The Top 5 Gay Saunas in Europe

Paraiso in madrid is excellent.

Bad am Römerturm is even better in Cologne.

5 Best Gay Saunas in Europe

Boiler in Berlin and Badehaus am Römerturm in Cologne. At the latter, I’ve been there when the steam room was so tightly packed that if you opened the door, guys would lose their balance.

is the Thermos in amsterdam still open?

[quote]is the Thermos in amsterdam still open?

I think it went bankrupt in 2015

shoot, that's a real shame

Guys I hooked with in Amsterdam usually turned out to be Germans. They all insisted on fucking me. Gentle reader, I rolled over for schwanz.

I hooked up with quite a few dutch guys

If by best I go by where I got laid the most, I'd have to go with Chariots in Vauxhall.

Just look at the map for the largest STD outbreaks in Europe and you'll have your answer Op.

and cue the arrival of the sex shaming prisspot

It was a joke R11, I thought sluts had great senses of humor.

Any Eastern Europeen cities have good saunas?

Have the Europeans all gone bareback too?

R12, they do, you just didn't tell a very funny joke, rose

face slapping happens

The baths (there’s no name, just an unmarked door) in Svenborgia are the best I’ve encountered.

My only visit to the Bairo Alto baths in Lisbon was a weekend in paradise!

I'm gonna go too

There’s certainly none in Europe! Londons are dreadful and the new Chariots (directly opposite the MI5 building — so handy for the spooks) is appalling. I don’t know about those in Manchester, but the one in Glasgow was the the best of a bad lot. But the quality of the trade was really poor — particularly annoying as there are so many stunners on the streets in London.

Even more scandalous is the situation in scandanavia. Stockholm has not a single gay sauna. None. Zilch. Oslo’s is small and acceptable; Helsinkis the same. But why they are not splendid is bewildering.

Heartbreaking to hear the news about Thermos. The night and day saunas were amongst the world’s best.

I meant to type: none on the UK.

[quote]Any Eastern Europeen cities have good saunas?

There is Magnum Sauna in Budapest.

Loved this place, but it was over 20 years ago since I was there, so I have no idea what it's like today. Great facility.

In Paris there is one with oriental decoration. When I was there it was full of hot guys, really great bodies and hot action in steam rooms. There are good ones in Madrid and Barcelona, too, might be the one R1 mentioned. R20 They were closed by officials in Stockholm maybe 20 years ago and scenes in Helsinki and Oslo are too small to have an active gay saunas.

The Oslo sauna is located at one of the new African enclaves of the CBD, which doesn’t make for a totally reassuring experience for a first time tourist.

The Helsinki sauna seems very much a kind of one man operation. The fellow who runs it is sweet: I just wish I had a million bucks to give him so he could create something worthy of the Land of Saunas!

I love the grottoes at Club Europa in Rome.

Thermos was nice - if not always packed in recent years. A lot of the sex venues in Amsterdam are dying. The closing of Argos - the oldest and most real leather bar/sex den in Europe - was truly sad. I guess in part due to apps - but also just less interest by young gays. Anonymous public sex may be a thing of the past as gay becomes mainstream.

Yes it already happened in America and it seems inevitable Europe will go the same way r27. That culture seems to be dying out with younger gays.

The saunas in Barcelona and Madrid are fun. I had one hot guy after another.

Has Europe all gone bareback?

[QUOTE]The saunas in Barcelona and Madrid are fun. I had one hot guy after another.

Was this recently or 20 years ago?

I'm booking a flight depending on your answer

[quote]Anonymous public sex may be a thing of the past as gay becomes mainstream.

it will NEVER become a thing of the past, just look at straight guys who need lap dances and things like that, but they won't be as central to gay life as they once were

[quote]Thermos was nice

Thermos was absolute heaven! To have a home cooked meal at Thermos Day Sauna, prepared for you by a pretty dutch boy (years back when Amsterdam still had dutch boys), and afterwards go to Thermos Night Sauna with it’s completely different cosy mood and layout, was magical. I’m so glad I experienced them in their prime.

Ditto R33. Thermos was the peak of gay sauna life in Europe in the 90s. A full gay experience with sex as an option. Such a sex positive, relaxed environment. Just before Amsterdam became minority Dutch. Dutch attitudes and culture were the key to the experience of Amsterdam. It’s changed - just like the rest of the world - and change is constant so we must accept. But I too am so glad I got to experience Thermos - and all of gay Amsterdam - in the 90s. It will always be my favorite time and place in life.

I loved it, I lived in Amsterdam throughout the nineties and loved going "swimming" there as my friends used to call it

To give you another example of how Amsterdam has changed for the worse, an older dutch friend who was absolutely breathtaking as a young man recalled to me that the most enjoyable cruising was done while skating on the canals. You liked someone, you gently circled. Given the canals almost never freeze over now, what a memory!!!

There are so many and most are more popular than the states.

Yes bareback is common .

Prague?

Yes Thermos Day and Night are gone, but NZ is a very nice replacement, run by the same people who run the cruise club Church. Plenty of fucking still to be had in Amsterdam.

Does Europe have a SteamWorks type of Sauna, found in the U.S. and Canada, or they're much different and/or even better?

For me, SteamWorks in Chicago in 2011 on a Saturday night at 3 am was buzzing but not Sunday night... as was Seattle busy in 2012 on a weekend. The Portland, Oregon two saunas were not packed on my 2012 visit but still decent.

No steamworks.

Went to Thermos day and night while in Amsterdam when they hosted the gay games in '98. An international slice of heaven on earth....

I was there at that time

Amsterdam in the 90s was such a relief coming from NYC - where there was a crackdown on all sex related activities and decadence in any form. Amsterdam let me live a slice of 70s sexual liberation in my 20s that I was very grateful for. It will always have a special place in my heart. Wonderful culture and freedom.

I'm so glad I was there

Sydney finely has a decent sauna worthy of it after years of substandard ones after the legendary KKK closed. KKK was favoured by Bruce Chatwin! When the BBC made a documentary on his life they filmed there. But because steam would have damaged the cameras they brought in a smoke machine!!!!

Melbourne has a couple of saunas but Wet is one of the world’s top 5 for facilities. Gorgeous 25 metre lap pool etc. Even Bangkok’s Babylon doesn’t have that, but its masseurs are fucking incredible. However, for me, as others have said, nothing beat Thermos Day and Thermos Night at their peak. Remember the heated bench!

I wish I could travel there

this is the top

I'm fond of Kaiserbrundl in Vienna. The 19th century Orientalism and knowing your fucking in the same cubicles enjoyed by the Hapsburgs and their equerries.

Are European gay guys on PrEP like Americans are? An Italian friend of mine told me about a year ago that PrEP wasn't legal there, so no one had it.

Boyberry in Barca. Fun on video, anyway.

Fun fact: the building housing Rome's Club Europa is owned by the Vatican. There are Bishop's apartments upstairs.

Convenient, eh?

Pink Beach Lausanne

Sauna Heaven Warsaw

Der Boiler Berlin

However, over 50 I get laid faster and hotter in sex clubs, not saunas.

I get laid every day

On a cold day nothing beats a fancy sauna