Turkish bath or sauna — what is the difference?
People book one meaning the other surprisingly often. They overlap in exactly one way — both are hot — and differ in every other.
A sauna is a hot, dry room you sit in by yourself, usually 80–100°C, for ten or fifteen minutes. A Turkish bath is a warm, wet marble room at a far lower temperature where an attendant scrubs you with a mitt and washes you in soap foam. The sauna is heat; the hamam is heat plus a wash. A hamam usually contains a sauna — a sauna never contains a hamam.
Side by side
| Sauna | Turkish hamam | |
|---|---|---|
| Air | Hot and dry | Warm and wet |
| What you do | Sit, then cool down, then repeat | Warm through, then are scrubbed and washed |
| Who is with you | Nobody — you do it yourself | An attendant who does the work |
| Typical length | 10–15 minutes at a time | About 2.5–3 hours door to door |
| What you leave with | Relaxed | Relaxed, and noticeably smoother skin |
| Clothing | Varies by country and venue | Your own swimwear, throughout |
The temperature difference is bigger than it sounds
A sauna is hot enough that the dry air is the point. A hamam is much cooler and much wetter, which is why people who find a sauna uncomfortable often get on fine with a hamam. It is also a sequence rather than a sitting — sauna, steam, the heated marble, the kese, the foam and the massage — where fifteen minutes in a sauna is the whole of it.
It also means a hamam is a very different experience of heat: you do not sit waiting it out, because things keep happening to you.
Which should you book?
- You want to be looked after rather than left alone — hamam
- You want smoother skin, not just a sweat — hamam, for the kese
- You find high dry heat unpleasant — hamam, which is cooler and wetter
- You have fifteen minutes and a hotel wet area — sauna
- You want both — the programmes on this site include a sauna and a steam room before the hamam itself
You do not actually have to choose
Every programme on this site starts with the sauna and the steam room and then goes on to the marble, the kese, the foam and the massage. The sauna is preparation rather than an alternative.
That is worth knowing if your hotel already has a sauna: what you are paying us for is the part your hotel does not do.
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