Oslo Badstuforening - Sukkerbiten: Saunas & fjord dips

Sukkerbiten is Oslo Badstuforening’s largest floating sauna village beside MUNCH in Bjørvika, about a 10-minute walk from Oslo Central Station. It's a good place to relax after a long museum session. There are 13 floating saunas at the dock, including woodfired saunas, saunas with panoramic fjord views or old saunas resembling derelict sheds.

Firstly, you need to note that this is not a spa. The changing rooms are shared and unisex and the toilet is back on land outside the sauna village itself. Everything is functional, but not luxurious. Skip it if you want privacy, quiet, or anything resembling a hotel wellness centre. For that check out our article on the best hotel spas in Oslo.

Booking

Shared sauna sessions will often fill up, especially mid-day on weekends and after work on weekdays. Drop-in is not reliable, you should pre-book, which is particularly important for evening or weekend sessions.

Booking tip: When you book you will be able to see how many tickets there are left in each timeslot. Choose one with many tickets left and you will have a much more comfortable time, and it will be easier to find space in the most popular saunas.

Shared sauna or private sauna

For most visitors, a shared ticket is the right call. It is cheaper, and it gives you the ability to try all the available saunas.

Private bookings make sense if you are travelling as a group and want to sit together. Smaller groups should look at Tang, Tare, Bispen, Måken, or Heipiplerka. If the group is larger, the options are more interesting: Anda, Skarven, Havørnen, Trosten, and Albatrossen. Check out all the available saunas at the Oslo Badstuforening website. Capacity and pricing vary between them, and not every sauna is always available for private rental.

Not all the saunas are wood-fired. Some are electric. If the crackle and smell of birch wood is part of why you are booking, check the individual sauna page before you book.

What to bring

You need to bring swimwear, two towels (one for sitting on inside the sauna and one for drying off after the session), a water bottle (can be refilled on site), and a padlock for the locker. In winter, add sandals or wool socks for the deck. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, swimwear is compulsory.

How the session works

Arrive a few minutes early, check in with the sauna master at the staffed dock, change, shower, and find an available sauna (all saunas with green signs are available for shared sessions).

Other than that it's rather simple. You sit in the sauna until you are hot enough, step outside, and climb down the ladder into the fjord, embrace the cold, get out, warm up and repeat. 

Shared sessions work best if you don't have a preferred sauna to use. Some will fill up quickly, but are always space in some of the saunas. Go into whichever sauna has space. If one is full, there are several others. For quieter conditions, avoid peak hours which are weekday evenings and weekends (except for the very earliest timeslots). Early morning and weekday slots are noticeably calmer.

Swimming after rain

Oslo municipality advises against fjord bathing for one day after heavy rainfall. The water quality is generally good, but rain will carry dirt from land into the sea and temporarily change the water quality for the worse. If the water is not clean, keep your head above the water and rinse off afterwards, and do not swim with open wounds. The sauna masters should be able to advise on water quality.

Sukkerbiten, Langkaia, SALT, or KOK

All the saunas are within a 15-minute walk so which one should you choose?

Langkaia is also in Bjørvika, on the other side of the bay, and slightly smaller. There are fewer saunas, stair-only access and no toilet facilities at the time of writing. The Opera House view is its main draw here (check the photo in the article). For a longer session with more options, Sukkerbiten is the stronger choice.

SALT is a different venue altogether. In addition to saunas, here you will find bars, DJs, food stalls, and events. Go to SALT if you want the social, festival-like version of Oslo sauna culture. Do not go to SALT expecting quiet contemplation. And importantly, as opposed to all the other locations, you cannot bathe in the fjord here.

KOK runs sauna cruises where the sauna will go out into the fjord, and more polished (and more expensive) private and public sessions. Here all saunas are pretty much the same, but the views will differ depending on the exact location. You will be allocated a sauna and will use the same sauna throughout the session with the same people that have booked this session.

Sukkerbiten is somewhere in the middle: it has more variety and better facilities than Langkaia, is certainly more serious about the saunas themselves than SALT, and less expensive and less produced than KOK.

You will find a full comparison of all the saunas in our Oslo fjord sauna article.

Accessibility

Sukkerbiten is one of the more accessible floating sauna options in Oslo. The walkway is wide, the main pier is flat, and Trosten is a sauna designed with universal access in mind, with space for two wheelchairs and an adapted amphitheatre outside. Swimming in the fjord is not fully adapted for universal use, though you can still cool down with an ice cold shower.