Sauna in Estonia: how it works and what not to do

Sauna in Estonia is not a wellness product bolted onto a hotel. It is a weekly domestic habit with rules, and knowing them makes the difference between joining in and being the visitor in the corner.

The basics: you go in clean, you go in naked or with a towel depending on whether the sauna is mixed, and you sit rather than talk for the first round. Water on the stones is called löyly and there is a convention about who pours it — usually whoever is nearest, and always with a warning to the room first.

The cycle is heat, cool, rest, repeat. The cooling is not optional and is the part visitors skip: a cold shower, a plunge pool, or — in the version Estonians are proudest of — the sea, including in winter through a hole in the ice. Three rounds is normal.

The smoke sauna is the traditional form and worth seeking out. No chimney; the smoke fills the room for hours, is let out, and what remains is a soft heat and a smell that no electric sauna reproduces. It is on the UNESCO intangible heritage list for the Võru region in the south, and it is a completely different experience from the hotel version.

In Tallinn the public saunas in Kalamaja and the seafront ones at Noblessner are the accessible options, and several run mixed and single-sex sessions on different days.

One thing not to do: treat it as a place to make phone calls. Phones do not come in.