Ice bathing with the professionals: the most beautiful cold bathing houses in Sweden

It’s October. In Skåne, southern Sweden. In the middle of a weekday in the metropolis of Malmö, a couple in a bathrobe slips towards the promenade. The wind whistles, the tourist puts on gloves. What are the two of them up to? You hang your bathrobe on the stand provided on the beach – and go into the sea. At eleven degrees water temperature! It probably feels comfortable for them because, like so many of their compatriots, they go swimming in the great outdoors all year round. Of course also in winter. And it can get really cold: daytime temperatures just above zero, minus degrees at night, the water between three and five degrees.

Traditional, liberal, Art Nouveau: Ribersborgs in Malmö

A little further down the beach, a long wooden walkway leads from the shore to the sea. At the end of it, a wooden Art Nouveau building from 1898 sits enthroned on stilts: Ribersborgs Kallbadhus. Kallbadhus is translated as cold bath house and stands for the luxurious form of year-round swimming. Because there are saunas in all cold bathing houses, separated for women and men.

First sweat, then cool off in the sea is the motto. And don’t just go underground, but swim. Very slowly. With deep breaths. Until thousands of needles poke into the body. But more on that later. Ribersborgs is one of the oldest and best-preserved cold baths in the country and is always well attended. With prices of 7 euros for a day ticket, this is attractive for everyone. Also for LGBT people, because every first Monday of the month the gender segregation is lifted and the liberal outlook is celebrated.

New, nature reserve, modern architecture: the Skanör Falsterbo Kallbadhus

The Skanör peninsula is also located in Sweden’s southernmost province, Skåne. At the beginning of the last century, bathing tourism pulsed here for Northern Europeans: white, fine sand, summer temperatures around 22 degrees and small, colorful bathing houses between the dunes. Photos from this glamorous time can be admired in one of the chicest and newest bathhouses, the Skanör Falsterbo Kaltbadehaus. From the outside, the flat wooden structure looks simple, but its two saunas are stunning: floor-to-ceiling glass fronts offer a clear view over the Øresund Strait to the Danish city of Copenhagen. A color symphony in light blue tones between sky and sea.

Maybe that’s what draws everyone magically onto the jetty and onto the first rung of the ladder – down into the crystal clear water. It goes quite well up to the hips. But the stomach! Every millimeter a silent fight. When your chest plunges into what feels like icy water – eleven degrees – your breath catches. But instead of pulling him back slowly and meditatively, as recommended by the young Swede who comes to swim every morning, everything gets hectic. Hasty swimming strokes. Gasping. Just get out of here! But suddenly the body and mind calm down. Swim on! A few more moves. A stiffness creeps into the limbs. Better to turn around now before there is even more emptiness in your head. Reaching the ladder feels like the finish line of a marathon. But instead of staggering, the body feels wonderfully light. He hovers over the jetty. It tingles from head to toe, as if an entire ant colony is chasing through the body. This feeling, surprisingly pleasant, lasts for half an hour. The young Swede raved about the fact that after just 15 minutes in the cold bath house you are fit all day. And sleep better. And also be healthier, due to the trained immune system.

If the around 40,000 students in the university town of Lund want to go to the beach, they can drive to Bjärred on the coast in ten minutes. From the sandy beach, Saltsjöbad can be seen on the horizon. Modern Scandinavian architecture with lots of wood, straight lines, clear, unobtrusive and yet sophisticated. A 450 meter long wooden walkway – one of the longest in the country – leads to the cold bathing house. The views from the saunas are spectacular: nothing but the deep blue of the sea, the spray of the waves and the wind turbines in front of Denmark looming on the horizon.

Ice bathing in the coldspot Helsingborg: 3 cold bathing houses around the port city

There are 50 cold bathing houses across Sweden. The concentration is highest near Helsingborg on the west coast of southern Sweden: three cold bathing houses invite you to kick in the cold water after a sauna or steam bath. Pålsjöbaden with its individual, yellow bathing houses, which are lined up like pearls on a chain on the pier. The modern designed Kallis with its panorama windows and the Råå Kallbadhus. Early risers are welcome here: from 6.30 a.m.

Oriental palace with onion domes: the Varberg on the west coast

The journey continues to the most beautiful cold bathing houses on Sweden’s west coast: south of Gothenburg, the country’s most spectacular bathing house is enthroned on stilts in the sea. The history of the Varberg goes back more than 200 years, when year-round swimming was made possible in a kind of swimming pool in the harbor. The building was built around 1820 in an oriental style – with turrets, onion-like domes, arches and colorful tiles. An exotic sight in the middle of the water. As in most cold baths, people swim naked after taking a sauna.

Then the café of the Märchenpalast attracts – freshly baked waffles with cream and jam and a hot drink. All the more reason to try out the Swedish tradition ascribed to the die-hard Vikings. Even the author of these lines, a hot showerer, or rather a notorious frostbite and hot showerer, was enthusiastic afterwards: from the tingling body feeling, the lasting freshness kick and the triumph over one’s own weaker self.