Best Outdoor Sauna: Top 5 Picks From Fitness Experts

Sauna bathing is an age-old Nordic tradition that can have huge benefits for your overall wellness.

There are a variety of sauna styles available, from the traditional barrels to more modern cube designs with electric heaters, infrared heaters, or wood-burning stoves. Some newer models have high-tech features like surround-sound speakers, added LED light therapy, and charging docks for your electronics. However, all you need to reap the potential benefits of your sauna experience is a high-quality product you’ll actually use.

We found six of the best outdoor saunas and included a comprehensive guide for picking the right sauna for you. We also tapped Saloni Sharma, M.D., Medhat Mikhael, M.D., and Earric Lee, a postdoctoral researcher studying exercise science and Sport and Health Sciences faculty member at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland (a.k.a., sauna central), to help us understand how sauna use can benefit athletes during training.

Our Top Picks for the Best Outdoor Saunas of 2025 

This content is meant to be informative, but should not be taken as medical advice. It is not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of health problems. Always speak with your doctor before starting any new supplement or exercise regimen.

Best Overall Outdoor Sauna: Sun Home Luminar Outdoor 5-Person Full-Spectrum Infrared Sauna

If you’re seeking a more technology-forward sauna experience, Sun Home’s Luminar outdoor infrared sauna is an excellent model to invest in. This five-person model uses an infrared heating system, which you can control through your phone via a mobile app. Indoor saunas often have infrared heat, but Sun Home claims its Luminar model is more than 12.5 times more powerful at 500 watts than competitors. This sauna includes Bluetooth speakers and soothing LED chromotherapy, making sitting in a hot room more enticing to beginner bathers. Yes, it’s a pricey model, but it has ample features and floor-to-ceiling windows for a panoramic view of the outdoors.

Best Outdoor Sauna Kit: SweatTent Outdoor Sauna

According to SweatTent, you can set up the SweatTent Outdoor Sauna in about three minutes. It is somewhat portable because it is simple to put up and take down. The material is durable, insulated, and weather-proof, so you can leave the sauna outdoors indefinitely.

A wood-fired stove heats the SweatTent and comes with 20 pounds of sauna rocks, a fire poker, and heat-resistant gloves to feed the fire safely. The SweatTent is our favorite option for a complete sauna kit. It’s easy to set up, comparatively inexpensive, portable, and works well.

Best Two-Person Outdoor Sauna: Sun Home Luminar 2-Person Infrared Sauna

The Sun Home Luminar Sauna is a cube sauna with a carbonized wood exterior and dura-glass windows built to withstand any climate conditions. Luminar has a compact footprint compared to other two-person cube saunas. It uses a combination of infrared and full-spectrum heaters positioned to maintain optimum heat regardless of exterior conditions.

The choice of grade-A carbonized red cedar wood and thick double-pane glass throughout the sauna ensures durability and insulation. With nine heaters, including three far-infrared heaters under the bench and six full-spectrum heaters surrounding the cabin, the Luminar Outdoor Sauna guarantees an efficient and effective sauna session. Sun Home places these heaters strategically to envelop the users in 3D healing wavelengths from all angles.

You can control the Luminar temperature from an app to start heating your sauna before you get home. It has Bluetooth surround-sound speakers and a panoramic view through the dura-glass windows.

Best Outdoor Barrel Sauna: Redwood Outdoors Thermowood Barrel Sauna

The Redwood Outdoors Barrel Sauna is a traditional barrel sauna made with Thermowood. It has all the features you need with nothing extra. We appreciate that you can customize several parts of this dry sauna, from the heating mechanism (you can go the Finnish sauna route with a Harvia electric heater or a wood-burning stove) to add-ons like a weather-resistant shingled roof and even a cold plunge tub. It has a spa-like sauna scent and dry heat, and comfortably fits four to six people.

One benefit of a Thermowood sauna is its durability and resistance to the elements. Redwood Outdoors says that, when properly cared for, this sauna should have an outdoor lifespan of 20 years.

Best Outdoor Sauna for Cold Climates: Redwood Outdoors Thermowood Cabin

The Redwood Outdoors Thermowood Cabin Sauna is our best outdoor sauna for cold climates because of its robust, weather-resistant construction. This sauna has a traditional Scandinavian design with Scandinavian softwood treated with intense heat to provide exceptional insulation. This design enhances its longevity and contributes to its energy efficiency, ensuring even heat distribution throughout the interior.

The Thermowood Cabin Sauna package includes a Harvia electric heater, wooden heater guard, water bucket and ladle, sauna rocks, and interior seating benches, providing all the necessary components for an authentic sauna experience.

Why Buy an Outdoor Sauna?

If you’ve spent quality time in the locker room sauna, you’re committed to the wellness practice, and you live somewhere with outdoor space, a sauna might be an excellent investment for your health. “Researchers have found several possible health benefits from sauna use; most importantly, they have shown to help cardiovascular diseases—particularly high blood pressure and heart diseases—as well as acute and chronic pain and neurological diseases,” Mikhael says.

Putting a sauna inside can create some logistical challenges, though, from installation to insulation and more. An outdoor sauna might be easier to install, and it gets you closer to nature, as many of them have spacious windows. “One big bonus of outdoor saunas specifically is they exist outdoors,” Sharma says. “There is a problem in our society labeled Nature Deficit Disorder, which means we aren’t spending enough time outside. There are many proven benefits of being outdoors, and these saunas allow you to combine them with the potential benefits of heat therapy.”

How to Use an Outdoor Sauna

Depending on your model, once your outdoor sauna is installed and ready to go, you can set the temperature via a manual dial, Bluetooth-enabled app, or touchscreen. The heat comes from sauna heaters or wood-burning stoves. Some outdoor saunas allow you to set the timer up to 36 hours in advance. From there, all you need to do is open the door, climb in, and relax.

As for timing, “Two to three 15- to 25-minute sessions per week are ideal,” says Mikhael. “After 15 to 25 minutes, people can benefit the most without feeling like they’re getting dehydrated or dizzy.”

Bring a book, crank up your music, or bring a friend to sweat it out with you—and remember to stay hydrated.

“You want to ensure you’re hydrated before and after,” says Sharma. “A sauna induces a lot of sweating, so you can get dehydrated very easily.” We recommend an electrolyte powder after use if you sweat a lot.

The Benefits of an Outdoor Sauna

Ideally, you should be heading to your sauna soon as part of your post-workout routine, Lee says. “We found not only is a combination of exercise and sauna bathing stronger in its effects, but many cardiovascular benefits, like lower blood pressure, were sustained for a longer period afterward.”

What to Look for in an Outdoor Sauna

Power

Most saunas use electricity to run the lights and heaters. Low-tech wood stove-heated saunas might not need any power if there are no lights. There are some solar-powered saunas, too, if you want less strain on the environment (and your electric bill). You’ll just need to make sure you have a battery as a backup.

Portability

Given their size and weight, saunas are not very portable. So we’d recommend buying an outdoor sauna once you’re living in a permanent residence rather than an apartment or rental. But even then, life happens, and sometimes you need to move. You can move a constructed outdoor sauna, but it would likely need professional equipment to hoist it into a truck bed. There are very portable tent saunas—much more affordable than the outdoor ones on our list.

Cost

The outdoor saunas we recommend cost between $1,599 and $9,799. Based on our research, the lower end of the spectrum offers plenty of heat but fewer bells and whistles. The more pricey saunas can typically seat more people, have more temperature adjustments, provide more comfortable accommodations, and are made with higher-quality materials.

Outdoor Sauna Accessories

Many outdoor saunas on this list offer additional accessories a la carte. While these aren’t integral to your new sauna routine, they might make it more fun, luxe, and/or comfortable. Some standard accessories we noticed are outdoor showers, cold plunge tubs such as the Plunge, and wooden recliners. Nothing’s stopping you from DIY-ing those accessories, though.

Final Thoughts

Many wellness fads are short-lived trends (and even potentially harmful). But saunas have been staples in Scandinavian life for centuries, showing significant promise in improving your well-being. Our experts say regular sauna use can improve muscle soreness and even chronic pain.

If you’ve dabbled in heat therapy in the past and want to make it more of a long-term lifestyle (and you have the budget to match), an outdoor sauna can be a valuable and beneficial tool. But, like any significant investment in your health, our experts say you should always consult your doctor before purchasing an outdoor sauna or starting a sauna routine—especially if you have severe cardiovascular or lung issues.

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