Sky Spa & Sauna

1501 Busch Pkwy, Buffalo Grove, IL

Sky Spa & Sauna is a 16,000-square-foot European bathhouse in Buffalo Grove, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, attached to the Sky Fitness club and run in the Russian banya tradition. The heat is serious: two custom gas-fired saunas each packed with eight tons of river rock, a dry room that climbs past 210°F and a wet room above 190°F where regulars whip themselves with oak and birch venik and douse with cold-water buckets. Around them sit an aroma steam room, a big jacuzzi, an indoor pool for cooling off, two Himalayan salt caves and, the signature, an outdoor resort pool heated to 84°F and open all year, so you can float outside while it snows. A day pass is $62 (ten visits for $550) and includes a locker, three towels and the whole day; the spa opens at 3 p.m. on weekdays and noon on weekends and runs to 11 p.m. Swimwear and spa footwear are required everywhere outside the locker rooms, and robes, slippers, hats and venik are sold at the front desk if you forget yours. A full café and bar sits inside, massage, scrubs and MRT stretching are bookable extras, and a private suite with its own salt cave takes groups of up to 15 for three hours. Guests 12 and up are welcome (minors with an adult), and in summer younger kids can use the outdoor pool. It is the suburban counterpart to the city banyas: a co-ed, family-friendly, come-for-the-evening spa with a strong Eastern European regular crowd, and with over a thousand Google reviews it is one of the most visited sauna destinations in the Chicago area.