People often ask where the idea for Navia came from. The truth is, there wasn't a single lightbulb moment. It wasn't one particular sauna, one particular conversation, or even one particular country.
If anything, Navia slowly crept up on us.
We travelled through Scandinavia and somewhere between Copenhagen, Bergen, Stockholm and Helsinki, the idea started taking shape. Not because we suddenly decided we wanted to open a bathhouse. To be honest, that sounded completely ridiculous at the time. It was more that we kept finding ourselves in these spaces that felt fundamentally different to anything we'd experienced back home. The saunas were incredible. The cold plunges were colder than anything I thought a sane person would willingly get into.
But what really stood out wasn't the facilities, it was the people.
More than just a sauna
Before travelling through Scandinavia, my experience with saunas in Australia was pretty straightforward. You'd go to the gym. Sit in a hot room. Maybe chat to a friend. Then leave.
In Finland, Norway and Sweden, sauna felt like something entirely different. It's hard to explain until you experience it yourself. Sauna isn't treated as a wellness trend. It's not something people do because they listened to a podcast about dopamine or because their favourite influencer told them cold plunges are good for resilience.
It's just part of life. It's where people go after work. It's where friends catch up. It's where families spend time together. It's where communities gather.
A Finnish guy we met in Helsinki summed it up far better than I ever could.
Sauna isn't a place for chatting about the weather. It's a place to come together.
For some reason that stuck with me, because it perfectly captured what felt different about these spaces. The sauna wasn't the destination, the connection was.
Bergen and the freezing ocean
One place that left a huge impression on us was Nordnes Sjøbad in Bergen. If you've never been there, imagine a pool sitting right on the edge of the ocean with saunas, cold water and what feels like half the city dropping in for a swim.
The first thing that strikes you is the atmosphere. Everyone seems genuinely happy to be there. Not in an overly enthusiastic wellness-retreat sort of way. Just comfortable. Like they've all collectively figured something out that the rest of us are still trying to learn.
The second thing that strikes you is how cold the water is. I knew it would be cold. I was not prepared for how cold. I then decided that casually diving into five-degree ocean water was a perfectly reasonable thing for a person to do.
But what I remember most isn't the cold. It's the feeling of belonging. Nobody knew who we were. We were tourists from the other side of the world. Yet somehow, we felt completely welcome. And it's something that stayed with us long after we left.
The spaces themselves
Of course, the actual saunas were amazing as well. One place that completely captured our imagination was Löyly in Helsinki. If you've seen photos of it, you'll know what I mean. Dark timber. Clean Scandinavian design. Right on the waterfront. The sort of building that somehow manages to feel incredibly modern while also feeling timeless. There's something about sitting in a dark timber sauna that immediately puts you at ease.
Another sauna that left a huge impression on us was SALT in Oslo. Unlike anything we'd seen before, the sauna is built in the shape of a giant timber teepee rising up from the waterfront. Walking inside for the first time was one of those moments where you just stop and look around for a minute.
The scale of it was incredible. There were rows upon rows of seating stretching all the way to the top, with multiple heaters creating completely different temperature zones throughout the space. If you wanted intense, face-melting heat, you could climb to the upper levels. If you preferred something gentler, the lower benches offered a much softer experience. What I loved most was that everyone could create their own sauna experience within the same room. And all of this overlooked a frozen bay in the middle of winter.
Bringing a little piece of Scandinavia home
When we eventually began building Navia, we weren't trying to recreate Scandinavia. That would be impossible.
The bathhouses we visited influenced countless decisions along the way. The way people moved between heat and cold. The role community played within the space. The balance between simplicity and functionality. The feeling of being welcomed whether you arrived with a group of friends or entirely on your own.
Some influences are obvious, like our traditional Finnish sauna and contrast bathing experience. Others are less visible, woven into the way the space operates and the culture we're trying to build around it.
Every sauna, bathhouse and winter bathing club we visited left an impression on us. We took notes, asked questions, paid attention to the little details and came home with a much clearer idea of what we wanted Navia to become. We wanted to create something uniquely our own, inspired by the places that first made us fall in love with bathhouse culture.
Wellness is better when it's shared
In a world that seems to get busier every year, there's something refreshing about having nowhere to be, nothing to achieve, and no reason to rush. Just heat, cold water, good company, and time set aside for yourself.
And if you've visited Navia already, hopefully you've felt a little piece of that too.
