Denmark
Copenhagen's sauna culture is defined by the harbour. The city's clean inner harbour — swimmable since the late 1990s — has become the setting for a generation of design-driven floating saunas and waterfront wellness venues. CopenHot at Refshaleøen pairs outdoor hot tubs and wood-fired saunas with a directly adjacent canal for cold plunges. Helgoland Badeanstalten, a historic harbour bathing platform dating to 1896, operates saunas alongside its sea pools. Islands Brygge and Nordhavn have both developed sauna infrastructure as part of broader harbour-front regeneration projects. The Danish aesthetic is distinctive: clean architecture, social rather than contemplative session rhythm, swimwear in mixed sessions, and an emphasis on the hot/cold contrast cycle as a communal ritual.
Yes. The harbour has been swimmable since the early 2000s with regular water-quality testing. Most floating saunas (La Banchina, CopenHot) have direct harbour access.
CopenHot on Islands Brygge runs the largest floating sauna + hot-tub rafts; La Banchina on Refshalevej offers a more intimate sauna-plus-restaurant experience.
The major ones do — CopenHot, Villa Copenhagen, and La Banchina all operate year-round. Smaller summer-only pop-ups close Sep–Apr.
