Gay sauna experience
This guide jumps into the gay sauna experience worldwide, uncovering their cultural significance, where they thrive, regional differences, and what to assume during your call on. We also list some of our favorite gay saunas around the world, so you can find a gay sauna near you when you are traveling. Be sure to also not miss our map down below!
Whether you’re a seasoned sauna-goer or stepping into a gay sauna for the first time, this exploration will help you navigate the scene with confidence. From practical amenities to more intimate encounters, we’ve got you covered!
Understanding Gay Saunas
What is a Gay Sauna?
Gay bathhouses, long-standing sanctuaries and social hubs, offer a safe, welcoming space for relaxation, connection, and leisure within the gay community.
Men's Bathhouses: Cultural and Regional Differences in Bathhouse Traditions
While gay saunas offer a unique experience tailored to the gay community, understanding the broader cultural context of communal bathing can enhance your appreciation of these spaces. Whether in a historic Rom
Uncloaking Desire: Experiencing the Gay Sauna
Re-published with permission from The Inkling. Follow the author on Twitter here.
My moment at Cambridge is teaching me to analyse everything around me: the unquestioned peculiarity of language, the invisible codes of social behavior, the gross ethics of sexual intercourse, the unwritten laws of friendship… you name it. And as a direct result I’m unavoidably conducting self-psychoanalysis on a compulsively continual basis, unable to say/do/write anything without immediately questioning why I’m saying/doing/writing it. Although it’s a bit obsessive – at times exhausting – I’m learning a lot about myself.
The other day, I performed one of these self-experiments while aimlessly roaming the streets of London: searching for a fresh experiential plateau to test the limits of my ‘self,’ I impulsively walked into a gay sauna. It’s something which had always caught my curiosity, and there was one in the flesh, right there in front of me.
For those not in th
The Freddie Guide to: Bathhouses
What is a bathhouse?
Bathhouses – also known as baths, saunas, or gay saunas – are spaces where queer men* meet to socialise, relax and have sex. They are legal, licensed sex venues, as opposed to regular saunas or steam rooms where people cruise.
The number of gay bathhouses in North America peaked in the s. Most of them closed in the s, as local governments made widespread health rules to curb the HIV/AIDS epidemic. These rules were often rooted in homophobia.
Today, there are still bathhouses in most major cities across the world. You can find them through Google or on cruising sites love Squirt and Sniffies.
* Historically, bathhouses only admitted cisgender men. They are generally becoming more inclusive. Many have more relaxed door policies or dedicated times and events that are safer spaces for trans and non-binary people. If this applies to you, it’s foremost to check online or ring ahead before visiting a venue for the first time.
When you arrive
When you show up at a bathhouse, you’ll get to a front desk with an attendant. Thi
Did you know that men have been cruising each other for sex at bathhouses since the 15th century?
While the original intention of men&#;s bathhouses may have been hygiene, today’s gay bathhouses or saunas, along with other types of sex-on-premises-venue (SOPV) or sex venues, are intended as places where you can meet others for casual sex. SOPVs offer a place to search and play with a wider variety of people, many of whom might not appear on a dating app grid.
Walking around a gay sauna or SOPV, you might quickly realise a whole new verb of rules is at play; with everything from navigating consent to being comfortable in a sexualised space, there can be a lot to study. Here’s what you should know before heading into a sex venue for the first time.
How does a gay sauna operate?
Like a hotel, you’ll reach at your venue, and there will be a front desk where you’ll pay an admission fee, and in return, you’ll collect a locker key and a towel.
From there, it’s a matter of heading to the changerooms to change into the towel and store your clothes in a locker. Upon arriving, many p