The first surprise is that it doesn’t feel hot enough. You climb into a wooden cabin, the panel says 55 degrees, and after four minutes you’re sitting there wondering whether the thing’s switched on. A traditional sauna hits you at the door. This one takes its time, and then somewhere around minute twelve you notice you’re wetter than you’ve ever been in your life.
That gap between what it looks like and what it does is the whole thing people get wrong about infrared saunas. What follows is what a session in Perth actually involves — the temperature, the towels, the awkward question of what to wear, and what it costs — so you can decide before paying for a three-pack.
The short version
Book one if you want forty minutes somewhere warm where nobody can reach you, and the idea of a 90-degree Finnish sauna makes you feel faint just reading it. Don’t book one if the appeal is the hit — the door-opening blast and the steam. That’s a traditional sauna, and it’s a different room with a different point.
Perth sessions run $25 to $70, with $50 about the middle. Bring a change of clothes.
Infrared and traditional are not the same room
A traditional sauna heats the air, and the air heats you. It runs at 80 to 100 degrees, the bench is hot to sit on, and the top step is a different experience from the bottom one.
An infrared cabin heats you directly and mostly leaves the air alone, which is why it sits at 45 to 60 degrees and still produces the sweat it does. The practical differences are the ones worth knowing: the air stays breathable, a conversation is possible, and you can read on a phone if you insist — and the session runs longer, usually 30 to 45 minutes against 10 or 15.
Which you prefer is temperament rather than tier — plenty of people find infrared underwhelming precisely because they can breathe. If you already know you like being properly cooked, book the traditional one and skip the rest of this — The Neighbourhood Sauna in Fremantle runs both, which makes it the cheapest way to find out which camp you’re in.
Red light is a different thing again
This one causes genuine confusion, and it’s worth clearing up before you book something that isn’t what you pictured. Plenty of Perth studios list “red light” and “infrared sauna” on the same menu, and they aren’t interchangeable.
An infrared sauna is a cabin you sit in and sweat. Red light therapy is usually a panel or a bed to stand or lie in front of, for ten minutes, with no sweating involved. Some cabins include red light panels, which is where the wires get crossed. If the difference matters, the session description will say which one it is — and if it doesn’t, that’s worth a phone call rather than a booking.
What forty minutes looks like
You get a room, not a shared bench. This is the part that most distinguishes an infrared session in Perth from the one at your gym: almost all of these are single or two-person cabins in a private room with its own shower, which means the whole social calculation of a public sauna simply doesn’t arise.
What to wear is therefore nobody’s business. Most people wear as little as they’re comfortable in, and the studio provides towels — one to sit on, one for afterwards. Take water in; you’ll drink it.
The first ten minutes are unconvincing, and the second ten change your mind. By the halfway mark you’ll be sweating in a way that feels faintly ridiculous, and the last stretch is the bit people book it for — past checking the clock, the room having stopped feeling like a machine. Then you shower, and you sit in the waiting area for a few minutes because standing up too quickly is how people learn they went a bit long.
The ice bath question
Eleven of the thirty Perth studios listing an infrared sauna also have a cold plunge on site, and the pairing is the fastest-growing way people are booking it — sauna, then the tub, sometimes two or three times through.
It’s worth being honest about what that’s like the first time. The sauna is pleasant. The plunge isn’t. Nobody eases into two degrees gracefully, everybody makes a noise they didn’t plan to make, and the first ten seconds are genuinely unpleasant in a way that no amount of reading about it prepares you for. People who love it will tell you the good part is what happens after you get out, which is true and also entirely unhelpful while you’re standing next to the tub.
If you want to try the pairing, book somewhere that has both rather than a sauna-only room — Zen Zone in Beldon and SURSKIN in West Leederville both run the two together.
What it costs in Perth
Across the studios publishing a price, a single session runs $25 to $70, and $50 is about the middle. The spread isn’t about the cabin — it’s about what the room is attached to.
- The recovery studio. Sauna and plunge as the main event, often with a gym attached. Cheapest per session and built for people coming weekly. Zen Zone at Beldon starts at $25.
- The wellness studio. A cabin alongside pilates, physio or massage, which is how a lot of Perth studios have added one. Usually $30 to $50, and easy to bolt onto something else you were booking anyway — Mindbody Lounge in Victoria Park is the shape of it.
- The day spa. The sauna is part of a longer treatment and priced accordingly. You’re paying for the robe, the tea and the ninety minutes, not the cabin.
Multi-packs are near-universal and worth asking about, because a three-pack usually lands close to the price of two singles. Where a studio publishes one, it’s on its listing.
Where we’d send a first-timer
Four rooms worth a first visit. Prices and suburbs come straight from the directory, so this says what they charge this week rather than what they charged when it was written.
If none of those are your side of the river, the rest by area:
The questions people ask first
How hot is an infrared sauna?
Between 45 and 60 degrees, against 80 to 100 for a traditional one. It heats you rather than the air, so the lower number doesn’t mean a milder session — it means you can breathe while you have it.
How long should a session be?
Perth studios book them in 30 or 45 minute slots, and most people new to it are ready to get out at around 25. Studios will tell you to start shorter than you think and build up, which is sensible whoever is saying it.
What do you wear?
Whatever you like, because the cabin is in a private room. Swimmers, gym gear or nothing are all normal. Towels come with the room almost everywhere in Perth, and there’s a shower in the room or next to it.
Can you hire one for home?
Yes, and it’s a separate industry from the studios above — a handful of Perth operators deliver portable cabins on weekly hire. Worth knowing that a rental search and a session search return completely different businesses, which is why the results look so confusing.
Is it better than a traditional sauna?
Neither is better: infrared is longer, cooler and private, where traditional is shorter, fiercer and usually shared. The one you’ll actually go back to is the one whose room you enjoyed sitting in, which isn’t a thing anyone can decide for you from a website.
Where to start
Oria Haven is a directory, not a health service. This describes what happens in the room, not what it will do for you — if you have a health concern, or you are pregnant or managing a heart condition, speak with your GP before booking heat or cold sessions.
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