Bathing culture in New York: the bathhouse map in 2026
The city that nearly lost its bathhouses in the 1980s now anchors the new American wave: a historic schvitz, social bathhouses and neighbourhood clubs. A map for deciding where to go.
The city that almost ran out of bathhouses
New York once had many bathhouses. Most closed in 1985 and 1986, after the state began treating those spaces as a public health risk during the AIDS crisis. What survived, in the basement of a tenement on East 10th Street, was the Russian & Turkish Baths, open since 1892. In an interview with Culture of Bathe-ing, Dmitry Shapiro, of the family’s second generation, sums up the reason: the house was never a sex club. It was a schvitz, a place for sweat, cold and borscht.
Four decades later, the same city has become the centre of the new American bathing culture. Not because heat and ice were invented recently. Because the format changed: the bathhouse stopped being only the immigrant basement and moved into a former soda factory, a Brooklyn warehouse, a neighbourhood club and a guided session with breathwork.
Robert Hammond, president of Therme Group in the US and co-author of the Bathe like a local guide at Culture of Bathe-ing, compares the moment to coffee in the 1980s or yoga in the 1990s. His thesis is clear: this is still the beginning, not the peak. Minnesota and San Francisco had more houses for longer. The experimentation, the design and the social side of the new wave are concentrated in New York.
This is not a ranking and it does not replace a visit. It is a map for deciding what kind of house you want, with what each offers and what to confirm on the site before booking. Prices, hours and rules change fast. The directory with the address and full listing for each house is on the New York map.
The New York chain is called Bathhouse. It has no connection to this site, the Desterro Company guide at bathhouse.guide.
Three formats at once
What confuses arrivals is that the city runs three generations on the same map.
| Format | What it is | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Historic schvitz | High heat, extreme cold, no scene, walk-in | Russian & Turkish Baths |
| Social bathhouse at scale | Contrast circuit, aufguss, day pass, several locations | Bathhouse, Othership |
| Neighbourhood club | Membership, frequency, smaller scale, routine | Akari, Lore, Elahni |
The practical difference is the decision about use. One house is for going once on a trip. Another is for coming back twice a week. Another is for a guided hour, without wandering between equipment on your own.
In February 2026, Culture of Bathe-ing tested the thesis in public: a sauna festival at Domino Park, on the Williamsburg waterfront, with dozens of temporary saunas, aufguss, breathwork and sessions from the city’s houses. It was not a spa. It was an argument: communal bathing belongs on the street, in winter, in New York.
1. Russian & Turkish Baths: the schvitz that remains
The Russian & Turkish Baths is at 268 East 10th Street, in the East Village. It opened in 1892. It takes no booking for use of the house. A single entry on the official site costs US$65.
The house is the opposite of the new wave. Little light, little branding, a great deal of heat. In the beginning there was only the Russian Room and the Turkish Room. The redwood sauna and the steam rooms came later, over decades. The Russian Room is the core: a furnace holding around 10 tonnes of stone, heated overnight, which carries the heat all day. Shapiro describes his own ritual as 45 minutes of heat and cold with little rest: Russian Room, plunge, Turkish Room, sauna, steam, and food at the end.
There is one operational detail visitors need to know. The New York house has two owners who alternate by week, David Shapiro and Boris Tuberman. Cards bought from one site are valid in that owner’s week. Mixed, men-only and women-only hours also change. Check the week and the shift on the site before going.
Good for: anyone who wants the old New York experience, with no wellness scene.
Watch out: it is walk-in, the heat is genuinely high, and the end of the bath calls for rest and electrolytes. Do not get dressed while still sweating.
2. Bathhouse: the social circuit at three addresses
Bathhouse is the operation that turned contrast therapy into an urban product at scale. Travis Talmadge and Jason Goodman opened the first location in 2019, in a former soda factory in Williamsburg. Flatiron followed, then Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn in May 2026.
| Location | Address | Day pass on the site |
|---|---|---|
| Williamsburg | 103 North 10th Street, Brooklyn | from US$39 |
| Flatiron | 14 West 22nd Street, Manhattan | from US$29 |
| Atlantic Avenue | 540 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn | from US$29 |
The Atlantic Avenue location runs to about 32,000 square feet, with an indoor area and a backyard. The circuit gathers an event sauna, a banya, infrared, steam, and hot, neutral and cold pools. The house positions the event sauna as a stage for aufguss: the master uses oils, music and a towel to move the heat around. In May 2026 the location hosted the Aufguss USA Nationals.
The model is the opposite of the 1892 schvitz. There is a day pass, treatments, scrubs, and an operation built for a visitor who books. Williamsburg still has the outdoor pool that appears in almost every brand photograph. Flatiron is the darker, more theatrical version. Atlantic Avenue is the bet on scale and a lower entry price.
Good for: a first visit to a contemporary bathhouse, aufguss, and a full heat and cold circuit.
Watch out: confirm the hours, the session type and whether the location requires swimwear. The New York house is not this site.
3. Othership: sauna as a session, not a circuit
Othership started in Toronto, in Robbie and Emily Bent’s backyard and garage, and reached New York with a different thesis: the sauna works better when someone leads the group. There are two locations in the city, Flatiron (23 West 20th Street) and Williamsburg (25 Kent Avenue, near Domino Park). A third, on the Upper East Side, is planned for 2027.
The format is not a free circuit of pools. It is a session: a performance sauna, ice baths between 0 and 4 °C (32–39 °F), breathwork, and a lounge to stay in afterwards. There is free flow (you move at your own pace), guided classes, and socials with music. In their interview with Culture of Bathe-ing, the founders describe the space as a meeting place: a gathering, an encounter, even a kind of secular congregation. The lamp light is hand-painted to reach 1800 kelvin, the temperature of a candle.
Prices vary by session type, time of day, and whether you buy a single, a pack or a membership. The two-week intro appears on the site at US$135, with one session per day. Confirm the single-session price at booking.
Good for: anyone who wants to be led, anyone going in a group, and anyone looking for a social alternative to the bar.
Watch out: do not expect a hammam or a route through several pools. The house sells heat, ice and ritual.
4. Akari: neighbourhood sauna, members only
Akari describes itself as a Japanese neighbourhood sauna. The name means light. Shayna Olsan and Luke Carstens opened the first house in Williamsburg at the end of 2023, then Greenpoint. The site lists three addresses:
- Williamsburg: 202 Grand Street
- Greenpoint: 149 Franklin Street
- Lower East Side: 60 Orchard Street
There is no day pass. The house caps the number of members so the sauna does not fill up, charges a monthly membership (there is a daytime tier and a full tier, with an all-access option), and admits a one-off visitor only as a member’s guest, for a fee. It takes no booking for use of the space. You take your shoes off at the door, pass through the tea lounge, and enter the hot-cold-rest cycle.
Greenpoint is the narrower and darker location, according to Dezeen’s coverage. Williamsburg is the original house, with two saunas and small plunges. The tone is the opposite of Bathhouse: little scene, a lot of wood, neighbourhood scale.
Good for: people who live nearby and want a routine, not a travel plan.
Watch out: without a membership or an invitation, you do not get in. There is a waiting list.
5. Lore Bathing Club: the 75-minute club
Lore opened in January 2026 at 676 Broadway, in NoHo. It runs about 6,200 square feet across two floors, with a dry Finnish sauna, an infrared sauna, a cold pool and heated benches in hammam mode. The standard session lasts 75 minutes. Phones stay outside.
The house’s thesis is frequency. James O’Reilly and Adam Elzer, the co-founders, sell membership to people who come back, not to people passing through once. There are single sessions and packs, but the product is the neighbourhood club: a substitute for the coffee shop, the bar or the fitness class. Culture of Bathe-ing highlighted exactly that: the model changes the arithmetic, because the value shows up on the third visit, not the first.
There is aufguss programming, guided immersion and aromatherapy inside the sauna. Swimwear is required. The house supplies towels. Membership hours and prices change; check the site.
Good for: anyone spending a few days around NoHo who wants a contemporary, clean house with a real cold pool.
Watch out: the session is short. Anyone who wants to wander without a clock may prefer Bathhouse.
6. Elahni: a speakeasy for four
Elahni is on the second floor at 12 West 27th Street, in NoMad. The entrance is discreet on purpose. The house calls itself a wellness speakeasy: a Finnish sauna and an ice bath for at most four people, with a host leading the rounds, the breathing and the pause.
It is not a circuit. It is a guided hour. Hydration in the middle, a tonic at the end, booking required. The format serves two audiences the large houses handle badly: people who have never done contrast and are apprehensive, and people who have done plenty and want quiet.
Good for: a first time with sauna and ice, or a small group.
Watch out: you cannot turn up without a booking. The scale is a studio, not a bathhouse.
What else opened in 2026
The Culture of Bathe-ing map, drawn by Victor Jeffreys II at the end of 2025, already anticipated a second wave. Part of it is now open.
- SAINT (242 West 29th Street, Chelsea): four private cedar sauna suites, an ice bath and a shower. The opposite of the social house. Sessions from US$90.
- The Altar (122 Fifth Avenue, Flatiron): a sauna for about 50 people, cold immersion and, at the same address, longevity protocols (IV, hyperbaric oxygen, red light). Soft launch in April 2026.
- Schwet (78 Franklin Street, Tribeca): banya, a mineral pool, immersion at around 9 °C (48 °F), a Japanese scrub and a bar. Culture of Bathe-ing described the house as a club as much as a bathhouse.
- Reunion Baths (Brooklyn) and Sund (outdoor Nordic bathing, planned for 2027) were still in the pipeline when this was written.
If the question is “has it peaked?”, Hammond says no. Supply has grown. The format is still separating out: social house, routine club, private suite, street festival.
Which to choose
- For old New York: Russian & Turkish Baths.
- For a full circuit on a first visit: Bathhouse (Williamsburg for the outdoor pool; Atlantic Avenue for scale and aufguss).
- For a guided group session: Othership.
- For a neighbourhood routine, if you can get in: Akari.
- For a contemporary 75 minutes in NoHo: Lore.
- For a group of up to four, with someone leading: Elahni.
- For absolute quiet: SAINT.
Take what New York is actually testing. It is not one style of sauna. It is the question of who the house exists for: the one-time visitor, the weekly member, the group that wants to be led, or the person who does not want to see anyone. That choice changes the address.
The most continuous coverage of this scene is at Culture of Bathe-ing. The pieces used here are the map of new houses, the interview with the Russian & Turkish Baths, the origin of Othership and the report on aufguss in the US.
Want to go? Open the New York map with addresses, prices and full listings. For another itinerary, see the bathhouses we visited in Australia and the Where to go category.