Laugaren Bergen: Inside Norway's Award-Winning Volunteer Sauna

Most of Bergen’s harbour saunas are businesses: book online, pay per session, meet whichever staff member is on shift. Laugaren is something else. It took five years of grassroots fundraising and unpaid volunteer labour to build, and when it finally opened at Georgernes Verft in October 2023, the design world noticed almost immediately — within a year it had been named Sauna of the Year 2024 and picked up a DOGA award, one of Norway’s most significant design and architecture prizes. It remains a non-profit today, kept running by something like 140 volunteers for well over 1,000 members, and it charges some of the lowest prices of any sauna in the city. Laugaren is proof that the best sauna in Bergen does not have to be the most expensive one.

From idea to Georgernes Verft

Laugaren is built and operated by Bergen Laugarlag, a volunteer association formed with one goal: give Bergen a proper public bathing culture, the kind that cities like Helsinki and Tallinn take for granted. It took roughly five years of grassroots mobilisation, fundraising and hands-on volunteer construction — much of it during the pandemic — before the sauna finally opened its doors at Georgernes Verft in October 2023.

The name comes from the Old Norse word lauge, meaning to bathe or wash — a deliberate nod to a much older Norwegian bathing tradition that had largely disappeared from cities before the current sauna boom. The sauna sits at USF Verftet, one of Bergen’s most established cultural venues, on the water at Georgernes Verft 12, putting Laugaren inside the same cultural ecosystem as concerts, exhibitions and festivals rather than off on its own as a stand-alone spa.

An award that put a volunteer sauna on the map

What makes Laugaren’s story unusual is that it was recognised for architecture and design, not just for being a nice place to sweat. The sauna was built with sustainable, locally sourced timber, and its combination of considered design and genuinely public purpose earned it a DOGA award — the Design and Architecture Norway prize given to projects that create value through design — alongside the Sauna of the Year 2024 title from Norway’s sauna association. For a building put up almost entirely by volunteers with donated materials and community fundraising, that is a rare double win, and it has made Laugaren something of a reference point for other Norwegian sauna associations trying to build their own version.

What a visit actually looks like

A shared session at Laugaren (“Fellesbadstu”) holds up to 19 people at once around the wood-fired stove, with a volunteer sauna master present throughout to keep the fire going and the session running smoothly. Facilities are simple and functional rather than luxurious: two changing cubicles, a roomy anteroom for the rest of your group to undress in, and a cold outdoor shower on the dock for rinsing off between rounds. After you’ve worked up a proper heat, you step straight out onto the dock and into the fjord — no queue for a plunge pool, just Bergen’s harbour water right there.

Laugaren runs traditional nakenbadstu — nude sauna in the Nordic style — for some sessions, where swimwear isn’t required but you bring a towel or a peshtemal to cover up with when you’re moving between the sauna, the anteroom and the dock. Because session formats vary, it’s worth checking what you’re booking into when you reserve your slot online.

Prices and how to book

Everything runs through advance online booking at laugaren.no — this is not a venue you can simply turn up to. Drop-in pricing for the shared sauna is tiered by time of day and membership status: 90 kr for members, 130 kr at the community rate and 165 kr for everyone else during mornings, evenings and weekends, dropping to a strikingly cheap 50 kr (members) or 70 kr (community rate) on weekday middays. Guided sauna rituals cost 20% more than the standard drop-in price.

An annual membership costs 300 kr and unlocks the lower member pricing along with the option to rent Laugaren’s sauna tent. If you want the whole sauna to yourselves, private rental starts from 2,999 kr for members or 3,299 kr for non-members — still modest by Bergen sauna standards, and often the better option for a group.

More than a sauna — the cultural programme

Because Laugaren sits inside USF Verftet’s cultural scene, it hosts more than just sauna bookings. “Poetic Sauna,” an event curated with Female Minority Voices, has combined poetry readings and personal storytelling with the heat of the sauna, cooling off between sessions rather than sitting through a single long sitting. Laugaren has also run a “Badstumaraton” (Sauna Marathon), drawing well over a thousand visits during the event, along with winter swimming courses and other artistic collaborations that turn the sauna into a genuine social meeting place rather than just a booking slot.

Laugaren vs. Bergen’s other saunas

Bergen’s sauna scene has grown fast, and Laugaren is only one part of it — but it occupies a distinct niche next to the city’s commercial operators.

	Laugaren	Heit Bergen	City Sauna Bergen
Model	Non-profit, volunteer-run	Commercial bath-house chain	Commercial city sauna
Price tier	Budget (50–165 kr)	Mid–High	Mid
Feel	Community, DIY, cultural	Polished wellness programme	Convenient central option
Best for	Lowest price, best story, cultural events	A more staffed, spa-like session	A quick central drop-in

None of these is objectively “better” — Heit and City Sauna Bergen deliver a more conventional, staffed bath-house experience, while Laugaren trades polish for character, price and a genuine sense of ownership by the people who built it.

Getting there and practical tips

Laugaren sits at Georgernes Verft 12, right on the water at USF Verftet, an easy walk from central Bergen. Book your session — shared or private — online at laugaren.no well before you plan to arrive, since slots at this price point go quickly. Bring a towel or peshtemal regardless of session type, and be ready to cool off in the fjord straight off the dock rather than in a heated plunge pool.

For more of Bergen’s sauna scene, see the best saunas near Bergen and the best saunas in Western Norway. For how Laugaren fits alongside Norway’s commercial sauna operators, our chains comparison covers the wider landscape — and Laugaren’s own profile has the full practical details: Laugaren, Bergen.