Take the plunge at Greenville’s new Sauna House
Serendipity or fate, call it what you will, but when Woody and Rachael Liles received a trip to Sauna House in Asheville as an engagement present, they never expected it would map their future.
“We checked it out, and we just fell in love with the concept,” Rachael says.
They loved it so much they became regulars, and when the couple moved from Asheville to Greenville a year later, they decided to bring Sauna House with them. Woody, a civil engineer, and Rachael, who’s in digital marketing, are the co-owners of Sauna House Greenville, a sustainable bathhouse offering sauna and cold-plunge experiences in a social setting.
Rachael recognizes that for someone who’s never been to a public sauna, the experience may seem daunting. “Hospitality is a really big piece of this,” she says. “We want people to feel like a regular even if it’s their first time.
Sauna House Sessions
Each session is two hours, which includes time to check in, change into your bathing suit, and rinse off before hitting the sauna. Each guest receives two Turkish towels, one for sitting on and one for drying off. The facility, with its warm Finnish design, is kept meticulously clean. There’s no need for shoes—or your phone, for that matter.
The Sauna House motto is “hot, cold, relax,” which describes the circuit from sauna, cold plunge, rest, then repeat. First comes fifteen minutes in one of the two saunas, then up to three minutes (if you can stand it) in one of the two stainless-steel pools, kept at 45 and 55 degrees, respectively. Heated benches surround the pools for an after-plunge warm-up, and there’s a serving window for kombucha and loose-leaf teas. You can do the circuit up to three times in the two-hour window.
There are certainly proven health benefits to the circuit—Rachael mentions it helps with recovery and mental clarity—but for her and Woody, it’s the social piece that resonates.
“Half of the experience, if not more, is that we don’t allow phones in the facility and you’re amongst other people,” Rachael says. “You’re experiencing something hard together—you’re in a 190-degree room and then in a cold plunge—so it makes conversation really easy. I’m excited to see Greenville take to it and love it and for it to be a third place for people to come that’s not eating or working out.”
Sauna Social
Along with the public bathhouse space (which also includes a Himalayan salt room) Sauna House has private booking options, including two heated infrared cabins featuring light therapy, a party room with a private sauna and cold plunge for up to 10, and two sauna cabanas for up to four with a shared cold plunge.
Two-hour drop-in, $45. Membership and packages are also available. For more information, visit saunahouse.com/greenville.