Welcome to the ultimate portable sauna experience.
This article first appeared in Traverse Northern Michigan. Find this story and more when you explore our magazine library. Want Traverse delivered to your door or inbox monthly? View our print subscription and digital subscription options.
Imagine 180 degrees in your own private sauna. Not in a building. Not in a gym. Not in a spa. No, it’s on sand with the cool relief of Lake Michigan lapping just a few steps outside your door. Welcome to Sleeping Bear Saunas—the portable tent saunas you rent, erect and fire on your own—anywhere you’d like.
Vlad Borza started his business a few years ago and his customers are renting two-, six- or eight-person tents for use in their backyards, beaches, family events and day trips.
“Saunas are a growing movement,” Borza says. “For a long time, it was mostly the diehards using them, but people are starting to see the benefits of using a sauna. These tents are an affordable and different way to get into them.”
The tents have no issue getting hot—even in winter you can stoke the woodstove to 200 to 240 degrees. They take about 15 minutes to set up, and Borza recommends planning for about three hours to get a full experience.
“You can take it at your own pace with no pressure; build the fire as hot or mellow as you’d like and take rounds going outside to enjoy the surroundings before warming up again.”
Which, of course, means a cold plunge if you’re set up on a beach!
“You can work up your courage and, after two or three rounds inside, you’ll have enough to go jump in the lake!” he says with a laugh.
One of Borza’s favorite things to do is to set up the tents at night, when you can see the stars and build a beach bonfire nearby, too. (If you choose a public beach, don’t leave the tent up overnight.)
“For me, there is a deep comfort to [saunas] that is hard to explain until you experience it,” Borza says “Once you do, you want it to be a part of your life. It’s a way to give yourself a chance to relax, zone out, look out over Lake Michigan. You disconnect in one way and connect in a new way.”
The rentals come with everything you need. Tent, wood stove, benches and wood for the session. Borza does not have a retail shop, but instead renters access the goods from a storage unit in Traverse City. The tent kits can fit into the back of a standard vehicle. He is also working with a local surf shop in Empire to have saunas available for rental along the Lake Michigan coast.
Borza, originally from Romania, moved to Canada with his family as a child, then across the border from Windsor to Detroit to study biology. He found himself as a young boy growing up in a subdivision surrounded by an industrialized city and sought out the woods whenever he could. His first career was as an ecology teacher for middle and high schoolers, and he loved bringing his classes north to Sleeping Bear Dunes on field trips.
But he left education five years ago when he stumbled across an island caretaker position by chance, where he’s worked and lived for five years now. He considers Traverse City his home base and comes back to “land” often.
“This was always the dream—Lake Michigan—the connection has always felt so right for me,” he says. “Living up here is everything I could have ever dreamed of.”
But, of course, there is (at least) one more dream still on the horizon. Borza is building a floating sauna, hopefully coming this summer. Imagine a pontoon boat decked out with a sauna, and get excited.
Mark Your Calendar: The first annual Michigan Sauna Fest is coming to Clinch Park in Traverse City Feb. 28–March 2. “We are going to bring in commercial saunas from around the state and let the public experience the culture,” Borza says. You’ll be able to learn about breathwork and try a variety of saunas. michigansaunafest.com
