Nobody hands you a rulebook when you walk into a sauna for the first time. There’s no sign on the wall, no laminated card by the door. You just have to work it out, usually by watching what everyone else does and copying it, or by getting something quietly wrong and being told.
The good news is that sauna etiquette is short. It is mostly common sense once someone explains it, and it barely changes whether you are at a spa, a gym or in your own garden. Here is everything you need to know so your first visit does not feel like a guessing game.
Shower before you go in
This is the one rule almost everyone knows and almost everyone still skips. Shower before you use a sauna, without soap, just to rinse off. It removes sweat, deodorant and any lotion on your skin, all of which can smell unpleasant once they heat up, and it means you are not bringing dirt into a shared space that other people are going to sit in after you.
If you are using a public or gym sauna, dry off properly first too. Dripping wet skin means more steam, and more steam means a hotter, more humid room for everyone else, whether they wanted that or not.
Sit on a towel, always
Bring a towel and sit on it. This is not optional in most saunas, and for good reason. You are going to sweat, other people are going to use that same bench after you, and nobody wants to sit in a stranger’s sweat. A towel under you keeps the bench clean and keeps you more comfortable too, since bare skin on hot wood is not always pleasant.
In a home sauna it is a smaller courtesy, mostly aimed at yourself and whoever you live with, but it is still worth keeping the habit. It also helps protect the wood over time, which matters if you want your bench to still look good in a few years.
Keep the volume down
A sauna is a quiet space by default, and most regular users treat it that way. Loud conversation, phone calls and music without headphones are the fastest way to annoy everyone else in the room. If you are there with a friend, a low conversation is usually fine. If you are on your own, a nod or a quiet hello is enough.
Phones are the bigger issue these days. Scrolling in a sauna is common, but a phone ringing, buzzing or being used for a video call is not. Put it on silent, or better, leave it outside the room entirely. Part of the point of a sauna is switching off, and that is hard to do with a phone in your hand.
Do not overdo the sauna smell
Skip strong perfume, aftershave or scented body lotion before you go in. Heat intensifies smell, and a sauna is a small, enclosed room that everyone is sharing. What is a pleasant amount of fragrance at room temperature can become overwhelming once the air warms up. Save it for after your shower afterwards instead.
Know the nudity and clothing rules for where you are
This is the question almost everyone asks before their first visit, and the honest answer is that it depends entirely on where you are. In the UK, most public and gym saunas expect a swimsuit or a towel wrapped around you. In parts of mainland Europe and Scandinavia, particularly single-sex saunas, going without clothing is the norm and swimwear is sometimes seen as less hygienic, not more.
If you are ever unsure, look around before you commit to anything, or ask a member of staff. Nobody will think less of you for checking. We cover this properly, including what fabrics actually work well in the heat, in our guide to what to wear in a sauna.
Do not stay in the way of the heater or the vent
Every sauna has a spot that heats fastest, usually closest to the heater or the stones. Do not sit for long stretches blocking the direct heat from reaching the rest of the room, and be aware of vents or air paths if the room has them. It sounds like a small thing, but it is one of the more common ways people accidentally make a shared sauna less pleasant for everyone else.
Ask before you add water to the stones
In a traditional sauna, pouring water over the stones for a burst of steam, known as loyly, is part of the experience. In a shared sauna, it is polite to ask the room first, especially if you do not know how the other people there feel about a sudden spike in heat and humidity. In your own home sauna, this one is entirely up to you.
Do not overstay your welcome
If the sauna is busy and you have been in there a long time, it is worth stepping out for others rather than treating the bench as your own for the afternoon. Most sessions run somewhere between ten and twenty minutes for a traditional sauna, longer for infrared, so there is rarely a need to occupy the space for hours regardless of how quiet it is.
How etiquette changes between gym, spa and home saunas
The core rules stay the same everywhere. Shower first, sit on a towel, keep the noise down. What changes is how strictly they are enforced and how much they even apply.
A gym sauna is usually the most rule bound of the three. There is a real chance of encountering someone you know, sessions are typically shorter because other members are waiting, and clothing is almost always required. A spa sauna tends to have more space and a more relaxed pace, but the same expectations around towels and quiet apply, sometimes more strictly.
A home sauna is different because you set the rules. There is nobody else’s bench to worry about and nobody waiting outside the door. The etiquette that is left is really just good habit: showering before you get in, keeping a towel down, and treating the sauna itself with enough care that it lasts. It is one of the quieter benefits of having your own, alongside not having to time a session around when the gym sauna is free.
The short version
- Shower before you go in, and dry off if the sauna is shared.
- Sit on a towel every time.
- Keep your voice down and your phone away.
- Go easy on perfume and aftershave.
- Check the clothing expectations for wherever you are.
- Ask before adding water to the stones in a shared sauna.
- Do not sit on top of the heat source, and do not stay for hours if others are waiting.
None of this is complicated, and most of it becomes automatic after a couple of visits. If you are still deciding whether a sauna is worth having in your own home, where none of the shared etiquette really applies, our sauna buying guide is a good place to start, alongside our guide to the benefits of regular sauna use.