Latest news with #sauna
Condé Nast Traveler
22-07-2025
- Condé Nast Traveler
10 Best Hotel Saunas Around the World
Saunas are having a moment. In the US, we've finally cottoned on to what the Finnish have known for centuries—that sweating it out makes you feel good. Sauna-stocked spas and wellness clubs (like Othership) keep popping up all over major cities, and ads for at-home saunas can be spotted on social media pages across the country. But plenty of wellness hotels worldwide have been doing the sauna thing excellently for years. There are high-tech offerings, such as RXV Wellness Village in Thailand, which has a hyperbaric chamber for skin and tissue regeneration, an infrared sauna, and a cryo sauna for extra-speedy muscle recovery. Then there are the Finnish hotels, many of which have suites with in-room saunas, like Hotel Kämp in Helsinki. In the UK, plenty of lovely hotels are revamping their offerings: Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire recently expanded its spa to include various onsen tubs, three infrared sauna cabins and an ice hut, while at the Lake District's Brimstone Hotel & Spa, you're taken on a thermal journey around a sequence of Finnish, lava, and herbal saunas, before settling in for a blast in the Himalayan steam rooms. Touted benefits of a sweat session include pain relief, deeper sleep, improved circulation and a glowing complexion, so working a few stints into your vacation is a no-brainer. For the top places to soak, steam and sweat yourself happy, see below for our editors' picks of the best hotel saunas in the world to visit in 2025 and beyond. For more wellness inspiration, visit:
Daily Mail
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Halle Bailey puts on a VERY busty display in a daringly plunging sports bra as she builds up a sweat in steamy sauna selfie
Halle Bailey put on a very busty display as she built up a sweat in a steamy sauna selfie on Instagram on Monday. The Little Mermaid actress, 25, looked incredible in a daringly plunging black Nike sports bra while flaunting her ample cleavage for the camera. Completing the look with leggings, the stunner glistened with sweat as she swept back her dreadlocks from her make-up free face during her pampering session. Hallee, who has been in a contentious custody battle with her ex-boyfriend DDG over their one-year-old son Halo, appears to have already moved on romantically. She was spotted earlier this month on a romantic Italian getaway with acclaimed music producer, Scott Bridgeway, who has worked with Kendrick Lamar. This marks Hallee's first public romance since calling it quits with rapper, DDG, 27, last October. Her new man, is a music producer, known for co-producing several tracks on Lamar's albums, including Squabble Up and Luther. He's also the man behind Kanye West's track, Take Off Your Dress, and Baby Keem's projects like range brothers. Bridgeway (born Ruchaun Akers) is from Charlotte, North Carolina and has made a name for himself collaborating with stars like Migos, Fivio Foreign, Tanna Leone and SoFayGo. Unlike DDG, who has 6.8 million Instagram followers, and frequently posts on social media, Bridgeway lays low online. This includes only posting three times on his Instagram feed since joining the platform. At the time of the breakup, the rapper and social media star, whose legal name is Darryl Dwayne Granberry Jr., said they 'are forever family, forever.' The situation has turned ugly since then with Halle being granted a restraining order against the Impatient rapper, claiming she had been physically, verbally, emotionally and financially abused by him. She described one alleged incident from January in which she said her ex repeatedly called her a 'b**ch' while she was trying to strap their baby into a car seat in his car. 'The next thing I knew, things got physical between us,' Bailey wrote in the court papers. She continued: 'We fought each other, wrestling and tussling. At one point, Darryl was pulling my hair. He then slammed my face on the steering wheel, causing my tooth to get chipped. I then stopped fighting back as I was in a lot of pain.' A judge denied a request by DDG for a restraining order against Bailey. In May, she was granted a restraining order against the YouTuber. Documents obtained by at the time, indicated that the singer had previously filed a police report against her ex (real name: Darryl Dwayne Granberry Jr.) after he allegedly destroyed her home surveillance camera and stole her phone. In January 2024, she revealed that she had given birth to their son Halo in December of the previous year. The couple had previously begun dating in January 2022 before splitting in October 2024. In June 2022, the pair made their red carpet debut as they attended the BET Awards together and sported all-black ensembles during the event. They made other appearances that year, such as stopping by Paris Fashion Week and later walked the red carpet at the Avatar: The Way Of Water screening in December 2022. During a past interview with Essence, Bailey opened up about how both she and DDG met and when asked whether she was in love, the performer answered with, 'Yes. For sure I am.'
Telegraph
19-07-2025
- Telegraph
Why Britons still aren't ready for ‘social nudity'
As a Briton, I feel I have much in common with my Scandinavian cousins: an endurance of long, cold, grey winters; a love of thrillers; a passion for wild swimming and saunas. In the course of researching two books on sauna culture, I've spent years sweating it out around Estonian lakes, and in hotboxes on windswept Norwegian archipelagos. Generally, when enjoying these activities I've been wearing a swimsuit – and this is where any similarities to our Nordic neighbours end. For in these bathing nations, nudity is a given, and it has been for generations; a deep, clean sweat is a naked one. Why wear an unhygienic swimsuit which prevents your skin from breathing and lessens the sensory experience, when you can go without? Why indeed. I can think of many reasons. Shame, embarrassment, legacy of a Catholic schooling, scar tissue from unwanted sexual advances, the male gaze, unachievable images of female perfection. Through my work, on research trips around Northern European cultures where nude bathing is the norm, I have had to confront my body issues; I have been in situations where being the only swim-suited one feels out of place. I have had to dig deep not to be the stereotypical British prude. I've been told to remove my sarong in a 200-person naked sauna event in the Netherlands, and come a cropper in a smoke sauna in southern Estonia where no-one ever wears clothes. Slowly, I've relaxed a little, shed the layers and come to appreciate that being naked in the company of others – and in a safe setting – can be freeing and healthy. It's just taken me a while to catch up with those enlightened bathers in Scandinavia, Germany, the Baltics and beyond. And I'm not alone. According to an Ipsos poll, 6.75 million Brits people claim to be naturists, up from 3.7 million in 2011. The survey stretches that definition from being naked in a private hot tub to being an all-out naturist, but slowly, it seems we are unbuttoning, unravelling the threads of convention. When it comes to public nudity, the burgeoning numbers of wild swimmers and sauna bathers are driving the trend, which appeals to all ages – and is largely being led by women. In the Outdoor Swimmer 2025 trend report, of 2,500 swimmers surveyed, 59 per cent of women reported wild or cold-water swimming weekly or more, compared with 37 per cent of men. More than half of those aged 25 to 34 started swimming after the pandemic. In these novel settings, we seem more likely to relax long-held social conventions. 'It starts with accidentally forgetting the dry robe, or the underwear,' says one of my wild swimming pals. 'Then there's the faff and fuss of carting all the swim clobber to the water and back. It's so much quicker and easier to travel light, to keep the changing kit to a minimum at the risk of exposing a nipple, or a pale goose-bumped buttock to the elements. Over time, you just don't care any more, and nor does anyone else.' Ella Foote, the editor of The Outdoor Swimmer magazine, offers guided wild swims to groups. 'If I have a same sex group, I'll sometimes suggest a skinny dip at the end. They all look at me with wide eyes, and it only takes one and then they all strip off and go in. Swimming naked is a natural transition to being at one with nature. And because you're submerged, it feels safer; it's a good space to play at nudity. People tell me all the time that their relationship with their body has improved.' Sauna culture is playing into it too, as quirky horseboxes, pop-up tents and cosy barrel saunas provide places to sweat on beaches, lakes and rivers everywhere from Crieff to Cardiff. In the nine months I spent travelling around the country, researching these new hotspots and sharing the bench with athletes and recovering addicts, builders, barristers, mums and teens and pensioners, I came up close to the complex relationship the British have with our own – and other peoples' – bodies. I met bathers who wear wetsuits, leggings and sweatshirts in the sauna – anything rather than nothing – and I've been to 'clothing optional' sessions where everyone is naked. Often these are started by the community and evolve organically. Take Quays Swim in Surrey, a 50-acre swimming lake with two saunas near Mytchett. More than 75 per cent of its visitors are female and the venue hosts two ladies-only naked swims for Breast Cancer Now. After stripping off for these dips, a group of women set up a naked sauna. 'I don't know what it is about clothes, but when you discard them, you're discarding a whole load of other issues as well,' says one participant, who got into cold swimming after the death of her husband. When she first bared all, she found it 'liberating, as though the swimsuit was holding everything in. All that pent-up emotion was set free, and that's what I love.' Beach Box Spa Brighton runs a 'clothing-optional' session hosted by German sauna master Mika Valentini, 34. 'Everyone comes for themselves; they're not looking at others, and it's understood that nudity doesn't mean a certain outcome. They feel relief about exposing their bodies, which builds body confidence.' The event is carefully screened off, and there's always someone supervising. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Beach Box Sauna Spa | Brighton | Aufguss | Pirtis (@beachboxbtn) Valentini grew up in Munich where on a hot summer's day the city's swimming lake is packed with naked bodies.'I have a healthy view of my body as I became accustomed to nudity from a young age and it's not linked to sex,' he says, adding that in Germany there is also an attitude of, 'It's my body. This is my natural self and how I want to be.' Not everybody in Britain is relaxed about the gradual arrival of social nudity to our shores. Cut to Corton Beach in Lowestoft, Suffolk where this spring the parish council came under fire for trying to ban naturists from its famously beautiful sands. It was forced to remove signage banning ' lewd behaviour ' to the dismay of disgruntled locals who had complained of sexual activity in the dunes. Public nudity is not illegal in England and Wales but the laws around it are open to interpretation; under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 unless a naked person has the intention of 'causing alarm and distress' it is not a crime to wander around naked anywhere. But one person's distress is another person's freedom. 'There was a time when the legislation was clear,' says Andrew Welch, the national spokesman for British Naturism (BN), a non-profit group with around 8,500 members which organises naked events around the UK. 'If you were going to strip off, you had to go to a designated beach. Now you can go anywhere.' Earlier this month, nude-fearing locals will have had to endure thousands of bathers taking part in The Great British Skinny Dip, organised by BN. For many, it will have been their first 'dare to bare' experience and more than 60 venues participated. Among them was Whitmore Lakes near Stoke-on-Trent where male and female wild swimmers dipped in a small private lake. That event was led by Whitmore Lakes' operations manager Lauren Pakeman, 31. 'People here are wild swimmers and understand the health benefits and they want to strip back and go to the next level, really feel the elements.' Harry Beardsley, the commercial director of PortaSauna, provides tent saunas to locations across the UK. 'Clothing optional events are definitely more spoken about in public now,' he says. 'People seem to be becoming more accepting of nudity. Many of them are familiar with sauna cultures in other countries where it's weird to be in swimwear. But our society is not really built for it,' he cautions. 'Public naked events need to be handled very sensitively so that both participants and the general public are protected. It will take time and practice. Where's the line? We have to prepare for the worst as we are so behind the times.' Fast forward a week, and Beardsley's cautionary words were in my ears. In the name of research and in what, for me, was an epic act of bravery, I attended a naked swim organised in association with British Naturism at a leisure centre in East London. The group included five women and 23 men of mixed ages and a naturist couple in their 70s. The atmosphere was strange; naturists are not the new wave sauna folk I am used to meeting, and I couldn't orient myself. Was there a sexual undertone? Being so heavily outnumbered by men, I felt squeamish and suspicious. Some attendees said, when I asked them, that they were there that evening because they love swimming naked. Others were clearly enjoying the sociable atmosphere; nudity can break down barriers and almost everyone but me appeared comfortable. But my gut feeling proved a trusted ally when one young man turned to me and said: 'You're the journalist, right? I'm finding all these tits and vaginas overwhelming.' I later spotted him touching himself inappropriately and reported him to the organiser of the evening. I vowed never to return to a naturist event and left, my intuition muttering with a 'told-you-so' righteousness. The next day I received an email from the BN organiser: 'I was absolutely gutted when you told me about the incident which occurred,' it read. 'It was absolutely against the mood, intention and guidelines of our event [..] We don't need this kind of bad apple to lower the tone of our sessions. The night was fantastic, our busiest so far, and I'm pretty angry that his actions have cast a shadow over the event.' The culprit was banned and the code of conduct was made more visible on the event webpage, but what about me? An apology can't undo the impact the incident had on me. I am seasoned in both nudity and crude male commentary, but how would a younger, more sensitive female have felt after such an episode? There are reasons, tested over millennia, why, in almost all sweat bathing nations, men and women bathe separately. But, in this country, won't 'bad apples' always be drawn to public events where people are naked? I quiz Welch at British Naturism. His response is not robust: 'I'm sorry that you've experienced this in practice, but I think it [lewd behaviour] is more of a perceived barrier than a real one. The number of times people have to be told to behave or to leave a place is a lot fewer than you would imagine.' Suspicious of BN's approach to safeguarding, I call Barry Sykes, the artist in residence at the British Sauna Society, who has also had experience with BN events; we have often shared the sauna bench together. We discuss how there can be a naïve, clubby idealism among naturists, something Sykes says he also noticed when he was commissioned to develop an art project at the naturist community Oakwood Sun Club near Romford in Essex. 'As a white middle-aged man, I was in the majority there, so maybe less likely to feel vulnerable, but I often wonder whether the committed naturists have been doing it for so long, and it feels so unquestionably comfortable for them, that they can struggle to empathise with what it's like for newcomers,' he says. 'I always found going to Oakwood a welcoming, cathartic experience that took me outside of normal behaviour. Organised naturism has been a fringe aspect of British culture for nearly 100 years and I find its absurdity fascinating, but it still takes a great deal of thought and care to host people safely and ensure everyone feels relaxed but respectful.' Some of the new generation of sauna owners have similarly idealistic dreams of bringing authentic, naked sauna culture to our shores. But the results so far are mixed. Katie Bracher, 43, is a co-founder of the British Sauna Society and the director of Wild Spa Wowo in Sussex, a cluster of saunas and cold plunges set in woodlands. 'When I launched a weekly naked session, I had hoped to move British bathing culture forward. I'm not a naturist but when you get used to having a naked sauna, it's so much nicer, and I wanted people to experience that, in nature, at ease with their bodies.' It started well, she says, with a relaxed festival vibe, until some nearby campers complained about seeing naked people. Then the split between sexes shifted. 'It evolved from being the same number of men and women, to being mainly men at which point the women started covering themselves. In the end, it became too complex,' says Bracher. Charlie Duckworth, a co-founder of Community Sauna Bath which runs sites all over London, came to a similar realisation. 'I like being naked in the sauna and I started out wanting to create an authentic Finnish experience but after we had a couple incidents, I gave up trying to move the needle on it.' When did it come to this? Why are naked events in this country so fraught with jeopardy? Surely our Stone Age ancestors sweating in communal saunas in Orkney would have been naked? The Romans bathed in the nude too, and the first Victorian Turkish baths offered single sex sessions where most bathers were naked. Malcolm Shifrin, the author of Victorian Turkish Baths, says: 'There were differing views, but overall casual nudity in the Victorian Turkish bath was more or less the norm during the second part of the 19th century.' But beyond the bathhouse, modesty was also the norm. Clothing became tied to morality which blended with shame. Is our Victorian moral code still deeply engrained? Valentini thinks so: 'Brits never want to offend and I think the belief is that the body is private and shouldn't be displayed.' Towards the end of the 20th century, there was a creeping change, not from public bath operators but from bathers of other religions and couples swimming together in costumes. But the real death knell of naked bathing was the take-over of local authority-run Turkish and swimming baths by private enterprises. 'The brief of the local authority was to provide a community service, which private companies could not afford to do,' says Shifrin: 'If new bath operators had led the way by providing happier, healthier facilities, a majority would have followed them, ensuring that some provision was made for those who prefer costumes. Germany, it seems, has it absolutely spot-on.' So too the Scandinavians. In 1432, Venetian nobleman Pietro Querini, shipwrecked near the island of Røst in northern Norway, wrote, 'The inhabitants of these islands are very pure living people [..] their customs are so simple they do not bother to lock up their belongings […] In the same rooms where the men and their wives and daughters slept, we also slept, and in our presence, they undressed naked when going to bed. They used to take a badstue (sauna) every Thursday and they would undress at home and walk a bowshot (around 450 metres) naked to the badstue and bathe together men and women.' Should this sea-faring Venetian have washed up on, say, the Isle of Wight, his observations would have taken a different tone. Given that we need SAS-level training on how to behave together naked (Rule Number One: Look people in the eye, and only in the eye), is it simpler to separate men and women, as they do in Finland, Japan and other evolved bathing nations? I ask the Surrey women, who treasure their weekly naked sauna, if they would ever welcome men? No, they cry emphatically. 'We would not do this with men because you get tension where you feel self-conscious and all of that,' says one. Another adds: 'It's boring, and it just changes everything. If it went mixed, I wouldn't come any more.' Carry-On style spectacles such as the World Naked Bike Ride inevitably attract coverage. (Our ancestors would surely have donned a practical loincloth before jumping onto the saddle of a bike had such a thing existed.) British Naturism get-togethers such as Nudefest – a naked festival in Somerset, and events such as naked pottery classes, dining and pétanque – do little more than provide nudge-nudge entertainment for outsiders. And as I discovered, going to an unclothed event with naturists can be like diving into the deep end before you have learnt to swim. Perhaps this new wave of nudity chimes better with the naturists of the 1920s and 1930s, those doctors, psychoanalysts, avant-gardists and health lovers who advocated nakedness as a non-sexual route to a fit, sun-kissed, healthy body. Eager to ditch stuffy Victorian attitudes, they too looked to Europe for inspiration. Annebella Pollen, the author of Nudism in a Cold Climate and a professor of visual and material culture at the University of Brighton, points out some major evolutions: 'The 1930s naturists believed in a cult of beauty; it was not an inclusive movement. Today, in the age of social media, we make conscious efforts to celebrate bodily imperfections.' TikTok trends such as 'Naked Moms', in which young women talk about how seeing their mothers naked as they were growing up helps with body positivity, and a focus on how our relationship with our bodies negatively affects our mental health have shifted the narrative. 'There are new agreements and understandings especially among the young who are careful about how they're seen and who's looking,' says Pollen. 'The dominance of older men among nudists may be off-putting to younger women.' Can we change and mature? More education and boundaries are surely needed and it won't happen quickly. 'Promoting the benefits is only half the job,' says Sykes. 'People need to know what is expected of them. But we have so much anxiety about our bodies and it can be undone. Exposure changes attitudes.' Perhaps it's a gentle, gradual journey, a series of small reveals, before we can ever come to see that in the end, a body is just a body.
Bloomberg
18-07-2025
- Climate
- Bloomberg
Brits Keep a Sweaty Upper Lip on Air Conditioning
There's a somewhat gratifying TikTok trend at the moment where Americans visiting London in a heatwave realize that, yes, British heat does 'hit different.' One tourist says, 'it feels as if I'm in a sauna.' Another admitted that he always thought British people were lying, but 'for some reason it just feels like you are melting.' Inevitably, the talk turns to air conditioning. After all, parts of the US definitely get hotter and just as humid as the UK, but there's usually refuge to be taken in mechanically cooled homes.
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Yahoo
I was scared to take the plunge at new Nottinghamshire attraction Saunahood but I've never felt more alive
I love a good hot bath. It's my favourite way to unwind at the end of a busy day. Failing that, a steaming hot shower. Cold water? No thank you. Thinking back to Wim 'The Iceman' Hof a few years ago, it gave me palpitations when his programme Freeze the Fear saw a number of celebrities immersing themselves in icy water. So why I agreed to visit a new Nottinghamshire attraction that combines a sauna with a plunge in cold water I do not know. I've no worries over the sauna part. I've sat and sweated my socks off in a wooden cabin many times although I've never understood why the Finnish ruin the ritual of a nice hot sauna by rolling in the snow afterwards. Each to their own. Running through the essentials to take to Saunahood, the website lists a towel, swimming costume, flip flops and water bottle. The latter is to stay hydrated but it did cross my mind to take a hot water bottle to warm up afterwards. READ MORE: Bramley's in Nottingham is not a restaurant I'd think to visit but now it's in my top ten READ MORE: Susanna Reid's 'stunning' red Next dress ideal for UK heatwave priced at £36 I feel as rigid as a block of ice when I pull up at the site at Holme Pierrepont Country Park's campsite, off Adbolton Lane, West Bridgford, for my first session of 'contrast therapy' as it's known. The new venture opened six weeks ago. Tucked away in a leafy green part of the park are two plunge steel baths in front of the sauna. "Don't dip your hand in," says founder Ellen Tobin as I go to test the water. "It'll put you off later." Ellen explains that contrast therapy simply means alternating between hot and cold environments, switching between the sauna that's around 70-80°C and the plunge pools which are set at 10°C. That sets my mind at ease at little - at least it's not sub zero. But why? "When your body is in the hot environment your blood is pumped to the skin away from your core to try and cool you down - this is called vasodilating. In the plunge pool your body vasoconstricts - your blood goes to your vital organs and your core to protect you. "Both of these scenarios put your body under a small amount of stress - you are kicking your heart into action to work harder and giving your vascular system a great work out. The idea is that when you experience stress in life your body will be much more adept to dealing with it, and can keep you stable as it's been exercising the stress response with contrast therapy." Benefits from the heat include loosening the muscles and joints, a detox, improved cardiovascular function, lowering stress hormones and better sleep. The cold element reduces muscle soreness and swelling, boosts mood, builds mental resilience and stress tolerance and activates the parasympathetic nervous system so you experience a post-cold "calm". That's the science but what about the reality? Changing into my swimming costume as slowly as possibly to delay the inevitable, the time has come to step inside the sauna within a beautifully restored horse box. Until now the only revamped horse boxes I'm familiar with are the ones selling pizza or prosecco. It's a roasting hot day but it's even hotter inside with the wood-fired stove pumping out intense heat. I'm joined by Ellen, who hands me a pixie-like cap which protects the ears and head from the heat - particularly useful if you're bald. After five minutes or so, it's time to switch. I ask if it's better to dip your toe in and take it steadily or just go for it. As I fear, it's the latter. The water is every bit as horrendously cold as I imagine... so cold it hurts. The trick is to stay as still as possible because the more you move around the worse it is. As I grimace throughout, Nottinghamshire Live's photographer Joe tells me to imagine it's warm. It doesn't help. I brave it for longer than I was expecting though. Then it's back to the sauna and repeat several times within the 50-minute session, which ends with a final dip in the plunge bath. It's just as cold as the first time but it's more tolerable and I'm actually laughing and enjoying looking up at the blue sky and trees in the scenic setting. The contrast of hot and cold is said to speed up recovery after workouts or endurance events, improve circulation and regulate your body's stress response. It sounds like something serious athletes and high-pressured business executives would book themselves into it but it's attracting all demographics and ages, from a medal-winning para canoeist (who takes a book to read in the plunge bath) to families. Ellen said: "Guests are on day-dates, celebrating birthdays, looking for a way to unwind and reset at the end of the week - or just get time out for themselves. It's been a real joy to welcome people and see everyone embracing the ancient art of sweat bathing - coming together to cleanse the body and reset the mind." A maximum of eight people can book a private session or six for a communal session, costing £15 each for 50 minutes. Ellen said: "Feedback has been amazing. People are leaving glowing and talking about how lovely they feel and also making connections with others. The sound of laughter coming from the sauna and guests saying 'lovely to meet you' as they leave is really heart-warming. "It's about connection with others, time away from technology and all the distractions and stresses of life. Guests are coming back time and again and building contrast therapy into their weekly routine. I can't ask for more than that." The experience is undoubtedly life-affirming. Before I tried it I thought I would hate every second. Afterwards I feel amazing; energised but with an inner calm. I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and, even though I thought it would be torture, it was fun. I might even return in the winter when it snows. Saunahood is open on Friday from 12pm to 6pm and weekends 10am to 4pm. Book online at
