Sauna Talk #113: Sipoonjoki Heritage Sauna

This is a joint Sauna Talk podcast with Linda and Otto who also run the Sprit of Sauna podcast from Finland as well as Sipoonjoki Heritage Sauna, just outside Helsinki, Finland.

Linda and Otto are business partners who share a common interest in preserving the cultural roots and history of smoke sauna, promoting the rituals and power behind, and help create a place and platform for education and retreats at their sauna facility in nature, just outside Helsinki, Finland.

Sauna Talk: Sipoonjoki heritage sauna

Sipoonjoki’s heritage sauna offers a unique experience in a country sauna, where bathing leaves you feeling especially cleansed and refreshed.

www.saunotus.fi

I’d call Sipoonjoki a “smoke sauna haven.” For guests traveling to Finland or within Finland, the top features include:
– their flagship smoke sauna, built traditionally, within the hill mound with stone walls.
– saunotus ceremonies and treatments – using plants and herbs, growing on sight and in the shadows nearby.
– education and retreats.

The day of my visit, as I was departing after my session, a half dozen Finnish ladies were arriving for their private smoke sauna ritual. That’s the beauty of smoke sauna – and maybe I should describe smoke sauna for listeners who may not be familiar.

Journey to Sipoonjoki Heritage Sauna

Otto offers to come pick me up in downtown Helsinki. But learning about he and Linda’s busy schedule (as owners, operators, parents to each having their own children, etc.) I will have none of it. I love taking public transport in Europe, and Finland is no exception. I take the metro to the central train station and with train stop on my phone. It doesn’t take me long to find a younger, sharper, more localized Helsinki -ite at the station to direct me to platform 7. From there, I board the commuter train. From there, I confirm that once the train pushes off, i’m the third stop north of town.

I disembark, and there’s Otto waiting for me with a big smile, standing in front of the photo wrapped passenger van. Hugs and hello, and off we go to Sipoonjoki.

The drive is just long enough for us to help orient myself to where we are. And we find the common english word, The tool we’re thinking of is called a compass (or drafting compass). You remember from elementary school.

It has one pointed leg and one leg that holds a pencil or lead, allowing you to draw precise circles or arcs. It’s commonly used in geometry, drafting, woodworking, and metalworking. Well, this is part of the magic of Linda and Otto’s sauna retreat center.

The compass point being Helsinki central, and within the drawn circle is Sipoonkorpi National Park. We are heading for smoke sauna. As Nature is such a critically wonderful component to good sauna. And, here we are, as if transformed to hundreds of kilometers away, yet just close to Helsinki.

I ask: for visitors, car is the best option. But if a tourist were visiting without, what is the best way to get close to you, is it the train that I took, or the bus?
“There is a bus stop relatively close and during summer weekends there is a bus that comes directly to the sauna.” Gotta love Finland.

Beyond the obvious

My latest Europe trip – 40 saunas in 12 days carried with it a general theme: beyond the obvious. For example, all sauna tourists will hit Löyly in Helsinki, yet few venture on the path less taken to Sipoonjoki. And stepping out of the v