These NYC Spas Are All About Group Wellness, With Sauna Events and Communal Sound Baths

A spa won’t be the first place you’d go when hoping to meet folks. And but, New Yorkers are doing simply that. Communal bathhouses are usually not unusual within the metropolis—the Russian & Turkish Baths, in the East Village, is sort of 135 years previous. However previously few years, wellness areas that expressly encourage group experiences and dialog have opened their doorways.

“When folks breathe collectively, chilly plunge collectively, and transfer by way of discomfort collectively, one thing shifts,” says Amanda Laine, cofounder of Othership, a spa that first opened in Toronto in 2022 and now has areas within the Flatiron and Williamsburg neighborhoods of New York. Othership hosts “sauna events,” which embrace breath work, reside music, and dancing, for as much as 90 folks.

A related idea is on the coronary heart of Bathhouse Flatiron, which hosts Aufguss ceremonies—for these German rituals, a “sauna grasp” rhythmically waves a towel to flow into warmth and important oils, all to an digital playlist. The fashionable area, with six swimming pools, three saunas, a steam room, and café, attracts a scene, particularly on a Friday evening.

In the meantime, at Sage + Sound, on the Higher East Facet, the main focus is on meditation and sound baths; there are additionally workshops on tarot, Reiki, astrology, and different non secular practices. “New York is intense and overstimulating,” says cofounder Lacey Tisch. “Folks crave someplace to recharge, decelerate, and join with others exterior of labor or house.”

Then there’s the extra intimate elahni in NoMad—dubbed the primary “wellness speakeasy” within the metropolis—which provides small-group, guided distinction bathing periods. After, visitors sip nonalcoholic stress-relieving tonics collectively, with elements like ashwagandha, on the adjoining bar. 

The most recent to the scene is, sarcastically, not new: The Nicely, which suffered from a flood on the finish of 2024, was one in every of Manhattan’s first communal wellness areas. It reopened this fall with reimagined studios and a thermal hall of saunas and plunges, plus the return of its health courses, discussions, and workshops with visiting specialists in subjects like menopause and longevity. 

A model of this story first appeared within the November 2025 problem of Journey + Leisure underneath the headline “All Collectively Now.”