SaunaScape

The blogscape has been abuzz the last few days since the LA Times published their piece on the hot new spa treatment for women: Vaginal steam baths. Some are considering it the next vajazzle.

A male reader of the Spa Week Daily feels left out, and wrote the editors wondering when special male-only treatments would be available for him to enjoy at the spa.

This inspired us to create a new poll. Enjoy.

BTW, the photo is of a variant of the vaginal steam bath called a SSuk Jim (ok, you can stop giggling now) from SeoulStyle.com

Related articles

• Does Your Vagina Need A $50 Steam Bath? [Hot Air] (jezebel.com)
• Does Your Vagina Need a Day at the Spa? [Genitalia] (gawker.com)
• Steamed vajajay woo (scienceblogs.com)

QuestionsView Results The blogscape has been abuzz the last few days since the LA Times published their piece on the hot new spa treatment for women: Vaginal steam baths. Some...

The Yllas Sauna Gondola. Image by Doppelmayr via Vol.at

The sauna, long a fixture of the aprés-ski scene has been moved front and center at the Ylläs Ski Resort in Northern Finland. In addition to the 30 regular ski lifts at the resort, a sauna gondola is making the rounds.

The sauna gondola, operated bu summit restaurant Cafe 718 adds to their fixed sauna beneath the restaurant. The fixed sauna, the highest in Finland, includes a sauna, fireplace and hot tub.

Guests who have rented the fixed sauna may add to the adventure by renting the sauna gondola, where they need to brave arctic temperatures as low as -30°C (-22°F) dressed only in a towel while waiting for the heated cabin on the lift platform. Once inside they can sweat out the 13-minute round trip to the base and back. The small stove in the gondola interior even features stones so you can enjoy a good löyly while hanging 30m (100 feet) above the snow.

A session in the sauna gondola costs € 1,500 for a two hour session – €500 for the lodge sauna and €1,000 for the gondola – and may be enjoyed by up to 12 people. The cost does not include transport to the summit. Earlier this year, The Times sent a reporter to experience the gondola first hand.

The sauna gondola was installed for the 2008 ski season by the Austrian company Doppelmayr. The sauna car weighs in at 950kg and is heavily insulated against the cold. Warm clothes are kept aboard in case of a lift stoppage.

Cafe 718 at Yllas Ski Resort via Gizmodo

The sauna, long a fixture of the aprés-ski scene has been moved front and center at the Ylläs Ski Resort in Northern Finland. In addition to the 30 regular ski...

Rusas Spa in Budapest. Image from Budapest Winter Invitation

If our 12 Days of Sauna Christmas list wasn’t enough for you, the city of Budapest and Malev airlines just announced their “Budapest Winter Invitation.”

The deal is this: If you book a 2 or 3 night stay at one of the participating hotels, you’ll get one night’s stay free. Hotels at all price points are available. Malev airlines is also offering special fares as part of this promotion.

A part of the package, you get complimentary admission to one of Budapest’s historic spas: Gellért Baths, Széchenyi Baths, or the male-only Rudas Baths. Of course, with a three-day stay, there’s nothing stopping you from visiting all three of them, and even making a dent in the more than 40 other baths in the Spa Capital of Europe.

When you’re packing for your trip, make sure to bring your swimsuit, a towel, slippers and your own soap/shampoo. Any mixed gender baths are swimsuit required.

Single-gender areas are nude, but the custom at some baths is to tie a cloth around you to cover your private areas. Men’s cloths are worn around the waist, while women’s cloths are more like an apron. These are provided by the bath.

Budapest Tourist Guide advises that you should be sure to have some small change with you to tip the attendants in the bath. Many of the baths have the option to have your locker double-locked: once with your key, and a second time with an attendant’s. Take this option if you have valuables with you. They also caution that men-only days at some baths tend to attract a gay clientèle.

This promotion is available through March 2011, so book now if you’re interested.

Budapest Winter Invitation via Spa Finder Club Spa Blog

If our 12 Days of Sauna Christmas list wasn’t enough for you, the city of Budapest and Malev airlines just announced their “Budapest Winter Invitation.” The deal is this: If...

A Sauna In a Pear Tree by seattlebound 2007 on Photobucket

It’s that time of year, where every good blogger across the internet channels their inner Stan Freberg and posts a list of their gift ideas. We’re not afraid of a little commercialism here, so without further ado, here is the SaunaScape 12 days of Christmas:

12 Sauna Hats
A sauna hat is an essential accessory if you’re going to enjoy a Banya. There aren’t many domestic sources for them, here’s an authentic Latvian one via Hotsprung.

11 Bath Robes
If you’re not going to a Korean sauna, you’re going to need a robe. There are three schools of robes, big and fluffy, light and packable, and The Dude abides.

10 Sauna Books
There’s no shortage of books on the sauna out there. A few new ones were published in 2010 including The Opposite of Cold, The Bathers, The Dirt on Clean and Villas and Saunas in Finland. If you’re looking for some classics, there is Cathedrals of the Flesh, Mikkel Aaland’s Sweat, and The Sauna Cookbook.

9 Sauna Towels
Again, if you’re not regularly going to a sauna that includes towels, you’ll need to bring your own. Again, these come in three varieties: Soft and fluffy, light and packable, and Ford Prefect.

8 Ex-foliation Tools
In Korean baths they use italy towels, in the Hammam it’s a synthetic mitt, some prefer a loofah, a brush, or even a venik. Whatever tool you choose, after a couple of rounds in the sauna, you’re ready to exfoliate like you’ve never done before.

7 Pairs of Sandals
There are too many choices to pick from here, so I’ll just let you decide.

6 Sauna Aromas
Lots of different sauna aromas are available. As we mentioned in our earlier post Dr. Stephen Colmant likes Sage. I’m a fan of Eucalyptus and Citrus.

5 Gift Certificates
That’s right, if you can’t take them to the spa, you can send them a gift certificate. Spa Finder and Spa Week are both offering discounted certificates this holiday season.

4 Sauna Apps
Well, we’ve at least got two for you: The virtual sauna, and the Seoul sauna guide.

3 Sauna Films
Steam of Life, the Finnish documentary is contending for an Oscar this year. It’s not available to watch / purchase through any of the usual sources, but I’m sure if it wins it will go into wide distribution. To round out the list we can add the horror film Sauna, and because we’re really reaching right now, Hot Tub Time Machine

2 Nights in a hotel with a sauna
Enough said?

and

A Sauna in a Pear Tree.
Seriously, if you don’t have your own sauna yet, Glenn’s is for sale.

It’s that time of year, where every good blogger across the internet channels their inner Stan Freberg and posts a list of their gift ideas. We’re not afraid of a...

Spa Week Daily recently posted “Seven Reasons NOT to Spa When You’re Sick.” Since its the time of year when runny noses, colds and flus are making their rounds, we thought that this would be worth sharing here.

We’ve already covered how regular sauna visits can help keep you from getting sick, but what happens when you’ve succumbed to that cold? A trip to the steam room might be just what you need to clear the creeping crud out of your head.

Not true according to Spa Week.

Rapid temperature shifts going into and out of hot rooms like saunas and steam rooms are just going to weaken you further than the cold already has. Possibly to the point where you might faint.

The idea that you can “sweat out a cold” is a myth. Germs don’t respond to it, so why tempt them?

Finally, if you’re going to a public sauna, with your weakened immune system, your body is more likely to catch other germs that other people are carrying around the facility. There are thousands of viruses that are floating around out there. Nothing is worse than getting one strain of cold after another.

And of course, don’t forget the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If you’re sick, you don’t want to be spreading your germs around to all the other patrons there.

So when the sniffles strike, stay home, rest and use a steaming bowl of chicken soup to help clear your head. Save the sauna for after you’re better.

Spa Week Daily

Image via Wikipedia Spa Week Daily recently posted “Seven Reasons NOT to Spa When You’re Sick.” Since its the time of year when runny noses, colds and flus are making...

Bus Shelter in Stockholm, transformed into a sauna via Ads of the World

How about this the next time you’re waiting for a bus?

Low-cost airline Norwegian transformed this bus shelter in Stockholm into a sauna to advertise their flights to Helsinki.

The weather in Stockholm isn’t supposed to get above freezing this week. For morning commuters, imagining using that bucket to get a good löyly going and then whisking themselves with one of those two vihta hanging there must be awfully tempting.

Sweden has no shortage of saunas themselves, including the fastest floating sauna in the world. Several hotels in Stockholm are equipped with them.

via Ads of the World

How about this the next time you’re waiting for a bus? Low-cost airline Norwegian transformed this bus shelter in Stockholm into a sauna to advertise their flights to Helsinki. The...

Brooklyn Banya during a Gemini and Scorpio Party. Photo by Larisa Fuchs

It’s official. The Banya, or Russian Sauna, once in the realm of Tony Soprano unhipness has been moved back to the epicenter of cool, specifically the Brooklyn Banya.

Spa Week Daily writes about a recent visit that she made there. She declares that “these Eastern European therapeutic spa havens are not present enough. There’s no reason why the Banya can’t become a mainstream way to spend a leisurely Saturday.” While there, they witnessed a 21st birthday party, chatted with an 11-year old girl in the steam room. While there they did not see the “hairy, naked Russians in hot tubs” some had lead them to expect.

While there the two enjoyed a platza. I would describe it, but Michelle does a better job: “Platza is an ancient, invigorating form of Russian massage that involves the use bundles of birch, oak, or eucalyptus leaves to smack, splash, infuse heat into your body, and rock you into what I’d can only describe as Spa Coma.”

Further reinforcing it’s cool factor, party planners Gemini and Scorpio (and their lusty alter-ego House of Scorpio) have selected the Brooklyn Banya as home to their Steamy Dance Nights: “Break out your bikini or swim trunks, and join our hand-picked crowd of artsy, funky (and nearly naked) New Yorkers for the glorious return of Gemini & Scorpio’s legendary Russian Baths party.”

The event which has been going on since 2006 is billed as “the kind of party you always imagine, but can never quite find in real life…and may be the only one you’ll come out of cleaner than when you came in.” Prior events have been featured in The Village Voice and Time Out New York. The parties look like a lot of fun. (We’re hoping that this post here is enough to convince them that our middle-aged, khaki-wearing corpus is artsy and funky enough to admit to a future party…)

Full details of the event and a link to buy tickets are on the Gemini and Scorpio website. If you’re looking to keep up on the hippest events in New York, Gemini and Scorpio also publish a weekly newsletter of the hippest events in New York.

If you’re planning a trip yourself, you can read our article on the Russian Banya, and if Brooklyn Banya is too far for you to travel, we’ve got a listing of other Russian Banyas in our database.

It’s official. The Banya, or Russian Sauna, once in the realm of Tony Soprano unhipness has been moved back to the epicenter of cool, specifically the Brooklyn Banya. Spa Week...

Approximately 300 residents of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island displaced by the North Korean shelling last week have been housed temporarily at In Spa World, a large Korean-style sauna and water park in the town of Incheon.

According to the Korea Herald:

A massive spa facility in Incheon, In Spa World, has closed up shop to the general public and opened its services to house the uprooted residents and act as a relocation center.

Inside the spa, officials from Incheon City, Ongjin County and the Red Cross have set up a temporary cafeteria to serve food, and Gachon University Gil Hospital has set up an emergency center treating colds, headaches and other ailments.

According to Reuters, In Spa World’s owner donated the use of the facility.

The Korean Red Cross is currently accepting donations to help find permanent homes for the displaced residents.

Approximately 300 residents of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island displaced by the North Korean shelling last week have been housed temporarily at In Spa World, a large Korean-style sauna and water...