From Finnish saunas to Korean ice baths, these spas perfectly combine intense heat and extreme cold.
Many visitors have taken a warm bath in a Japanese onsen or Turkish steam bath. But they may not have experienced contrast baths—bathing sessions that alternate between extremely hot temperatures (hot baths, saunas) and extremely cold temperatures (diving into ice water or swimming in ice water).
Contrast baths are especially popular during the winter months in northern climates (e.g. Finnish saunas or Russian banyas). Although it may seem unpleasant, exposure to extreme temperature changes can have benefits for both physical and psychological health.
“It gives you a sense of lift and makes you feel happier,” says Michael Frederickson, a sports medicine physician and co-director of the Stanford Center for Longevity. “While the mechanism is unclear, the mood improvement may be related to the sympathetic nervous system.”
A 2022 study found that people who immersed themselves in water between 23 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit found it “highly effective for muscle recovery after intense exercise.” That’s because warm water dilates blood vessels, while cold water constricts them, increasing blood flow and tissue oxygenation, speeding healing. “There are a lot of reasons to do this from a health perspective,” Fredrickson said.
Here’s how you can experience the pros and cons of contrast bathing in European and Asian countries that have perfected this ritual.
Contrast baths have recently started popping up in spas across North America, from the Aliyeska Nordic Resort in Alaska to the Aurora Hotel and Spa in New York’s Finger Lakes region. But the cultures of Europe and Asia have been linked for hundreds of years, perhaps longer.
In northern European countries like Sweden and Finland, contrast baths are particularly popular. “Saunas and steam baths have been around for as long as humans have lived in one place,” says Laura Sismeri, a cultural heritage researcher at the University of Turku in Finland.
Saunas began in northern Europe about 2,000 years ago as wood-fired pits lined with animal skins. This led to hut heating, and by the mid-20th century, electric stoves were sometimes replacing smoldering embers as a heat source.
In Finland, the sauna has become such an integral part of everyday life that UNESCO listed it as an intangible cultural practice in 2020. Finland has a population of about 5.5 million, and there are about 3.3 million private and public saunas. Saunas feature in Finnish folklore: the 19th-century Finnish poem Kalevala describes Norse gods bathing in steam; sauna spirits (sauna spirits) are believed to guard saunas and teach users how to use them properly.
“The sauna is considered a moment between everyday life and sacred life,” says Sismeri. Many Finns start their weekends on Saturday by sweating in a sauna (temperatures range from 176 to 230 degrees Fahrenheit) until they’re drenched in sweat, then jumping into an icy lake, taking a cold shower, or simply rolling around in the snow.
Visitors can try this ritual at Löyly Sauna in Helsinki, where the wood-heated room is conveniently located in a sleek modern building overlooking the cool waters of the Baltic Sea. In southwestern Finland, along the Pitkäsalmi Strait, is the simple beach sauna of Ispoinen.
Swedes also enjoy swimming in icy water and then sweating in one of the cold water saunas (kallbadhus) dotted along the lakes, the Øresund or the Baltic Sea. These range from grand and historic baths such as the Varberg Cold Baths (Kallbadhuset Varberg), built around 1903 and a domed wooden building on the water, to the more modern Karlshamn Cold Baths (Karlshamns Kallbadhus), which looks like a modern Scandinavian spaceship floating on the sea.
Situated in the northernmost part of Swedish Lapland, Arctic Baths offers guests the opportunity to swim in the Lule River (accessible by cutting through thick ice most of the year), as well as relax in an indoor sauna and outdoor hot tub.
People taking a kalbad bath typically go through a hot sauna and a cold bath three times. “The first time you go into the sea, you can wash away the dirt,” said Mia Jansson, a spokeswoman for the Skåne county government. “The second time, after another 15 minutes in the sauna, the problems just melt away. And the third time you go into the ocean, you start to build something new.”
Asian cultures have long valued cleanliness, leading to the development of bathing cultures, from Turkish hammams (famous for their heated marble slabs) to Korean jjimjilbangs. The latter likely originated in the 15th century, when Buddhist monks heated worshippers with fires in domed clay chambers that resembled huge ovens. During the cleansing ritual, people lie on mats soaked in water, which creates steam.
The culture of indoor bathing developed in the early 20th century, partly due to the Japanese occupation of Korea at the time, from which the Japanese imported hot springs. As South Korea became increasingly wealthy and modern, people could afford to have private bathrooms at home. By the 1990s, the steam room had evolved from a place to keep clean to a place to gather with friends and family.
Lachlan Woodland, a travel agent at InsideAsia Travel who often books jjimjilbang rooms for clients, said many Koreans believe that alternating hot and cold has “many health benefits.” “They think it removes toxins, improves skin, and relieves pain.”
Modern steam baths feature a variety of hot, warm, or cold baths, saunas filled with various elements (charcoal, amethyst) to promote healing, and ice rooms to cool the body. Families and groups can spend hours here, lying on heated stone floors called ondol and dining at a local restaurant (passing by the bibimbap). Vigorous body scrubs, performed by waiters dressed only in their underwear, are not for the modest.
There are thousands of jjimjilbangs across South Korea. Favorites include the retro-inspired Insadong Spa Sauna in central Seoul and Spa Land Centrum City in Busan, a sprawling complex with themed saunas (one with sloping pyramid-shaped walls, another filled with salt said to ease arthritis symptoms). Paradise City Cimer is just a short drive from Seoul’s Incheon International Airport and features two floors of saunas (salt, amethyst, charcoal), a meditation room, and a pool for pre- and post-flight relaxation.
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