Travel Dispatch: Plan a Steaming Sauna Escape
Where to steam, sweat and soak away the chill.
Travel Dispatch
March 4, 2026

Until the cold weather lifts, the notion of steaming in a sauna or soaking in hot springs is a strong lure. It’s also a great way to plan your next adventure.

Sauna-hop around Lake Superior, restore in sweat houses along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, go nude with strangers in Austria and Germany or visit Japanese towns famous for their onsen, or hot springs.

Four people in bathing suits stand inside a hut with wood and brick walls and ceiling with a stove filled with rocks and a plate glass window looking out onto a lake with waves.

Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

Road trip through the heart of U.S. sauna culture →

A barrel-shaped wooden building with a glass door and a string of party lights in front of it stands on a patch of sand in front of water.

Sweat along the rugged Irish coast →

People sit on small outdoor wooden decks, under red umbrellas and a green tree canopy, next to a gentle river.

Andrew Faulk for The New York Times

Ride a high-speed train to Japan’s onsen towns →

An illustration of many people of many different ages and skin tones wearing no clothes, lounging in a flowery garden and a sauna. Leaves, flowers, books and steam inside the sauna obscure the bathers’ breasts and other private parts, and in the background, there is a bright blue lake and a snow-dappled mountain range.

Chuchu Wang

Take it all off at Europe’s nude spas →

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