Saunas, Pools, Hammams, and Cold Plunges
La Badira Hammam, Hammamet, Tunisia (April 2026)
In the fall of 2024, when we were in Stockholm visiting our youngest, who was studying abroad, we rented a private floating sauna near Vaxholm and loved the experience.
I’m not much of a steam/sauna/cold plunge kind of gal, or at least that’s what I thought. I’ve struggled with sitting still and handling the drastic temperature changes between the heat and the cold.
Zeke, on the other hand, can’t get enough of these experiences, and we’ve even discussed how to get a Costco sauna into our backyard. He can use a hose for the cold plunge!
While in Portland last year, we found a random Slavic sauna experience in someone’s backyard and leaned into that. It came with snacks, tea, and a hose as the “cold plunge.” We only felt a little bit weird in this guy’s front yard, hosing off after spending time in his hand-built sauna. It was pretty cool.
While our youngest (Theodore) was home from college for their 21st birthday, we went to Dogpatch Paddle and Kayak for some forced family fun. They had a barrel sauna that barely fit the four of us, after which we had the option of walking across the parking lot and grass to the public beach for a dip in the San Francisco Bay. Zeke and Theodore chose that, while Adam (our oldest) and I sat in our bathing suits in the sun, cooling off before another round in the sauna.
I got brave during my solo trip to Strasbourg in September and went to the Bains Municipaux de Strasbourg. This is an incredible complex of baths, pools, plunges, and even a snow shower. I scheduled a massage that included access to all of this, and it was a highlight of my time in Strasbourg.
While in Lyon in October, we went to our first hammam, and while nervous at first, we absolutely loved it. The woman was from Morocco and took us through what we referred to as the cleansing, tenderizing, and sous-vide process, and ended with a 60-minute massage. My skin has never felt so good.
As we researched Budapest for our spring trip and learned about the thermal baths, we knew that visiting one had to be one of the first things we did. We went to the popular Széchenyi Baths, which were similar to Bains Municipaux but larger. We spent nearly an hour in the Dante section going between the Finnish sauna and the cold plunge, which was a temperature I could tolerate and enjoy. The “snow” experience there was more of a partially functioning ice machine, but it was a nice touch.
This last week, while in Tunisia, we scheduled a hammam, Japanese soak, and massage at La Badira in Hammamet as a reward for dipping our toes into North Africa. It, too, was incredible, and we loved the slight differences from the Moroccan experience we had in Lyon.
So now, apparently obsessed, we have added saunas and baths to our existing Zeke and Terri Adventures themes of art, architecture, botanical gardens, and cycling. This is making for a random and unwieldy tagline. We’ll deal with it.
We are planning a trip to Scandinavia in the fall of 2026 and you can bet that we will be trying various steam and sauna experiences along the way, making it our whole personality (besides art!).
💜 Terri