Saunas in Leeds: Where to Sweat, Plunge and Steam

The best saunas in Leeds

There are two clear options for a visitor. Songbird Sanctuary in Oakwood offers an outdoor electric Finnish sauna in a wellbeing garden, available for exclusive private hire only, with a capacity of six and two cold plunges nearby. Spirit Health Club Leeds sits inside the Crowne Plaza on Wellington Street and pairs its sauna with a steam room and a heated 15-metre pool.

That is a narrow field compared with the community sauna cities of the north and the growing network of public bathhouses across Britain. Leeds is a place to pick one venue deliberately rather than hop between saunas, and the community saunas in the UK give a sense of the wider public-bathhouse movement this city sits outside of.

Songbird Sanctuary, Oakwood

Songbird Sanctuary is a wellbeing garden spa at 9 Oakwood Mount in Oakwood, Leeds, and the sauna is the centre of the visit. The cabin is electric, outdoor and built for six, tucked under cherry trees beside two cold plunges and surrounded by planting. The venue supplies cucumber water and cups, and the sauna water is infused with seasonal garden herbs such as rosemary, thyme and eucalyptus.

Because the site is hired exclusively, you are not sharing the changing room, shower or relaxation area with strangers. That suits a small group of friends, a couple or a family group who want the whole space; it is less ideal if you simply want to drop in alone for a quick round on a whim.

How a Songbird session works

The booking rule catches people out: Songbird is private hire only, so there is no walk-in sauna. A standard session runs 75 minutes, which is long enough for several rounds between the hot cabin and the two cold plunges without feeling rushed. Fresh cucumber water is provided, so you do not need to carry a bottle for the session, though a towel and swimwear are your own business.

Facilities are warm and shared rather than spacious: one warm shared changing room, a cold outdoor shower and a relaxation area. The outdoor shower and cold plunges mean a short, cool walk across the garden, which is part of the appeal on a bright day and bracing in winter. The listing gives Friday hours of 9am to 9pm and Sunday hours of 9.30am to 8pm, so weekend sessions are the practical option for most visitors.

Songbird Sanctuary prices and booking

Songbird Sanctuary lists a price from £20 per person for a standard session, with booking made in advance because of the private-hire model. For a small group, that places an outdoor sweat-and-plunge session in roughly the same bracket as a day pass at a city gym, but with the whole space to yourselves and a garden instead of a pool hall.

The restricted opening pattern is the main trade-off. With sessions listed for Fridays and Sundays only, a midweek trip to Leeds will not include this sauna, and popular weekend slots are the ones to arrange first when you plan a group outing. Book through the venue's own site once your date is fixed.

Spirit Health Club Leeds, Crowne Plaza

Spirit Health Club Leeds is the indoor option, based in the Crowne Plaza on Wellington Street in the city centre. The sauna sits alongside a steam room and a heated 15-metre swimming pool, so a visit combines lengths with a hot round and a steam. The club is a fitness facility first, with an air-conditioned gym and a busy member community, rather than a dedicated bathhouse.

Non-members can get in: the club offers day passes at £20 per adult and £10 per child, alongside monthly memberships from £40. There is a £25 joining fee if you sign up, and members park free for up to three hours.

How a Spirit session works

The sauna here is a post-swim facility rather than the main event, so expect a normal leisure-club rhythm: change, swim, steam, sauna, shower. The pool closes earlier than the gym, with last entry an hour before closing, which matters if you are squeezing in an evening session. Day passes make it accessible to visitors, and hotel guests can use the gym and pool during their stay.

Children are restricted. Under-16s must be supervised by an adult at all times and cannot use the sauna or steam room, and children's swim times run from 8am to 6pm daily. If your group includes teenagers, only those 16 and over can join you in the heat.

Comparing the two

Choose Songbird Sanctuary if the sauna is the point of the trip: you want an outdoor cabin, a garden, two cold plunges, herb-scented water and the privacy of exclusive hire. It costs from £20 a head, runs for 75 minutes and only operates on Fridays and Sundays, so it rewards planning.

Choose Spirit Health Club if you want convenience and a swim in the same visit, or if you are in Leeds midweek. At £20 per adult for a day pass you get the pool, steam room and sauna in one building on Wellington Street. It is a leisure club experience, so expect members, lane swimming and the usual changing-room bustle rather than a quiet garden.

What to bring

Bring a towel, swimwear and a water bottle wherever you go. At Songbird, the changing room is shared and the shower is outdoors, so a second towel and warm layers for the walk between cabin and plunge make a real difference; cucumber water is already there. At Spirit, a padlock for a locker and flip-flops are the usual leisure-centre kit.

Both venues ask for standard sauna manners: sit on a towel, keep the door closed, and give others space. One plain safety line covers the rest: stay hydrated, skip alcohol before bathing, leave the heat if you feel unwell, and ask a doctor first if you have a heart condition or are pregnant.

Getting there

Songbird Sanctuary is at 9 Oakwood Mount, Oakwood, Leeds LS8 2JG, north-east of the city centre and served by local buses from the centre; plan the journey on the city's bus operator routes. Spirit Health Club is at the Crowne Plaza, Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL, a short walk from the railway station and the city-centre bus corridors, which makes it the easier option without a car.

Parking is straightforward at Spirit: members park free for up to three hours. At Songbird, the garden setting means you should sort travel before booking a slot, since a 75-minute session plus changing time sets your window.

Can You Bring a Dog to Either Sauna?

The published sections cover what to wear, how to travel between sites and what a session involves, but they leave one practical question open for anyone travelling with a four-legged companion. The Songbird Sanctuary listing describes the venue in Oakwood as a wellbeing garden spa, with the Finnish sauna for 6 nestled under the cherry trees and positioned alongside 2 cold plunges surrounded by plants. The setting is outdoors and garden-based, and the listing emphasises that the space is available for exclusive private hire only, with sessions that last about 75 minutes and are priced cheaply by regional standards per person.

The same gap applies to the details a dog owner would most want to know: whether a dog could wait in the shared changing room, the relaxation area or the garden while its owner sweats, and whether the outdoor shower and cold plunge zones are open to animals. The listing mentions parking as one of the amenities, which matters for anyone arriving by car, but it gives no guidance about pets on the premises or about the private-hire terms that might cover them. Because bookings there are exclusive private hire, the arrangement of a visit is agreed for the group rather than shared with strangers, yet nothing in the source confirms how a dog would fit into that arrangement.

Spirit Health Club Leeds presents a different picture on paper, because it is part of a larger fitness and hotel operation rather than a standalone garden. The club pairs an air-conditioned gym with a 15 metre swimming pool, steam rooms and sauna, and members also get 25% off food and drinks in TAP Bar & Restaurant at the Crowne Plaza Leeds. Membership options run from an Off Peak Monthly Membership at £40 per month on a 6-month contract, through Peak Monthly Membership at £47 per month, to a rolling Peak Monthly Membership at £55 per month with one month's notice to cancel. A Joint Peak Monthly Membership is £84 per month.

Despite all that detail about facilities, contracts and restaurant discounts, the source says nothing about dogs at the club, in the pool area, in the spa and sauna, or anywhere else on the Crowne Plaza site. For a dog owner weighing the two, the useful conclusion is simply that neither listing supplies an answer: the Songbird material is silent on pets, and the Spirit material is equally silent. Neither source can be read as permission or as a ban. Anyone planning a visit with a dog therefore has only the published facts to work from, and those facts cover capacity, prices, duration and amenities but not animals.

Plan Your Visit

Leeds rewards a clear decision rather than a sauna crawl. Book Songbird Sanctuary for a private outdoor session with cold plunges and herb-infused water in Oakwood, or take a day pass at Spirit Health Club for a city-centre swim, steam and sauna on Wellington Street. Either way, keep the session short, cool down properly and drink water.