16 Portland area hot tubs and saunas, ranked from good to best

I am Portland’s No. 1 spa reporter.

Sure, no one has officially handed me that honor but I Googled it and no one else has claimed it, so the title is mine now.

I have the credentials, believe me. I’ve spent many hours of my professional and personal time visiting spas, sweating in saunas, soaking in tubs.

I even have a sauna in my own garage.

Read more: Three new-ish spots to soak and sauna in the Portland area

And so, it is with this self-given authority that I have decided to rank the Portland area’s hot tubs and saunas. Is this totally subjective? Yes. It is absolutely based on my personal taste. But would you regret going to a single place on this list? I doubt it!

Here are the requirements for making this list: This place must be open to the general public and not just members of a club or hotel guests. And it has to have at least a sauna and/or a warm soaking pool.

Did I miss your favorite spot to soak or sauna? Send me an email at [email protected] and I will endeavor to visit!

To the spas we go!

No. 16: SweatHouz

4035 Mercantile Dr. Ste. 170, Lake Oswego, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday-Sunday, sweathouz.com/lakeoswego-book-now, $40 for an hour of infrared sauna.

Someone has to come in last and on this list, it is SweatHouz, purely based on location. If I lived in Lake Oswego, it would certainly be higher.

This is a spot for the type of person who is laser-focused on the physical benefits of sauna, not necessarily the spiritual or communal part. You get your own room, with your own sauna. It’s an infrared sauna, so no steam on rocks but you can pick your light color, listen to music and read a book while you sweat it out.

Best for: A type-A sauna fiend who lives in the Lake Oswego area.

How many towels should you bring? Towels provided.

Will there be nudity? You’re alone in your room, so it’s your call.

Is there a cold plunge? Yes, for an additional $20.

No. 15: Pure Sweat

4019 N. Williams Ave., hours vary daily, puresweatstudios.com/portland-or, $60 for 45 minutes of infrared sauna.

Pure Sweat is the SweatHouz of Portland proper, in the midst of a little wellness corridor on Williams Avenue. Take a barre class, grab a smoothie and then sauna for 45 minutes in a private room where you can watch Netflix, change the colors depending on your mood and sweat out the smoothie.

Pure Sweat is a franchise of a chain that also has outposts in Tennessee, Utah and more. The Portland location offers individual saunas as well as two saunas with cold plunges.

While towels are provided, don’t forget to bring something loose to change into after your sauna. The sauna-only rooms don’t have showers.

Best for: A fitness journey with a time limit but not much of a budget.

How many towels should you bring? Towels provided.

Will there be nudity? Again, this is a private sauna, so you can be as naked as you want.

Is there a cold plunge? Yes, for an additional $35.

No. 14: Blooming Moon Spa

1417 N. Shaver St., 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesdays-Sundays, bloomingmoonspa.com/the-retreat-studio-at-blooming-moon-spa, starting at $110 per person for 90 minutes.

What you get with the retreat studio at Blooming Moon Spa for $110 per 90 minutes is essentially a hot tub and a cute little room with a steam shower in the back of Blooming Moon Spa.

You can pay extra for body scrubs or facials and the price per person for the space does go down the more people you invite, which means if you can, convince your friends to come and hang out.

Everything is provided here, including tea, almonds and water with fruit in it plus some cans of plain sparkling water in the fridge, and the staff is very friendly.

Important note about Blooming Moon Spa: The toilet is an incinerator toilet, meaning it’s waterless so you do your business into paper, which is then incinerated.

Did I love the toilet situation? No. Would I recommend this place for a low-key local bachelorette party? Yes. Call 971-279-2757 to book.

Best for: A group spa day with some privacy.

How many towels should you bring? Towels provided.

Will there be nudity? Even though it’s private, they ask you to wear a swimsuit.

Is there a cold plunge? No.

No. 13: Root Whole Body

2122 N.W. Quimby St., 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, rootwholebody.com, for non-members the community sauna is $25 for 30 minutes and medicinal bath is $65 for 30 minutes.

I’ve been thinking about the medicinal bath at Root Whole Body for six years.

The bath, a glorious deep tub filled with water spiked with different minerals and oils in a private room, feels like the height of luxury. Add to that the sauna, which is extra, and the relaxing tea room, which is not, and you could take an hour or two here and totally escape from reality.

Sure, the cost of $65 for a bath might seem like a bit much but honestly, having someone else prepare the bath for you and no kids knocking on the door...this really is worth the cost.

Best for: Luxurious alone time.

How many towels should you bring? Towels provided.

Will there be nudity? When you’re alone in the bath, yes. But not in public areas.

Is there a cold plunge? No.

No. 12: Santé

210 N.W. 17th Ave., 10 a.m.to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, santepdx.com, $65 for 75 minutes in the spa.

The recently-opened Cascada may claim to be “Portland’s only underground thermal springs” but the claim makes me think their marketing team has never visited Santé‘s subterranean spa.

In 2019, I wrote about Santé in Northwest Portland: “While some of Portland’s spas go in for minimalism or new age spiritualism, Santé leans hard into its luxurious, Pompeii-before-the-volcano vibe.”

I stood by that assessment when I visited again in 2023.

Here, you will find twinkling stars above the bubbling hot tub and the tiled steam room, plus gold-foil wrapped chocolates, a steam room, a warm UV light room and a room temperature “cool” plunge pool that I far prefer to the ice cold plunges elsewhere around town.

Best for: A relaxing journey to another dimension.

How many towels should you bring? Towels provided.

Will there be nudity? No.

Is there a cold plunge? Here you get a more gentle cool dip experience.

No. 11: Atrium at the Breathe Building

2305 S.E. 50th Ave., sauna times vary by the day, atriumpdx.com, $15 for an hour.

Inside the Breathe Building, alongside a restaurant and wellness center, is Atrium, a yoga and fitness studio with a coworking space and a sauna.

This same space used to be Yoga Union but it has been re-imagined into something similar but different, which includes an affordable sauna option, bookable by the hour.

The Atrium sauna is hot and connected to both the men’s and women’s locker rooms and is private but they still ask you wear a swimsuit, which is the only negative.

Otherwise, the sauna is hot and they even allow you to put water on the rocks. The price is good and the showers are nearby for a mid-sauna cool down or a post-sauna wash.

And, across the street you will find Hinterland, one of our favorite food cart pods.

Best for: A sauna before or after a workout class, or Matt’s BBQ Tacos.

How many towels should you bring? Two.

Will there be nudity? No.

Is there a cold plunge? No.

No. 10: The Ritz-Carlton

900 S.W. Washington St., 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/pdxrz-the-ritz-carlton-portland/spa, use of the spa is included with a service, which starts at $70.

The Ritz-Carlton spa is beautiful, and you don’t have to be a guest of the hotel to use the single-gender sauna and steam rooms, but you will have to pay.

What you pay depends on what service you get, since access to the spa, for outsiders, comes with every service. You can get a basic manicure for $70 on the very lowest end, all the way up to $999 for a couple’s “enchanted love ritual.”

What you won’t get to use, unless you are staying at the hotel, is the pool.

Read more: How to have an over-the-top spa day at Portland’s new Ritz-Carlton

Best for: Extremely fancy self-care.

How many towels should you bring? Towels provided.

Will there be nudity? The locker rooms are single-sex but they still want you to cover up in the sauna and steam room with a towel or robe.

Is there a cold plunge? They have a “cold plunge shower experience.”

No. 9: Löyly

2713 S.E. 21st Ave. and 3525 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, loyly.net, $40 for two hours.

If you’re looking for a local Portland sauna spot with a minimalist aesthetic and communal atmosphere, Löyly is for you.

Unlike the hyper-wellness-focused individual infrared sauna suites at places like SweatHouz and Pure Sweat, the emphasis here is on vibes and water sizzling on hot rocks. And both are good.

I recommend bringing a friend here and splurging for the face mask, tea and foot soak, to make the experience extra special.

Note: The location in Southeast has a steam room and the Northeast location does not.

Best for: Sauna with friends and no distractions

How many towels should you bring? Towels provided.

Will there be nudity? No.

Is there a cold plunge? No.

No. 8: Cascada

1150 N.E. Alberta St., 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday-Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday (last soaking appointment begins at 7 p.m.), cascada.me, $100 for three hours.

Portland’s new spa-hotel-restaurant takes up much of a city block in Northeast Alberta.

Here you enter a word that seems completely removed from not just Alberta, but from Portland. It feels more like Los Angeles than anything else, with its huge, open conservatory and seed-oil-free restaurant.

Below the conservatory is the “sanctuary,” an underground collection of four pools of varying temperatures and a sauna and steam room.

The pools here are lovely, as are the very quiet steam room and sauna.

But, no talking is allowed in the sanctuary area which makes it unlikely this will become the kind of hangout that many other Portland sauna and pool places are and knocks it a few places down in this ranking.

Best for: A silent retreat.

How many towels should you bring? Towels are provided.

Will there be nudity? No.

Is there a cold plunge? Yes.

No. 7: Knot Springs

33 N.E. Third Ave., Suite 365, public access 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, knotsprings.com, starting at $69 for two hours during off-peak times.

Before Cascada opened its doors, Knot Springs was the soaking pool destination for Portland’s cool, young professional types. Whether Knot Springs maintains its dominance with this crowd remains to be seen, but it does have two advantages over the newcomer.

First, it’s a little cheaper per visit (though not by the hour). Second, it’s a social scene.

Where Cascada has opted for most of the pools, the sauna and steam room to all be a totally silent “sanctuary,” Knot Springs is a place to come with friends and travel together from pool to pool with tea or on-tap sparkling water.

It has the feeling of a “third space,” and the side effect of that is that it can be loud. Especially inside the steam room.

But it’s still a great spot to soak, sauna, steam and catch up with friends.

Best for: An adults-only group hang.

How many towels should you bring? Yes.

Will there be nudity? No.

Is there a cold plunge? Yes.

No. 6: SaunaGlo

1915 S.E. Jefferson St., Milwaukie, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, saunaglo.com, $19 for a day pass.

SaunaGlo is one of the newest sauna spots on the scene and if you live anywhere near Milwaukie, or even if you don’t, it’s by far the most affordable option in town, and one of the most family-friendly.

For $19, you get access to a large, beautiful hot sauna, a cold plunge, a cold shower and a cold bucket dump situation that I was far too scared to try.

Kids are welcome here – when I was visiting, two kids played Legos in the sunlight hangout area while their parents sweated in the sauna. At one point one of them who couldn’t have been more than 10, got into the sauna himself.

Best for: A sauna experience with the entire family.

How many towels should you bring? One to shower with and one to sit on in the sauna. Bring another if you plan to use the cold plunge and want a dry towel for the shower, too.

Will there be nudity? No.

Is there a cold plunge? Yes.

No. 5: Common Ground

5010 N.E. 33rd Ave., 10 a.m.to 10 p.m. Thursdays-Tuesday, 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays, cgwc.org, $18 for 30 minutes.

This whole list, as I said at the outset, is subjective, but almost nothing is as subjective as my feelings on nudity. I think nudity at a spa is actually better than wearing a swimsuit. There is something equalizing about everyone being naked, something less titillating about it than half the people being in bikinis and the other half in baggy shorts.

Plus, who wants to sit in a sauna in a swimsuit?

So, one thing I love about Common Ground is the clothing-optional policy.

I love the pool here, and the sauna is also quite nice. And I have never been when the space is very busy.

Cascada, take note: Common Ground has silent hours, but isn’t always silent, which means you can come with friends and chat if you want.

Best for: A chill soak outdoors.

How many towels should you bring? Bring two.

Will there be nudity? Yes.

Is there a cold plunge? Yes.

No. 4: Edgefield

2126 S.W. Halsey St., Troutdale., 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, mcmenamins.com/to-do/relax-play, free for hotel and spa guests, spa treatments start at about $30.

As I was getting ready to write this list, it occurred to me that I have never really written about the soaking pool at Edgefield, even though my coworkers and I ranked it the No. 1 McMenamins location in the Portland area in 2023 and so did our readers.

So, I booked a 30-minute massage, all that was available on short notice, at Ruby Spa and drove out to Troutdale to do some serious, professional, relaxation.

Any spa treatment will get you into the soaking pool, the cheapest of which is probably a $30 eye treatment. My massage was $95 for the half hour and it was one of the firmest massages I’ve ever had, in a very good way.

I’ve already called to book another one for my husband.

But, the pool. The pool is a winding river of a hot tub without a current, that circles around water features, amongst ferns and trees. Benches line the whole thing, so you can find a perfect place to sit and read.

Because it’s a McMenamins, you can buy snacks and alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks from the onsite tea house.

After 8 p.m., the pool is only for people 21 and over and anyone 18 or under must be accompanied by an adult during other hours.

The pool is absolutely worth the cost of a treatment, and unlike its Portland cousin, Kennedy School, if you are a spa guest, you will get robes and towels as well as a locker and a lock.

Best for: A local spa vacation.

How many towels should you bring? Towels are provided.

Will there be nudity? No.

Is there a cold plunge? No.

No. 3: Kennedy School

5736 N.E. 33rd Ave., 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily (for non-hotel guests), mcmenamins.com/kennedy-school/soaking-pool, $10 for an hour for everyone over 2 years old.

If you are looking to relax among adults with a drink in hand, don’t go to the Kennedy School. Or, go to the Kennedy School after toddler bedtime or with a welcoming attitude towards the occassional splash.

If you are looking for an affordable and entertaining way to spend an hour with your kids, the Kennedy School is your spot.

For me, the soaking pool here ranks so high because of the cost, the lack of pretension, and the fact that I am basically a regular here, more so than any other place on this list.

One thing has vastly improved at the Kennedy School since I last wrote about it: You now need to make reservations online. No more trying to call a busy hotel front desk, no more waiting in vain for a snow day. Now you just go online and pick your time and show up.

Bring ID and towels. And yeah, since it’s a McMenamins so you can order drinks.

Best for: Playing in the warm water with your kids.

How many towels should you bring? I’ve started bringing two per person, just so we can actually dry off.

Will there be nudity? No.

Is there a cold plunge? No.

No. 2: Connect Wellness

4301 N.E. 59th Ave., Vancouver, hours vary depending on type of session, check the website, connectwellness.biz, $40 for two hours.

At Connect Wellness, in a residential neighborhood of Vancouver, you will find a charming outdoor space dotted with saunas, cold plunge tubs and a soaking pool.

Connect Wellness gets so much right, I will give it a pass on the name, which is much, much less interesting than what the place actually is, which is an eclectic mix of woodfired saunas and clawfoot tubs, a changing room in a shipping container with a pellet stove and an onsite Airbnb. Plus a concrete soaking pool, all (and more) connected by stone paver paths through green grass and wooden walkways connect the different spaces.

I especially appreciated the one silent sauna here, meaning you could easily find a moment of quiet but you could still chat, with friends or strangers.

Best for: A warming fairy frolic in the woods.

How many towels should you bring? Bring two so you have one to dry with and one to sit on.

Will there be nudity? That depends on when you go. You can sign up for clothing-optional hours.

Is there a cold plunge? Yes.

No. 1: Everett House

2927 N.E. Everett St., 1 to 11 p.m. Monday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, everetthousecommunityhealingcenter.com , $18 for 30 minutes.

Because I am Portland’s No. 1 spa reporter, people sometimes ask me what my favorite spa in town is and my answer hasn’t changed for many years: If you don’t mind nudity, it’s Everett House.

Everett House has everything that I want in a spa: A lovely, outdoor hot tub, two saunas, a steamy steam room, a tea room in case you need a snack or a drink.

This is also basically an influencer-free zone, unlike some of the fancier spas in town. Not that influencers aren’t allowed, just that no one can document anything about their time at Everett House because cell phones are strictly forbidden.

Like the best places, it also has a small silent area but the majority of the space isn’t silent except for during certain hours, which means you can talk and laugh with your friends or partner or whoever you are with.

You don’t have to be naked to enjoy Everett House. Swimsuits are allowed! But many other people most certainly won’t be wearing them.

And while plenty of people balk at this, as I have said elsewhere, I finding nudity to be an equalizer. And the novelty of a bunch of naked people around you wears off almost immediately.

I am very nearsighter so without glasses I can barely see anything anyway, so maybe there really is something horrifying about the naked human body that I am missing, but still, I think once you try a steam room without a damp swimsuit clinging awkwardly to your body, you’ll never go back.

Best for: The ideal (naked) spa experience.

How many towels should you bring? Two, one for using around the spa and a dry one for after.

Will there be nudity? Yes.

Is there a cold plunge? Yes.

– Lizzy Acker covers life and culture and writes the advice column Why Tho? Reach her at 503-221-8052, [email protected].

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