 24 hours after purchase, so same-day planners pay the walk-up rate.

The gender-separated bath areas follow the Korean custom of nudity, though swimwear is permitted if you’d rather. In the coed areas you wear the provided uniform. Children under 10 aren’t admitted, photo ID is required, it’s a barefoot facility, and there’s no re-entry.

Spa Castle at 131-10 11th Ave in College Point, Queens is the family option, the only venue here that admits children generally. Adults pay $85 Monday to Thursday and $110 Friday to Sunday and holidays; minors 17 and under pay $55 and $65, and must be accompanied by a parent. No reservations, all-day access, swimwear required for the pools, robes available with a $35 deposit.

SoJo Spa Club at 660 River Rd in Edgewater, New Jersey is close enough to count: ten pools and baths heated year-round, saunas and a rooftop garden, open daily 9am to 9:30pm. It has been 18+ since February 2024, you need a photo ID and a bathing suit, and there’s no re-entry once you check in. Admission rates change through the year, so pull the current number off the daily admission page rather than trusting anyone’s old figure.

AIRE, Othership and Great Jones

AIRE Ancient Baths at 88 Franklin Street occupies a restored 1883 textile factory in Tribeca, around 16,000 square feet of candlelit thermal circuit including a skylit warm bath and two jet baths. The baths-only booking gives you 90 minutes across the pools, steam room and rest area. It’s 18+, you bring only a swimsuit, and phones stay in reception. Expect to pay well over $150 for a bath session and check the booking calendar for your date.

Othership, at 23 W 20th St in Flatiron and 25 Kent Ave in Williamsburg, sells guided sessions rather than open access: 75-minute self-guided journeys and two-hour gatherings, with a host running the room. The performance saunas reach up to 185°F and the eight ice baths sit at 32 to 40°F. Bring a bathing suit and a non-glass water vessel; towels and body wash are provided, and it’s 18+. The only price published on the site is a $135 two-week intro pass covering 14 sessions.

Great Jones Spa at 29 Great Jones Street in NoHo sells Water Lounge passes at $60 plus tax on weekdays and $70 plus tax on weekends and holidays, covering a river rock sauna, eucalyptus steam room, cold plunge and hot tub. Swimsuit required, passes reservable online and limited on weekends. At $60 plus tax on a weekday it sits level with Russian & Turkish Baths, but you can reserve rather than queue. On variety alone, New York holds up against anywhere on a list of the best saunas in the United States.

If you want a hammam specifically, you’re looking at rooms inside larger venues rather than a standalone house: World Spa’s Turkish and Moroccan hammams, the Turkish Room at Russian & Turkish Baths, or a hammam body scrub at Bathhouse, from $115 for 30 minutes.

What to bring and what to expect

Nearly every venue on this list wants a swimsuit: Bathhouse, Brooklyn Bathhouse, Brooklyn Banya, World Spa, Spa Castle, SoJo, Othership, AIRE and Great Jones all require or ask for one. Brooklyn Bathhouse is the strictest about fabric: real swim material only, no gym shorts, no cotton, nothing see-through, and house sandals worn throughout. Only The SPA Club’s gender-separated baths follow the nude custom, and only Russian & Turkish Baths lends you shorts.

Carry photo ID for the Korean spas and World Spa; they check. Book weekend slots well ahead at the reservation venues, and remember that the walk-in houses (East 10th Street, Brooklyn Banya, Spa Castle) don’t take bookings at all, which cuts both ways on a busy Saturday.

The rule that catches people out most is re-entry. Bathhouse, The SPA Club and SoJo all state no re-entry, and most others operate the same way. You cannot step out for lunch and come back. Eat first, or eat at the venue.

FAQ

Hero photo: PK-WIKI, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.