If you can get yourself to Finland this August 5-7, get a note from your doctor, and pay the € 50 entrance fee, you can add to the 137 men and 20 women from 22 countries who competed in 2008.

How hot is it? It’s 110°C / 230°F in there. If that isn’t hot enough, twice a minute an automatic shower dumps a half liter of water on the rocks of these specially constructed saunas.  There’s no high-tech clothing that helps here: The rules allow the competitors to wear only a swimsuit, with strict regulations on the maximum size. The winners have to endure up to 4 qualifying rounds, each requiring the contestants to outlast their other competitors in the heat, taking from 4 to 13 minutes. The 2008  final took 17 minutes to decide the men’s winner.

If you can’t get an idea of what this feels like, American Sports journalist Rick Reilly competed in the 2007 World Sauna Championships, and describes his experience in his new book, Sports from Hell: My Search for the World’s Dumbest Competition. There is an excerpt from it on ESPN.com. In it he describes his experience:

We went in, and it was so instantly, shockingly, insanely hot, my brain just stopped working. It was like walking into a bonfire and pulling up a chair in the middle of it. My strategy was to go in and keep time by the 30-second water splashes, but that plan was scrapped approximately seven seconds in. Thinking literally hurt. I tried to stare at the rocks and not blink, because blinking hurt. I tried to take very few breaths, because breathing hurt. I was sure flames were coming out of my mouth. My back seemed to have ignited. I was convinced my ears were literally on fire, but if I moved even slightly, they hurt more. I tried sitting up higher, but it was even hotter. I tried crouching down more, but then I was nearer to the unforgiving rocks.  Then came the hideous, cruel, pitiless splashes of water, each one lasting three seconds.  I was just about to bolt into the fresh air when — miraculously — the tall, skinny guy next to me ran out. Amazing! I wasn’t last! I had no idea how much time had elapsed — four minutes? Six? I promised myself: When I get to the point where I can no longer stand it, I’ll count 60 seconds and go.

Four seconds later, I decided I could no longer stand it.

So I started counting. One, two, three … It was the longest minute of my life. At 60 I went barreling out. Watching other heats, I’d wondered why even losers came out grinning and raising their hands in victory, but now I knew. The cool air was so beautiful, so redeeming, so life giving. You could French-kiss Osama bin Laden.

I looked at the clock. 3:10? That was it? When did the first guy bolt? “2:40,” I was told. Which meant I’d counted my 60 seconds in 30.

If you just want to watch the proceedings, admission costs € 15 each day.

[Sauna World Championships] via ESPN.com

Photo of some brave souls swimming in the ice by Lauri Väin on Flickr

Here in the Northeast US, spring is here and this year spring temperatures along with it, but in Finland, the weather is still decidedly winter.  The Helsinki Times recently published an article on ice swimming in Vantaa, a 30-minute bus ride from downtown Helsinki.

Kuusijärvi provides all you might expect from a swim-and-sauna combination. Electric saunas at different temperature levels and a traditional smoke sauna nicely complement the chilly plunges, although roughly one-third of the swimmers choose to skip the hot room altogether and simply resort to the heated or even cold locker-rooms available. To work up a sweat beforehand, you can also opt for a snowshoe hike in the surrounding woods or a walk on the beaten trail network criss-crossing them, depending on the season. Swimsuit or trunks and towel can be rented.

The Kuusijärvi outdoor centre has electric saunas available for € 6 and a smoke sauna available for € 12. Basic information is available on their website.

[Helsinki Times]

S/S Silla setting the record as the world's fastest marine sauna

Sweden’s first floating hotel, the Salt & Sill recently announced another record: the marine speed record for a sauna at 15.5 knots.

Susanna Hermansson, Managing Director of the Salt & Sill says about the S/S Silla, the official name of the sauna boat:

The target was 15 knots, and we succeeded reaching that speed. It feels great and a bit mad, and of course I’m proud to be the owner of the world’s fastest floating sauna. It now remains to be seen whether anyone is brave enough to challenge our record, and we obviously welcome anyone who wants to take a sauna at 15.5 knots.

The record was recorded in early July during the finals at the Match Cup Sweden in Marstrand. The speed was confirmed via a GPS unit.

The 11.9 x 6.5 meter (39 x 21 foot)  building is made of lightweight fiberglass and secured to a catamaran platform, which is powered by two 160 hp diesel engines from Volvo Penta.  A total of 4.5 million SEK (About US$650,000) has been invested in the sauna boat, which can also be used as a relax area, conference room, exhibition venue, or wedding suite. The sauna can usually be found at its home-berth, adjacent to the hotel on Klädesholmen, near Goethenburg.

Rooms at the Salt & Sill start at SEK 1290 (US$ 185) per night. Bookings can be made by contacting the hotel directly.

[Salt & Sill Hotel] via Passport Magazine

Until now that is. Thanks to the excellent Pods plugin for WordPress, we’re now able to share more of this information with you.

We’ve added Find a Sauna to our menu.  As of today, our database is pretty light, with only 7 entries, but our goal is to continue loading them slowly until our full listing is available for you to enjoy.

We’ll call this a public beta. It’s far from done yet, and there are still a lot of tasks that we’d like to do on this before calling it “done.” However, we think that you can get some value from this, even in its rough state.

Of course, if you have a favorite sauna, please use our Submit a Sauna link to let us know about it.

The single-gender bathing area at Spa Castle. Soaking pools are in the foreground. Showers, sauna, steam room, and cold pools are in the background (left-right)

For those looking to experience an authentic Korean JimJilBang experience without the jet lag, if you live in the New York City area, the New York Spa Castle awaits, just over the Whitestone bridge in the College Point neighborhood of Queens.

The New York Spa Castle, formerly known as InSpaWorld, from the outside its 5-story structure looks like just another big-box store. Once you enter, you find 100,000 square feet / 9,200 m² of relaxation.

There are plenty of public transportation options to get to the Spa Castle. If you’ve driven your own car, they offer complimentary valet parking. This is a good thing, since the surrounding streets are crowded and very narrow.

Entering on the lowest level is the reception area. Here you pay your entry fee and in exchange you are given a numbered plastic bracelet that is your key and charge card: Hold up to one of the 3 lockers in the facility with a matching number and the door will pop open. Allow a cashier to swipe it and it will add the charge to your bill when you exit. There are terminals throughout the facility where you can check the balance on your card.

The front desk staff (at least on the day I visited) didn’t admit to speaking much more English than “Your money please” and “Thank you.” After I was handed my bracelet, I was pointed to the appropriate locker room: To the left for men and to the right for women.

Single-gender areas:

Just inside of the locker room is a shoe storage area. One of these small lockers is the first one your key opens. True to any Korean business, the floor changes from standard industrial tile to a wood-grained vinyl. Before stepping on the vinyl floor, you are to remove your shoes. Helpful attendants were there to chastise me and the three people behind me as we went to step on the pristine vinyl floor.

Inside of the locker room, there is a service desk selling things like scrub cloths and fresh underwear, grooming areas with all types of toiletries, lounge areas with couches, and entries to the single-gender sleeping area and bath area and stairs to the coed areas. A helpful thing to note if you are planning to enjoy the coed areas first: You must do so in a uniform. These are stored by the entrance to the bath area.

I visited the bath area first. It is to be enjoyed exclusively in the nude. Watching the other patrons, the appropriate ettiquitte, at least on the men’s side, was to strip down at you locker, and walk naked across the room. Towels, etc. are provided only at the entrance to the bath area.

Inside the baths are steam room, a dry sauna, a whole bunch of pools and banks of showers. You are expected to shower upon entering, and rinse yourself after using the sweat baths and before entering any pools.  The pools range from cold to exceedingly hot. The large pools in the back have a battery of massage jets inside.

The single-gender areas of Spa Castle also have a relaxation lounge with couches for socializing, a sleeping lounge, and an area to get the famous korean body scrub.

The Coed Areas:

Once you have bathed your fill, don one of the uniforms, and head upstairs. There is a rack of them just

Rooftop pools at Spa Castle. Pools are open year 'round.

outside of the bath area. If you’re modest, grab your uniform before you undress.

The first floor is an expansive open area. At one end are the coed dry saunas. All must be used in your uniform, and they are hot. Save these until just before you are ready to head back down to the single-gender areas, as your uniform will be drenched with sweat after visiting these. A visit to the ice room helps, but not enough.

Also on this level is the food court, salon and massage area. There are tables and chairs throughout for dining, relaxing or just socializing.

Lounge area on the mezzanine level of the Spa Castle

On your way to the second floor is the mezzanine. In it are rooms full of recliners, some with personal TVs in the armrest. While lounging here you can get a foot massage, or have an attendant bring you a cold drink at your chair. This is the life.

The second floor is the pool floor: The variety of pools here rivals most water parks, and includes massaging pools, kiddie pools, and even an aqua bar for enjoying (non-alcoholic) beverages while sitting in the worm water. Some of the pools are outside, some inside. If you plan to use these pools, bathing suits and pool towels are not provided, but are available for rent. This floor also has the third locker that your key will open for storing your personal effects while in the pool. These lockers are in single-gender locker rooms, so if you don’t want to return downstairs with your wet bathing suit under your uniform, you can change out of it here.

The top floor has a full-service Korean restaurant, and a fitness center. A day pass to the fitness center can be purchased for an additional fee. This is new since our visit, so we’re not sure how you get your shoes up here. We assume you carry them.

When you have had your fill of the spa castle, you return to the lower level, and change back into your street clothes. A counter in the locker room has every imaginable toiletry, combsm brushes, and hair dryers available for use. Heck, if you want to clip your toenails, there are trays with nail clippers attached for just this purpose (eww). When dressed, claim your shoes, and proceed to the front desk to return your bracelet. If you’ve made any charges in the Spa Castle, they’ll be due here.

The trip to Queens is a little long for us. We’re anxiously awaiting the opening of the Pocono resort they show on their website.

Andrew Zimmern enjoying the charcoal sauna at Chamsutgama

The Travel Channel this past week aired the South Korea episode of Bizarre Foods where they found my ultimate idea of bliss: A combination sauna / barbeque. Host Andrew Zimmern as part of his travels in Korea visited the Chamsutgama, a JimJilBang and restaurant in the suburbs of Seoul.

A short clip of the scene is available here, in “South Korea Highlights 2″ around the 2:00 minute mark. The full episode can be purchased on .

From the looks of it, the sauna is heated with the same stove used to cook the facility’s barbecue meats.

I tracked down the facility’s website, which is all in Korean. The text on the pages is there as images, so web translating programs can’t do much with it. If you’ve been there or know more about it, please leave information in the comments.

(I’ve done my fair share of traveling in Korea, and have eaten many of the foods highlighted here, including the octopus sashimi. And you thought peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth.)

[Chamsugama] on Bizarre Foods via Jaunted

The large warm water pool at the Volksbad. The cold pool is behind it, under the windows

The sauna area in the Müller’sches Volksbad is no longer the largest in Munich, but it is still the most unique. The soaring ceilings, chandelier hanging in the dome above the pool, the ornate decorative stone, wood, and ironwork, all make you feel as though you had returned to the 19th century while inside. Only the shower room with its modern fixtures and the Finnish Sauna, with its 1970′s vibe feel out of place here.

The Volksbad has only a few baths:

• a Finnish Sauna with an hourly Aufguss program (200°F or 95°C),
• a large steam room with a steam jet blowing near the door and a fountain in the back (115°F or 45°C),
• a Roman-Irish sweat bath with cool (115°F or 45°C), warm (140°F or 60°C) and hot (175°F or 80°C) rooms,
• a sizable cold pool kept at a brisk 60°F or 15°C, and
• a very large warm pool under the central dome.

During the busy hours, the facility can feel quite crowded. Especially with the small sauna, getting a seat for the Aufguss can require you to sit in the sauna for 15 minutes before it gets started.

Bring your swimsuit along, if nothing else to marvel at the architecture in the textil areas. Each of the two pools sit in arched halls. Surrounding the pools are individual wood changing cabins. The pools themselves were both set up for lap swimming and water exercise during my visit. These are probably the least kid-friendly of Munich’s public pools.

There is a restaurant in the building with the Volksbad. This is outside of the admission area. In warmer months, the terrace in front of the Volksbad appears to be their Biergarten.

When you enter the Volksbad, you pay for your ticket at the cashier and are directed to the left-hand turnstile for the Saunaland. As you pass through the turnstile it helpfully displays the latest time you can exit with your admission fee. Once you enter, you come to a recond reception desk with a stairway to your left. To the right of the stairs, there is a bank of small lockers. Choose one of these that has a key, put your entry card into the slot inside, close the door and extract the key.

The ground-floor rest and changing cabins in the Volksbad. Photo from Wikimedia Commons user Chris_73

This key will also open a corresponding locker upstairs. A rule of thumb with your lockers: The lower the number, the further back your locker will be. The highest numbers are right at the top of the stairs. One common comment about the Volksbad is its lack of privacy. Many of the lockers are in the hallway, and there are no changing cabins available on the upper floor. If this isn’t your thing, or you can’t negotiate the stairs, for an extra € 3,80, you can rent a changing and rest cabin on the main floor. These are private, locking wood stalls, and each is equipped with a small bench / bed.  I did not ask, but I believe you rent these from the attendant at the base of the stairs. In addition to the lockers upstairs is a rest room and a fresh-air terrace.

Once you’ve undressed and stowed your things, finding the showers is your next challenge. They’re back downstairs. To get to them, you must progress through the saunaland to the warm pool. Turn left here, and walk through the cooling-only showers into the shower room.

The Volksbad is in downtown Munich, right across from the Deutsches Museum, where the Ludwigsbrücke crosses the Isar. Getting there is easy by public transport: Take any S-Bahn line to Isartor, then follow the signs for the 5 minute walk to the Deutsches Museum. The Volksbad is on the same side of the street as the train station. Proceed down the stairs as soon as you cross the bridge. It is also accessable by Trams 17 and 18. There is no parking available at the Volksbad, but their website shows the location of some nearby garages.

The Volksbad is operated by SWM – the Munich City Utilities. The SWM operates a number of public pools and saunas throughout Munich. The SWM does not offer any towels, robes for rent at any of its facilities. The sauna area does not have a snack bar of any kind. Filtered water is available to fill your own bottle, or if you buy one of their cups.

Therme Erding claims to be Europe’s largest spa. At 129,000 square feet, it’s the size of an average Home Depot, and we’re pretty sure that this doesn’t include the area of the ample garden area that’s part of the sauna. Our count of their web literature shows that there are at least 18 different sauna rooms, from the cool 95°F (35°C) Tepidarium to the 212°F (100°C) Erdinger Schwitzstube. The saunas range from the plain wooden box with a stove to the unbelievable: A Celtic throne room, a planetarium, a salt cave, even a bakery. For the shy, there are even separate saunas for women and men (they serve beer in the men’s sauna). To cool down there are showers throughout the facility near each of the saunas, and even these are over the top: A 15′ tall bundle of calla lilies dispersing 80 gallons (300 liters) per second of water, and a deluge shower in a replica of stonehenge should paint the picture. To round things out, there are pools, and steam rooms, restaurants, a pool bar and more lounge chairs than a cruise ship. And that’s just the sauna area!

Therme Erding also is the home of Europe’s largest thermal pool park (the largest pool here is 15,000 square feet, the size of a Walgreens) and water park with 16 slides. Access to all of this is included in the admission price for the sauna.

The sauna area, like most saunas in Germany, is textilfrei – nudity is mandatory. Don’t let the photos on the web site fool you, if you’re wearing a bathing suit in the sauna, you will quickly be approached and asked to remove it or leave. Wearing a robe or towel is acceptable outside of the pools. Other than a few small areas, the sauna is open to both genders.

You will want to bring a bathing suit, as these are mandatory in the pools and water park.

Arriving at Therme Erding, you enter a large entry hall, with entrances to the water park, pools and sauna. The sauna entrance is at the left-hand side of the hall. When you pay your admission fee, you’re given a key to a locker. If you didn’t bring towels or a robe, these are available for rent at the cashier’s station. The locker area is specific for people who paid the sauna entry fee, so most people just strip down at their lockers. There are changing cabins in each row of lockers for the modest. Bizarrely, the showers are gender specific, and each is equipped with privacy panels. You must bring your own soap and shampoo.

Your locker key is attached to a nylon wrist strap. There is also a black electronic tag attached to the strap. This tag serves as your key to re-enter the sauna area if you leave, and also acts as a charge card for any food / beverages / services you purchase. You will be required to pay your charges before you are allowed to leave.

Therme Erding is located on the outskirts of Munich, a short taxi ride or drive from the Munich airport, and easily accessible by regional rail (S2 to Altenerding) from downtown Munich. On weekdays, there is a shuttle that runs from the station to Therme Erding. On weekends, it’s about a 10 minute walk, and there are plenty of people on the train with you. There is a combination train / Therme Erding ticket sold by the MVV. This ticket will not get you into the sauna. If you’re driving, their website has printable maps, and they have plenty of free parking.

The best plan to attack the Therme Erding is to pack your spa bag, and buy the full day pass. It isn’t possible to even use all the saunas if you only buy the 3-hour card.

You must be 16 years of age or older to enter.

Book a hotel near Erding