One of the hottest places to hang out with friends right now is in a sauna. To say the movement is smoking would be an understatement. 

As wellness trends shift and people look for fitness alternatives, many are retreating into an ancient Finnish bathing method and are turning it into big business. 

The U.S. sauna sector is expected to grow by $151 million between 2025 and 2029, according to market research firm Technavio.

Several sauna houses, which also offer cold plunge, have opened locally in recent years, including Drip Sauna and Sauna House in Asheville and River Birch Nordic Sauna in Valle Crucis. While YMCAs, hotels, and spas may have introduced many to the virtues of a sauna, these new businesses are offering a new and unique way for locals and tourists to enjoy the outdoors in Western North Carolina.

“Sauna is, along with cold plunge, one of the oldest wellness practices in the world,” said River Birch Nordic Sauna owner John Mitchell. “You can think back for thousands of years, they've been doing it in Finland. And then every culture around the world has practices that they do it a little bit differently, or they call it something different, whether it's a Native American sweat lodge or a Russian banya or Turkish bath house, or the Romans who used cold water baths and steam rooms. Everybody's been doing it for centuries.”

Mitchell, whose mother is Finnish, had always wanted a home sauna. In 2020 he was laid off from a corporate sales job selling software when he lived in Durham and, at the same time, was building a retirement home in Boone. 

Nearing the end of his working career he decided to find something more rewarding than chasing a bigger paycheck.

Mitchell began to look for a home sauna and found a company in Duluth, Minnesota, called Cedar and Stone Nordic Sauna that built saunas but also ran experiences for visitors to Duluth in connection with a hotel.

“I saw that and I thought, maybe I could try that in North Carolina. I had looked into some franchises and I don't really want to do that,” Mitchell said. “I wanted something unique and different, and that I felt was more rewarding. My wife and I talked it over, and we thought what was the worst case scenario, if it doesn't pan out? I could either sell (the sauna) or we'd have a really nice one for our house.”

He ran the business for about six months in Durham before moving it to the High Country. He 

formed a partnership with Mast Farm Inn in Valle Crucis. His wood-fired sauna sits on the hotel’s property near the Wautaga River. It is available to people staying at the inn or anyone else who calls and reserves the space. 

“Only a portion of my business are hotel guests, maybe a quarter,” Mitchell said. “A lot of clients are other people just coming to town and are looking for some type of wellness or relaxation experience. And then I've got a good group of locals that come pretty regularly, too.”

Earlier this year Mitchell purchased a portable, six-person wood fire tent sauna that he delivers to people's homes or rental cabins and he said this business is beginning to take off.

His sauna house has become a gathering spot for locals, as well as an attraction for visitors to Watauga County.

“People can't just show up without me being there,” Mitchell said. “It's wood fired, so I have to get there two hours in advance of the first guest to get it hot enough. It's not uncommon for me to be there for me in the morning to late at night.”

“It's a nature-based wellness experience, and 90-something percent (of bookings) are private, so when somebody books it out, whether there's one person or eight people, nobody else can add to that experience. You've got it for you and your crew,” he continued. “One of the things I've added on Saturdays is that I'll have groups in the morning and groups in the evening, so the afternoon might be open for a few hours. I've created a text group of about 50 locals that I will text on a Saturday morning and say we're having a social sauna opening ... and that's been well received.”

This is something that has also become important for Drip Nordic Sauna, which is located between Asheville and Woodfin.

Owners Daniel Ratner and Evan Routzong have embraced the social aspect of bathhouses, which has become an important reason for the surge in sauna houses across the country, according to reports.

Drip Sauna hosts a Sunday sauna social, which incorporates an hour of yoga with a rotating local instructor, followed by open sauna and cold plunge sessions, and includes live music from a rotating artist. There’s also coffee available and participants can hang out by the fire.

Ratner said that they had a Sunday social on a day when it snowed and people still came. 

“People are hanging out by the fire in their bathing suits while they're getting snowed on. It's this other connection, too,” he said. “This is like an invitation to be outside when normally we'd just put on a movie and not move, which is sweet, too. But this idea of wellness can help facilitate a connection to nature that is a beautiful thing that we just happen to offer.”

The idea for Drip Nordic Sauna hit Ratner and Routzong after they would hike with their dogs and find a spot in a river for a quick plunge. They wondered what would make the experience better and a plan was born to share this experience with others.

The duo, who still have their full-time jobs, went from a spot by the French Broad River near Carrier Park to the current location and have grown from two saunas to four, with a fifth sauna soon to be built. 

In 2025, Drip Nordic Sauna had more than 6,800 unique visitors and Ratner said he thinks it was 60 percent locals and 40 percent tourists. 

“We've been able to grow this at a rate that felt good for both of us. I would say one of the silver linings of of Helene was that we were split between our focus on locals and tourism and tourists, and then after Helene there were no tourists, but it was a big opportunity to provide  wellness hub for locals and for folks to fill their own tanks after exerting so much to help others,” Ratner said. “That's where we were able to start really shifting our identity towards one that was, how can we be accessible, how can we be thoughtful and really be a connective space for locals. Now folks coming in and visiting Asheville are looking for a uniquely Asheville experience, and that's what's driving people from out of town to us as well.”

Others’ wellness has become a motivation for the owners. They were already passionate about community, moments of self connection, and being creative. This side business was the perfect combination of all those things.

“I think it's just another beautiful offering to have for folks who maybe have sweat before, but have never cold plunged, and then they're able to leave after doing a new experience for the first time and feeling supported in it,” Ratner said. “It seems like the plunge is very socially focused right now, and that's a nice thing, because it might be the extra pressure someone needs to give themselves a little boost of wellness.”

For more information about River Birch Nordic Sauna check out its website www.riverbirchsauna.com; and for Drip Nordic Sauna go to www.drip-sauna.com.