My steamy weekend exploring Oslo’s better-than-ever spa scene - The Times

Kill Bill seems an unlikely theme for a sauna, but, here I am on the top shelf, smouldering away to the soundtrack from Quentin Tarantino’s martial arts epic. I am at Son Spa resort in the town of Son, about 35 minutes south of Oslo by train, in a floating sauna on its namesake fjord. Our sauna master promises the experience will be “like taking cocaine — not that I would know”.

This is what’s known as an aufguss and it’s what Norwegians do at the weekend.

It involves sweating for ten minutes, during which the master wafts us with a giant fan as the music crescendos, sprinkles us with bunches of wet leaves like a cheerleader shaking pom-poms when the heat begins to bite, and turns the music — Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) — up loud when it’s time to exit and plop into the fjord, which was 13C on my October visit. Yowser. 

It is indeed exhilarating. And beautifully scenic on a clear day at sunset with the light peeling away and water turning silvery. 

There’s a bit of a party atmosphere at Son Spa, with beers brought into the sauna and positioned around the large hot tub. It’s a gorgeous spot — all 148 rooms have at least partial views of the fjord — though the best are the front-facing suites. And it’s soothing, even with the occasional squeal from those leaping into the fjord.

In the morning, when I go for an unguided sauna, the sun turns the clouds and water pink, a seagull is working on a sorry starfish (the water is so clear you can see them clinging to the rocks below) and the sauna is full of guests on a work jolly.

Is being thigh-to-sweaty-thigh with a total stranger a bit much before breakfast? Yes, but so be it, in the pursuit of “wellness”.

Sauna culture isn’t traditional in Norway like it is in Finland but, over the past decade, it has really taken hold, with hot boxes popping up all over the place. In Oslo there are a number on the harbour, including one called Kok, which translates as “boil”. But city dwellers, I’m told, come to Son for a bit of a wind down. 

What’s nice about Son Spa is that you can walk into town along the coast path, navigating those giant boulders that are such a feature of the landscape here. It’s a wealthy community and the houses are either Grand Designs-modern or with classic timber frames and painted immaculately white. It’s fortunate that Galleri Soon is closed on my visit, because I can see through the windows that I’d struggle to depart empty-handed. Ditto the elegant greenhouse outside, which is full of antique urns and handmade quilts. 

At the Well, another spa within easy reach of Oslo — about 40 minutes south by bus — guests are surrounded by forest rather than fjord. Here it’s more about immersing yourself in what is Scandinavia’s largest spa, with 15 saunas and steam rooms and a vast wellness pool. There are no beers on the side of the hot tubs here, the volume is more muted and nakedness is encouraged. Which is fine when you’re immersed in low-lit bubbles, less appealing when you have to enter or emerge from them. Guests can buy and wear swimwear (except in the saunas) from the hotel’s chocolate brown collection (from £22), but that feels a bit of a wheeze so I embrace bearing all, but take refuge in the cotton sarong for the sauna.

Aufguss is a big thing here too and there are queues for it. I wonder what it takes to be a sauna master — many of them seem to have been trained in the performing arts — the fresh mint aufguss I try is led by a muscular man who moves like a dancer. 

There are lots of couples and gangs of friends at the Well on my Sunday evening stay. It’s quieter and more serene when the weekend crowds have gone back to work (the spa can take up to 900 guests, while the hotel has 104 rooms). And Tuesday is the day to come if you want to be eased in gently — it’s the one day when swimwear is compulsory for all, so there isn’t the awkwardness of being the only naked or clothed one in the whirlpool.

But there’s no escaping other people’s flesh: the casual restaurant, Brasseriet, has a bathrobe or casual dress code and everyone seems to opt for the former. Supper with a side order of chest hair. I am the sore thumb when I arrive fully clothed and everyone around me is munching away in their spa-issue white towelling robes. However, I like that the menu majors on pizza and includes classics such as the club sandwich alongside salads and green juice. It’s cosy too with a round table with a circle of real flames in the middle that’s positively mesmerising, especially when I can’t gaze at my phone, due to them being (sensibly) banned. 

Bedrooms are more spoiling here than at Son Spa, with art deco-style cabinetry, good ceiling height, picture windows over the treetops and plush velvet daybeds from which to enjoy the view.

There’s a sculpture trail to follow through the bronze autumn forest, past the chilly outdoor pool, which must be a lovely spot in summer.

Back in Oslo, I marvel that you can swim from a beach outside the opera house, about as central a dip as you can get. Though there’s nothing tempting about it on a grey day when the air is only 1C.

This is the start of koselig (cosy) season and the temptation to hole up in a café with a hot chocolate or buy a cosy blanket by Roros Tweed from the Norway Designs shop is strong (norwaydesigns.no). However, I am continuing the watery theme of my weekend, on a boat trip with Halfdan Houge of Salty Beard Escapes (two-hour tours for eight from £600; saltybeard.no). He set up business a year ago with the aim of offering tourists a glimpse of Norwegian life (one in five Norwegians own a boat).

As we motor around nearby islands, admiring summer homes with colour co-ordinated bathing huts (as desirable and pricey as premium beach huts are here in the UK) down by the water, I can see why you’d want one to nip about the place. There are ferries, but you are beholden to the timetable. Houge points out Langoyene, which has a crescent beach (it’s the only island on the inner fjord where you can camp) and I like the look of Hovedoya (main island) with its Cistercian ruins and wild walks. And can see why Dyna Fyr, the former lighthouse in the middle of the Oslofjord, now a restaurant, has taken off on social media.

Houge gets lots of families wanting to go fishing; it’s not allowed in the inner fjord so they motor out to Son to catch mackerel. I don’t think my children (four and two) would have the patience to sit at the end of a line, but he promises they’d love crab fishing, a quintessential Norwegian summer experience. Come November, he puts the boat away and concentrates on the other arm of his business, guiding visitors through the forest in search of beavers or moose, which are known to swim between the islands. After that, I should think they might be in need of an aufguss session. 

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Jenny Coad was a guest of the Norwegian Tourist Board (visitnorway.com); Son Spa, which has B&B doubles from £175 (sonspa.no); and the Well, which has B&B doubles from £163 (thewell.no). Fly to Oslo