Steam, Plunge, Reboot, Repeat 🛁

Welcome to Well, Then, taking a look at the biggest news and trends when wellness and travel intersect.

There’s one wellness ritual that has us all lathered up: contrast bathing.

What’s contrast bathing you might ask? Right this way. We’re talking hot-cold cycles in the chicest saunas, plunge pools and steam rooms—once a spa extra, now the whole reason to pack a bag.

The New York Times just wrote about the explosion of home saunas and cold plunges and San Francisco (Sausalito, to be exact) just hard launched the Bay Area’s first floating sauna, Fjord, meant to provide an immediate connection to nature and each other. Head to the complex, share one of two saunas on the float while you relax and socialize. Then, into the bay you go.

Contrast therapy is peaking and hotels around the world are taking the tradition of bathing culture and remixing it with design-forward, Instagram-worthy flair. So heat up, cool down and repeat. The payoff: a dopamine spike, a total reset and a seriously stunning backdrop for those travel snaps.

Here’s where to steam, plunge, reboot, repeat:

^{Every hotel on Late Checkout is independently selected by us. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.}

Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, Saariselkä, Finland

Traditional Finnish smoke saunas and ice swimming make for the purest, most natural contrast therapy in the world.

Book here, rates from $165.

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Another Place, The Machrie, Islay, Scotland

A wild garden sauna with wood-fired hot tubs and sea-dip access—ideal for dramatic wellness moments under the sky.

Book here, rates from $297.

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Monterey Beach Hotel, Seaside, CA

Live your best Big Little Lies life in a hidden grove of private saunas just steps from the crashing waves of the imposing NorCal coast.  

Book here, rates from $605.

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Gilpin Hotel & Lake House, Lake District, England

An epic standalone spa suite stuffed with a sauna, steam room, infrared-lounge bed and massage chair.

Book here, rates from $480.

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Six Senses Douro Valley, Portugal

A “sauna circuit” experience: Himalayan salt, herbal, infrared and Finnish saunas with cold bucket showers between. Sipping Port wine after is simply a bonus.

Book here, rates from $1,705.