The 10 Best Saunas in Oslo for 2026: A Local's Guide

Oslo has quietly become one of Europe's most interesting sauna cities. A decade ago, the answer to "where do you sauna in Oslo?" was a hotel pool, a private apartment, or a gym. Today, the Oslo waterfront has more design-led floating saunas than any comparable European city, the country's largest spa is a 30-minute drive from downtown, and the hotel-spa scene has been quietly reinvented around the new Norwegian wellness aesthetic.

If your mental map of sauna culture stops at Helsinki, Oslo deserves an update. The city's relationship with sauna is younger and more design-conscious than its Nordic neighbors', but the energy in the floating-sauna scene specifically — SALT, KOK, Langkaia, Jøtul — has made Oslo the de facto reference for the new wave of European sauna architecture.

This is a list of ten saunas that, between them, capture how Oslo actually does sauna in 2026: the iconic floating saunas on the harbor, the largest spa in Northern Europe, the restored Art Deco bathhouse, and the boutique hotel saunas that make up the polished urban-luxury layer. Mix three or four of these into a long weekend and you'll have a much better picture of what's happening on the Oslo waterfront than the international press has so far covered.

A note on prices and convention: Oslo public saunas typically run NOK 350–600 (€30–55) for a drop-in, with floating-sauna boats priced higher. Mixed-gender is standard. Most Oslo public saunas allow swimwear (Norwegian rather than Finnish convention), though specific facilities vary.

1. SALT Sauna Oslo

is the iconic Oslo floating sauna, the one that put the city on the international sauna map and the one most foreign visitors will recognize from Instagram. Located on the Bjørvika waterfront near the Opera House, the SALT complex includes a series of wood-fired floating saunas, a cultural-event programme (concerts, readings, art installations), and direct fjord access for cold-water plunges.

Drop-in is around NOK 350. Booking ahead is essential, particularly in winter when SALT is at its visual peak — snow on the deck, the city lit up across the harbor, and a fjord plunge between rounds. SALT is the one to start with if you've never done Oslo sauna before; everything else on this list makes more sense in the context of having visited it first.

2. KOK Oslo

is the floating sauna boat. KOK runs small wood-fired sauna boats that motor out into the Oslo fjord while you bathe, with cold-plunge access directly off the deck. This is the most distinctive sauna experience in the city — and one of the most distinctive in Europe.

Pricing runs around NOK 2,500 for a private booking of a boat (typically 4–10 people). It's not cheap, but the experience is genuinely unique: a wood-fired sauna at sea, with the Oslo coastline drifting past, plunge access off a moving deck. Plan ahead — KOK books out weeks in advance in summer and gets booked for special-occasion groups year-round.

3. Langkaia Bad

is the urban floating sauna at the Oslo Opera waterfront. Smaller and more centrally located than SALT, with arguably the best harbor view of any Oslo sauna — the Opera House on one side, the fjord on the other, the city skyline above. Drop-in is around NOK 450.