Sauna culture in The Netherlands and Flanders

Public Saunas
Public saunas can be found throughout the Netherlands and Flanders, both in major cities and in smaller municipalities. These saunas are called Sauna, Thermen, Thermae or Spa and can be regarded as public bath houses. Since every Dutch and Flemish house has a bath room these public saunas are a luxury, not a neccesity.
There are around 170 public saunas in the Netherlands alone. Nearly 50 percent of all public saunas are located in the provinces of North Holland, South Holland and North Brabant. The sauna culture is not seasonal and these saunas are open year round. Most saunas open later in the morning and close around 23 or 24 p.m. Prices vary from just under €20 Euro to just over €30. Some saunas will charge by the hour, but most saunas have fixed prices for a full day or part of the day.
Public saunas are mixed gender in the Netherlands and Flanders and have often a minimum age limit between 12 to 14.
Some sauna establishments allow children and people of all ages together. Other saunas reserve special hours for children between 2 to 4 years and the usual minimum age limit, with saunas of lower temperature. Children have to be potty trained to be allowed in though and often a swimming certificate is obligated. Children under 2 years old are for health concerns not allowed in the heated areas. Children are most often required to be accompanied by an adult since peace and quietness is expected in the sauna area. Also children are more vulnerable to hypothermia and hyperthermia because of their smaller body proportions. To assure their safety in the cold bath and hot rooms an adult is expected to be present when using these facilities. Pre-elementary school children may have not yet gotten their swimming certificates and require for that reason supervision.
Sauna Facilities
The Dutch public saunas offer each at least a shared hot shower area, a warm foot bath, several dry saunas of different temperature and humidity, a cold bath ("dunking" bath), an open shared cold shower area with shower baths, salt scrubbing facilities, a hot water bath (often with herbs), a swimming pool (both indoor and outdoor), a relax area (both indoor and outdoor) and a restaurant / diner / bar area.
Often also a steam room is included. Very often massages and other body and skin treatments and breastfeeding or pumping rooms are available.
Other facilities that some saunas may offer are natural lakes, salt water baths, a cold room or snow room, warm water baths, a mud bath, infrared heating and a jacuzzi. Some of the largest saunas may also have theatrical or gym facilities, hairdressers, tanning beds, physiotherapy, boutiques, meeting rooms or a library.
Sauna Etiquette
Toilet rooms are always gender separated, but dressing and locker rooms are usually mixed gender. Keeping one's clothes or bathing suit on is strictly forbidden. It is considered inappropriate and unsanitary, therefore it is good manners to undress. Nudity is the norm.
Because one uses the sauna naked, one brings at least one towel to sit on and one towel to dry oneself with before going to the restaurant area and at the end of the day. Sitting or lying in a dry sauna or on an other dry surface without a towel under oneself is considered a faux-pas. When using the steam room or stone resting beds one will clean the surface before and after use with water.
There is a strong emphasis on hygiene, showers are expected before using any sweating or steam room, bath, relax room, bar or restaurant and after the use of the restroom.
In most saunas, one can also rent towels, flip-flops and bath robes. The towels, flip-flops and bathrobes are not worn in the sweating rooms or in the steam rooms, but they may be used outside in the area for relaxing and the flip-flops and bathrobe are usually obligated in the restaurant and bar area.
Cellphones and other devices with a camera are forbidden. Physical public affection or sexual advances are frowned upon and will cause the perpetrator to be expelled from the sauna. Smoking is not allowed on the grounds or otherwise only in designated areas. Eating is not allowed in the bathing or sauna area, nor is shaving or teeth brushing allowed in the shared areas.
The staff of the sauna is recognizable by wearing board shorts and shirts (usual with the company logo) when in the sauna area, and are often more fully dressed in the restaurant and bar areas.
Occasional some of these establishments offer also women-only or bathing suit times, or bathing suit optional hours for people who are less comfortable with mixed-gender nudity; Algemeen Dagblad reported in 2008 that women-only, bathing suit-required times are drawing Muslim women to the sauna.
The middle class and wealthier part of the population often have their own private sauna at home, indoors or in the backyard, which usually consists of just a sweating room and shower, and is commonly not used to replace visits to the public saunas but rather as a complement.
Misconceptions
Foreigners who are not familiar with the Northern European sauna tradition or have prude morals sometimes wrongfully associate the public nudity and mixed gender in the sauna with sex or mistake the saunas for brothels or sex clubs. There is no sexual aspect to Dutch and Flemish saunas though, and sexual behavior within the sauna is considered a taboo.
Other Public Saunas
Fitness clubs in the Netherlands and Flanders are always multigender. They often have very basic sauna facilities, which usually are gender separated since the locker rooms and showers in the fitness clubs are always shared but gender separated.
Though very uncommon, some public swimming pools (called zwembad) may have very basic shared sauna facilities. Since the public swimming pools do not allow nudity in the pool area, in these saunas bathing suits are often required. In public swimming pools the dressing rooms and showers are often shared but always gender segregated.
Some hotels and holiday parks are also offering sauna facilities, ranging between shared mixed saunas and saunas for private use.

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