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Finnish Design Sauna Löyly: Wellness in Helsinki | Review

Finnish Design Sauna Löyly: Wellness in Helsinki | Review

Review of a Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki experience – A visit to Finland wouldn’t be perfect without sweating in a Finnish Sauna, at least once. Next to all the public saunas all around the city, in May 2016 Helsinki got a new design attraction: the “design-sauna-experience” LÖYLY. And of course, we as sauna fans were excited to start our Saturday morning with a two-hour stop on the peninsula Hernesaari in the southeastern part of Helsinki. Do you know what Löyly actually means? We asked the friendly staff of the Löyly sauna. Löyly literally means “the steam that comes when you throw water on hot stones in a sauna”. And isn’t that what it is all about in a Finnish sauna?Join us on our Helsinki-Sauna experience and get sweaty in the Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki through a couple of men‘s eyes.

Gay Couple City Weekend Helsinki Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki Our Gay Couple City Weekend in Helsinki, Finland © Karl Krause/ Daan Colijn. Copyright Information: It is not allowed to use, alter, transform or build upon our images or written content without our permission. If you are interested in a commercial or non-commercial/ editorial use of our images, videos or texts, please contact us before doing so. We gladly provide you with our rate card.
Karl & Daan in front of the Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY © Coupleofmen.com

Design Sauna Löyly in Helsinki

This relaxing, gay-friendly hotspot with several saunas like a traditional smoke sauna is completely heated by firewood collected in the woods of Finland. Especially the morning hours at Löyly sauna are less busy and a great way to start a day during a gay city trip to Helsinki, in our case, for Helsinki Gay Pride. After all the sweating, we cooled down by swimming in the open water of the Gulf of Finland and enjoyed the view over the bay with a good Finnish breakfast from the rooftop terrace. Interesting for us gay travel bloggers is that Finland has 3,3 million saunas for 5,4 million Fins. Although the need for public saunas is raising as part of the new urban culture, the numbers of public saunas are decreasing.

Exterior view Sauna Löyly | Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki © CoupleofMen.com
Exterior view of the Sauna Löyly © CoupleofMen.com

The Finnish sauna Löyly designed by the Finnish architect office Avanto Architects became literally one of the new hot spots of Helsinki. The extraordinary design was created by wood material from responsibly managed forestry while the heat and electricity are produced by water and wind power, except for the firewood heated three saunas. With this strict concept, the sauna of Löyly became the first FSC-certified building in Finland and second in Scandinavia (FSC = Forest Stewardship Council promoting responsible management forests).

View from the Rooftop of the Sauna Löyly | Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki © CoupleofMen.com
View from the Rooftop of the Sauna Löyly © CoupleofMen.com
View from the View over Helsinki and the bay from the Rooftop of the Sauna Löyly | Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki © CoupleofMen.com
View from the View over Helsinki and the bay from the Rooftop of the Sauna Löyly © CoupleofMen.com

Sauna & Restaurant in an FSC-certified building

Löyly is created for foreign visitors to experience a real Finnish sauna, less than two kilometers from the city center of Helsinki. Therefore, at Löyly are 3 different saunas. All of them are wooden heated but in different ways. A continuously heated one, a once-heated sauna (that stays warm all day after being heated in the morning), and a smoke sauna. Following the information from Löyly, this traditional smoke sauna is a true rarity in an urban sauna culture, even in Helsinki. In between the different sauna times, Löyly offers its visitors a spa area with cold water basins, a fireplace room to relax with a drink in.

Gay Selfie in the Finnish Sauna Löyly | Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki © CoupleofMen.com
Gay Selfie in the Finnish Sauna Löyly © CoupleofMen.com
Karl having a shower at Sauna Löyly | Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki © CoupleofMen.com
Karl taking a shower at Sauna Löyly © CoupleofMen.com

If you are brave enough, like we were, jump into the cold water of the sea. After our time in the sauna part of Löyly, we had a delicious lunch in the “soft minimalism” restaurant, that serves organic food and sustainably caught fish. Good to know, that you cannot make a reservation. Our favorite spot of Löyly is the rooftop terrace on top of the wooden design architecture. If you want to do it like the Finnish do: order an original Finnish long drink (Gin and Grapefruit) and you will understand why the Finnish people love their sauna tradition.

View out of the Sauna Löyly | Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki © CoupleofMen.com
View out of the Sauna Löyly © CoupleofMen.com
Gay Selfie in the Finnish Sauna Löyly | Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki © CoupleofMen.com
Gay Selfie in the Finnish Sauna Löyly © CoupleofMen.com
Karl in the men's changing rooms at Sauna Löyly | Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki © CoupleofMen.com
Karl in the men’s changing rooms at Sauna Löyly © CoupleofMen.com
Karl taking in swim in the Finnish bay behind the Sauna Löyly | Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki © CoupleofMen.com
Karl taking in swim in the Finnish bay behind the Sauna Löyly © CoupleofMen.com
Daan enjoying the heat of the Sauna Löyly | Gay Couple Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki © CoupleofMen.com
Daan enjoying the heat of the Sauna Löyly © CoupleofMen.com

More Blog Articles about Helsinki:

Our Gay Couple City Weekend Helsinki Finnland © CoupleofMen.com

Gay Helsinki City Trip

Kept as a secret, the citizens of Helsinki are more than proud to live in their wonderful city closely connected to nature. Recently, Finland has been elected to be the world’s most socially progressive country, as it is also legalized gay marriage officially in spring 2017.

All about Helsinki City Trip >

Plan your day at the Finnish Design Sauna LÖYLY Helsinki

Address:
Löyly Helsinki
Hernesaarenranta 4
00150 Helsinki
Finland

Official Website: www.loylyhelsinki.fi/en/

Contact: Tel.: +358 9 61286550

Good to know:
Don’t forget to make a reservation well in advance. The design sauna experience Löyly might have open recently but is already an institution for an extraordinary Finnish sauna adventure. If you are planning to visit in wintertime when the bay is frozen, don’t miss the chance to try ice swimming in an “avanto”, a hole in the ice for winter swimming (a popular hobby in Finland).

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