Houston has two Korean spas, and both sit on the west side: Gangnam Spa on Highway 6 and Spa World in Katy. Neither is open 24 hours any more. Gangnam is the original and adults only; Spa World takes children and publishes what its rooms actually run at. At a glance What it costs: $48…
Metro Atlanta has three Korean spas, all in Gwinnett County northeast of the city. Which one suits you depends mostly on when you want to go. Jeju Sauna in Duluth is the best known and never closes. Spa Land Georgia, also in Duluth, has a co-ed floor of heated rooms but shuts overnight. Gangnam Sauna…
Chicago does sauna in more styles than most US cities: a Russian bath on Division Street that dates itself to 1906, a Korean spa in Niles that never closes, candlelit thermal baths in an old River West factory, a Finnish sauna with Aufguss in Fulton Market, and, in winter, wood-fired saunas right on the Lake…
Three Budapest baths are worth planning a day around in 2026: Széchenyi for the enormous outdoor pools and the Neo-Baroque yellow wings, Rudas for the 16th-century Ottoman dome and a rooftop pool over the Danube, and Lukács for a working bath where the crowd is mostly local. That’s the short answer, and two famous names…
A temazcal ceremony is a guided session in a small, dark, low-roofed steam chamber, and it is shorter than most listings imply: about an hour from welcome to farewell, with roughly half of that spent inside. The session is run in four stages called “doors,” and at each door the chamber is opened to bring…
Helsinki has the densest concentration of good public saunas of any capital city, and the best one costs nothing. Sompasauna is free, open 24 hours a day, has no staff, and runs on visitors chopping their own firewood. The most photographed one is named after löyly (the burst of steam that rises when water hits…
Wi Spa charges $40 and never closes. Crystal Spa charges $30 and closes at 10 PM. Century Day & Night Spa charges $35 and gives you exactly four hours, despite the name. Time Out puts it plainly: Koreatown has no shortage of Korean spas to choose from, and the admission prices sit close enough together…
Seattle’s sauna scene is really a cold water scene. Almost every new operation in the city is a hot room parked next to water you can actually get into: Puget Sound off the Alki boardwalk and Lincoln Park, Lake Union from a dock or a boat, Lake Washington from a floating deck in Kirkland. Choose…
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…