A few weeks ago, I started getting Instagram ads for saunas/bath houses in Salt Lake City. I had no idea there were so many (with increasingly weird names): Hot House SLC, Glow, Perspire, Plunj, Sweathouz (ew), and Sauna Public. Sauna Public was the closest to us with a traditional heated sauna vs. infrared, so we checked it out yesterday.
Photo above is from Google, but you can get an idea of the layout: the door in the tile leads to the sauna with two heaters and three levels, and you can see the showers out in the open to rinse off between sauna and cold plunge.
And here’s my photo, looking the other way out into the entrance and reception–it’s not a big space. That cold plunge pool looming ominously in the foreground was SO INCREDIBLY COLD. I thought I was tough sitting in the stream in Millcreek in the height of summer, but this was even colder. (It didn’t help that the open showers and the private showers in the changing room didn’t get hot at all–I think the water heater was having a hard time keeping up.)
The vibe was definitely more public pool than luxury spa, but clean and chill. Every guest besides us was an athletic guy in his 30s and they seemed to be subtly trying to out-stay each other in the cold plunge. I guess I was expecting more of an “old European guy” vibe but it makes sense that the bros would be all over hot/cold therapy for recovery.
Will we go again? I might try it alone to really see how much I can cook myself in the sauna, but I might be more of a sento/hot springs person. Or a backyard sauna person, someday, where I can make my cold plunge an indulgent 60 degrees versus 45.