Guest post series continues. Please welcome Jackie to SaunaTimes, who is planning a Finland sauna tour. I’ve known Jackie for several years. She is an early adopter to the mobile sauna revolution here in the US. Jackie is kind hearted, deep souled, and like you, a lover of sauna. She is dedicated towards bringing quality, authentic sauna action to her community in Maine. Here she is!
Welcome Jackie Stratton
Hi! My name is Jackie Stratton. Ten years ago I moved to Maine and most people I knew were living in cabins with no running water. Four of us couples converted a woodshed into a sauna, fired it up every Sunday for three years, took our weekly baths, rolled in the snow then potlucked. We finally stopped the weekly tradition when enough of the couples had broken up and life got too shook up.
Now, I run Cedar Grove Sauna in a tiny town in Maine. In 2020, I learned how to be a carpenter and built a public sauna on our 200-year old rural farm. In late 2021 I completed my horse trailer mobile sauna conversion. The mobile sauna goes to a different spot on the Atlantic ocean each week, giving guests an opportunity to swim in salt water year-round. Even in a Maine winter!
Emphasizing nature, community, wellness, and body positivity, local Mainers have been enjoying adding thermic bathing to their winter wellness routine here at the farm sauna or on the ocean in the mobile sauna. People love it so much that I’m building another sauna at the farm this summer.
I’ve had real live Finnish people enjoy my sauna and tell me it felt like an authentic countryside or lakehouse sauna. But aside from reading every book I could find on sauna, watching one too many so-so youtube videos, and asking too many questions whenever I meet a Finnish person, do I, Jackie Stratton, self-identifying saunapreneur, even know what a traditional Finnish sauna is like?
The US road trip
I just finished a US road trip in which I toured hot springs, public bath houses and saunas. During this trip, I learned a lot and got schooled in Russian banya by a group of Ukranian women.
But I want to go to the source! I want to go to Finland! And I want to go with you!
And how about a Finland sauna tour?
I’m interested in joining together those in the SaunaTimes sphere who work or live within sauna culture. Those who also want to travel to Finland and immerse themselves in sauna, travel, meet like-minded folks, attend workshops.
If you’re interested in learning more, please take a couple minutes and provide some feedback on this form. I’d appreciate it if you shared this post with those in your sauna orbit!
If you have no interest in going but have great ideas about where to go (or not go!), send me an email at cedargrovesauna@gmail.com
2 thoughts on “Who wants to join Jackie on a Finland sauna tour?”
I have become somewhat obsessed with saunas since enjoying yours this spring. If the timing makes it possible, I would love to travel to Finland with you on a sauna tour. Please keep me posted about the possibilities!
I’m in! I’d love to experience, learn, source, and relax. I’ve been to Finland twice, as a child and a teen. It’s my dream and my plan to return soon!