Sauna Lillehammer — 4 saunas at the top of Lake Mjøsa

Sauna Lillehammer is inland bathing at the head of Norway's largest lake. The town sits where Mjøsa narrows and Gudbrandsdalen begins, with the Mesna river running down through the middle of it and the old wooden main street, Storgata, climbing the hillside above the water. Lillehammer is best known for the 1994 Winter Olympics and for Maihaugen, but for a bather the point is simpler: this is one of the few places in Norway where you can take a floating wood-fired sauna session on fresh water with a mountain valley opening ahead of you instead of a fjord mouth. Four saunas serve the town. Badstufergen is the local landmark — a floating sauna on Mjøsa for up to ten, rated 4.8 across thirty reviews, and one of the few venues in the country that physically relocates with the seasons, sitting at Bryggevegen in the centre through the summer and moving across to Vingnes for the winter. Kroken Sauna is the wood-fired outdoor alternative at Mesnadammen, rated 4.6 from 28 reviews, with parking and private booking. The remaining two are hotel spas up on Turisthotellveien above the town. Below you'll find all four, with facilities, ratings and booking details.

Lillehammer's saunas divide between the lakeshore and the hill. Down at the water, Badstufergen is the one to know: a floating badstu with lake access, a changing room and mixed-gender sessions for up to ten, moored at Bryggevegen 7 in summer and at Strandgata 11 on the Vingnes side for the winter season — check which address applies before you set off, because the two are on opposite sides of the water. Kroken Sauna sits inland at Mesnadammen, on the Mesna river above the town, and is the wood-fired outdoor option, with parking and private booking rather than drop-in sessions. Up on the hillside, Scandic Lillehammer Hotel on Turisthotelveien and the neighbouring Lillehammer Hotell listing on Turisthotellveien both run indoor spa saunas in the premium band with changing rooms, showers and cold plunges; they sit a few hundred metres apart on the same ridge above the town, with the ski-jumping arena at Lysgårdsbakkene close by. Mjøsa is deep, cold and clean — it is also the region's drinking-water reservoir — so summer surface temperatures are pleasant without ever feeling warm, and winter brings ice along the shoreline and a serious cold plunge. Lillehammer is roughly two hours from Oslo on the Dovre Line or the E6, and Hafjell in Øyer is fifteen minutes further north, which makes it easy to combine a town sauna with a day on the slopes.

Lillehammer’s four saunas

• Badstufergen — floating on Mjøsa, capacity ten, lake access, changing room, mixed-gender. Rated 4.8 from 30 reviews and the best-known sauna in town. Summer address Bryggevegen 7; winter address Strandgata 11 at Vingnes.
• Kroken Sauna — outdoor and wood-fired at Mesnadammen on the Mesna river, rated 4.6 from 28 reviews, with parking and private booking. The choice for a group that wants a cabin to itself.
• Scandic Lillehammer Hotel — indoor spa on Turisthotelveien with changing room, shower and cold plunge, premium band.
• Lillehammer Hotell — the neighbouring listing on Turisthotellveien covering the same hillside spa and wellness centre, rated 4.1 from over 2,300 reviews, with changing room, cold plunge and mixed-gender bathing.

The practical plan for a first visit is to take Badstufergen in the evening and check its seasonal address first — in summer it is a short walk from the centre, in winter you are heading to the other side of the water at Vingnes. If it is booked out, Kroken Sauna gives you the wood-fired version a few minutes inland, and the two hotel spas above the town are the reliable fallback in poor weather or when you want a longer, slower afternoon indoors.