Palm Beach already makes a pretty convincing case for escaping the city for the day, but there’s now another reason to head north for your next weekend reset.
The Sauna Project has expanded to Sydney’s Northern Beaches, opening its second seaside sauna beside The Joey at Governor Phillip Park in Palm Beach.
You might already know The Sauna Project from its Vaucluse location, where the concept is simple: get hot in a traditional Finnish-style sauna, cool down with a dip in the ocean and repeat. Now it’s bringing the same ritual to one of Sydney’s favourite coastal escapes.
You'll find the new sauna on the Pittwater side of Palm Beach, tucked beneath Barrenjoey Headland and just steps from the water. Unlike the surf on the other side of the peninsula, this stretch of Pittwater is generally calmer and more sheltered, making the ocean itself your cold plunge between rounds in the sauna.
Sessions run for an hour and take you through three rounds of heat, each broken up by a dip in the water and time outside to cool down. At the beginning of each round, the team also runs an Aufguss, pouring water infused with essential oils over the hot sauna stones before using a towel to circulate the scented steam throughout the room.
There’s no complicated recovery protocol to follow either, The Sauna Project encourages you to spend as much or as little time in the heat as feels right, sit out a round if you want to and choose between the hotter upper bench and cooler lower bench as you go.
Phones stay outside the sauna too, making the experience as much about switching off for an hour as it is moving between hot and cold.
And the location means your sauna session doesn’t have to be the beginning and end of the outing.
The Sauna Project has partnered with The Joey, the newly renovated and reimagined Barrenjoey Boatshed sitting alongside it on the Pittwater waterfront. You can wander over before or after your session for breakfast, coffee or lunch overlooking the water, with everything from avocado toast and chilli eggs in the morning to seafood, salads, flatbreads and burgers later in the day.
For Sydneysiders, it makes for a pretty easy wellness day trip to decompress. Head north, spend an hour alternating between sauna and the sea, grab something to eat by the water and stretch the afternoon out on Palm Beach before making your way home.
It’s also a welcome addition for locals at the northern end of the Northern Beaches, who now have The Sauna Project considerably closer to home.
The Palm Beach sauna is open Wednesday to Friday from 7am–11am and Saturday and Sunday from 7am–4pm at Governor Phillip Park, Palm Beach.
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Image credit- The Sauna Project