Sauna session in Copenhagen

Copenhagen is Denmark's biggest sauna city, and the venues spread across the harbour, the districts and a couple of historic bathhouses - from floating saunas to the municipal pool.

Sydhavnen and Jernbanebyen form the densest cluster. Plugin Heat Club SYDHAVN builds its 75-minute sessions around three rounds with cold plunges, breathwork, essential oils and music in between. Innercise Sydhavn has a sauna and an ice bath on a roof terrace with a panoramic view over Sydhavnen. Sauna Yard on Otto Busses Vej keeps an open sauna every day alongside the guided sessions, Sauna Club Sydhavn is a club by the water with changing rooms, showers and maritime surroundings, and Sidste Sauna sits a hundred metres from the sea with cold tubs, cold showers and light refreshments. KYND Sydhavn sets up a mobile sauna in the green at Banegaarden, and Sauna Svala runs mobile sessions at Sluseholmen across three rounds in an hour.

On Amager the range runs from the beach to the shopping centre. Plugin Heat Club AMAGER has changing rooms, lockers, outdoor cold showers and lounge areas around the same three rounds. Inipi Amagerstrand holds its sessions in sweat lodges seating up to twenty, with cold dips in the Øresund along the way. Sauna85 Amager sits in a garden away from the noise with separate changing rooms and a cold tub and requires no membership, while Hitaya SaunaGus down by Slusen invites at most nineteen guests into a sauna that could take thirty, so there is space around you. KYND Ørestad is a small, quiet sauna for twelve guests in the Fælledby quarter, and Amager Centret runs one-off sauna evenings in its courtyard with KYND's mobile sauna.

In Nordhavn and on Østerbro the clubs are newer. Sauna House combines contemporary wellness with classic sauna rituals and has three saunas, a rest zone and a cold-water area. Holm8 is a membership club where both events and open sessions are open to non-members, and where the cold tubs average around ten degrees. Analog Sauna combines the heat and a cold tub in a room meant for calm and reflection, HOT N' COLD (Saunagus) sits on Sundkrogskaj with a view over the harbour, and Charlottehaven Health Club has, besides the sauna, a Tylarium - a milder, more humid form of sauna at 60-70 degrees. RunningSauna is a mobile sauna at Svaneknoppen, close enough to the water for a quick cool-down.

Nordvest has the city's busiest venue: Heat Harmony, where guided rituals bring together Nordic heat, essential oils, cold tubs and calm between the rounds across 75 minutes. Rört Copenhagen lies in the same district with a wood-fired stove, a large cold tub and a screened wooden terrace, and Sauna85 Nordvest on Rentemestervej seats 25 guests with no membership required. Right by the border with Frederiksberg, under Bispeengbuen in Urban13, sits Just Sauna København, which combines a classic Finnish sauna with cold-water dips in three regular formats - Relax, Power and Herbal - plus a monthly full-moon ceremony. On Nørrebro, Sjællandsgade Bad holds its sessions in the bathhouse from 1917, today run by an association of volunteers, and seventeen tickets are sold per session.

A few venues sit on the water itself. Københavns Badeklub runs a small floating wooden sauna by Fisketorvet with room for about a dozen at a time, and the harbour basin lies right outside the door for the cold dip. Havgus Sauna Ship is a sauna ship at Holmen by Refshaleøen, where between rounds you can enjoy the sea air and take a dip straight from the ship. Glaecier is a floating sauna community on Refshaleøen - a houseboat with a panoramic sauna and a floating pool of clean, filtered harbour water - where the weekly Open Gus sessions can also be booked by non-members. Winter Island at Kalvebod Brygge has a 360-degree view over the harbour through large panoramic windows. KYND Marriott has a sauna on the hotel terrace beside an approved bathing zone, so the dip happens in the harbour, and Butchers Heat runs both a fixed sauna at Margretheholmen Havn and a mobile SaunaTruck, a converted military vehicle with a wood stove.

In the city centre, DGI Byen holds its sessions in a large outdoor sauna as part of the Vandkulturhuset water centre, with slots of 40, 60 or 80 minutes and admission to the house included. And on Christianshavn stands Sofiebadet, the listed 1909 shower-bath house, where you can take a spa bath with sauna, steam room and cold tubs - the signature of the house being the hammam dome in the old boiler room.

Just outside the city limits lie a couple of venues that are just as easy to reach: Innercise Vanløse has a sauna and an ice bath on a roof terrace above Jernbane Allé in Vanløse, and Wellness-Saunagus sits by the sea in Charlottenlund with sea dipping, a scrub and snacks.