The Finnish crewmembers serving you on board have a heritage stemming from a strong and unique people. You may not know much about us, but there a few characteristics of our culture that are fairly well known even outside Finland. One of these is the Finnish sauna.

Saunas and other types of heated bathing rooms are certainly found in many cultures, but nowhere else is it as large a part of the national identity and culture as it is in Finland. For us Finns, the sauna is a part of life that we become familiar with very early in childhood. In our country of six million people, there are two million saunas. That’s right, one sauna for every three Finns. We use the sauna for spiritual relaxation with family and friends, after sports and exercise, as part of an evening spent with friends or co-workers or even for no particular reason at all. The warmth of the sauna also helps us through our cold and dark winters. The sauna is a place for celebration, negotiation, discussion and deep deliberation. Finnish policymakers and influential business figures have probably negotiated some of their best contracts in a sauna. For a Finnish host, the sauna is a source of pride and a gesture of hospitality. If your somewhat taciturn Finnish host invites you to join him, stark naked, in a small wooden room heated to nearly one hundred degrees Celsius, please don’t run for the hills.

Perhaps a quick briefing will put your mind more at ease. The sauna is heated by a special sauna stove with rocks that are heated to very high temperatures either by electricity or by burning wood. The hot rocks heat up the sauna to approximately 80-90 degrees Celsius. The bathers sit on elevated wooden benches and throw water on the hot rocks. The water vaporises, heating up the room and increasing the humidity in the air. Perspiration removes toxins from the body, improves circulation and relaxes the bather. The traditional sauna experience also includes a vasta, a bunch of small fresh birch branches with leaves on, used by the bathers to swat themselves and their fellow bathers briskly to open up the skin’s pores and further boost blood circulation. Sounds strange? Perhaps it is. But we are not alone in having strange bathing customs – don’t forget the Turks and their sandbag-sized loofahs!

There aren’t many things better than the sauna in Finland, but nature is one of them. Finland is a sparsely populated country with plenty of clean nature. Most of Finland is covered by forests and we also have over 100,000 lakes, most of which have very clean and even potable water. A Finn is perhaps happiest when he or she can combine the two pleasures of the sauna and Finnish nature. With the sun setting on the horizon late on a summer evening, casting a shiny bridge across the glassy calm surface of a lake, a Finn can spend hours bathing in the sauna, taking breaks to swim and just sit on the porch enjoying the peace and quiet. In moments like that, the stresses of modern life feel a million miles away. The feeling is actually not dissimilar to the one you sometimes have aboard an aircraft, gliding across a quiet and empty sky, beyond the reach of all the noise and fuss down on the ground.

My favourite sauna is pictured here. It is in Eastern Finland, right on the waters of a pristine lake. It passes below the left wing of Finnair’s aircraft bound for the Far East approximately 32 minutes after departing Helsinki. I may be down there, sitting on my porch enjoying my summer holiday, watching a family of swans glide along the surface of the lake and the traces drawn in the sky by airplanes.

If any airline in the world were to have saunas on board, Finnair would be it. Sadly, the strict fire, electricity and water safety standards mean that we are unlikely to ever see a sauna aboard a passenger aircraft. Nevertheless, I do have some good news on this front for Finnair’s transfer passengers: they can experience a genuine Finnish sauna right at the airport, at Finnair Spa & Saunas. If your itinerary includes a stopover in Helsinki with an hour or two to spare, don’t miss out on this wonderful experience at the Finnair Spa and Saunas.