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James

Site owner at Canadianomad

I sold everything 8 years ago to play professional sports & explore the world. After living in 7 countries, I made this to share everything. 100% authentic and strange!

Latest posts by James (see all)

• Review: Bast Sauna – Did the Swedes make a good portable sauna? - April 11, 2025
• Icebreaker vs Smartwool vs Arc’Teryx vs Devold vs Decathlon vs… – Ultimate Merino comparison - March 27, 2025
• Rab Muon 50 review – Excellent and awful! - March 19, 2025

I have very high sauna standards – I have been to a sauna festival (yes that’s a thing), worked, maintained, and used a very high-end one in Sweden, and often stay inside for hours at a time while nonstop adding water. I expect lots from the Bast sauna.

Obviously I needed one in my life, but also craved to have one I could take to the beach, to the forest, to the mountains, etc so I could warm up after spearfishing, paragliding, or skiing, and of course, toast up in my own space without having to join a crowded sauna full of awkward randoms.

So, my search led me to Bast – a Swedish company started by a few guys from Lapland who are evidently sauna fanatics.

No more preamble, here’s my review of the Bast sauna.

Mine is the Björk model, the bigger brother to the Näver, but I will compare them since they are only different by the tent size.

Note: The Bast coupon code: NOMAD85 will save $85 on checkout

Performance & comfort

What point is a portable and easy to use sauna if it doesn’t actually heat up all that well?

The stove is the powerhouse of any sauna, and a good one is crucial.

And, well, this one heats up very well! That and the tent does a very good job at retaining heat and preventing a draft with the double-skirts along the bottom of the tent. There are 2 ventilation slots and of course a chimney allowing you to fine-tune the amount of air coming into to feed the fire or cool down the system.

I’m not a guy who obsesses over exact heat, humidity, and all the others metrics but one: Does it make me sweat like a slippery pig in the Sahara? The answer is most definitely!

As with any sauna you need to give it some time to warm up, and after 20 minutes I’d say it’s ready to use, though a good 30-45 minute heat-soak to let those stones get up to speed is much better. Just add water and enjoy!

In terms of comfort, I opted for the larger Björk model as it’s significantly larger inside – so much so that I can lay down flat in it being 190cm tall – the Näver could technically also allow lay me down flat, but it would complicate the entire layout inside and it’d be too cumbersome.

On the webpages it says they fit 4-6 and 8-10 people, which in theory they certainly could if you & your friends don’t mind bumping shoulders and being skin-to-skin at peak capacity, however I find in practice the smaller tent to be best suited to 2-4 people, and the larger one 4-8 – you can even lay down 3 people flat in the big one with the right benches!

If you’re on the fence and a person who likes to lay down in the sauna (who doesn’t..?), and especially if you’re tall, then the Björk is absolutely the one to get!

Portability & specs

It’s not tiny, but not enormous. The main tent itself is the biggest bulk – weighs aprox. 20kg and is around 1.8m long. The Björk is too big to fit in a small car like a Fiat Punto, but a hatchback/SUV/wagon/truck can certainly transport it. The Näver will fit in pretty much any car.

The Näver model will of course be easier to bring around as it weighs a few kilos less and quite a bit shorter when folded down. Personally, I think the extra room inside the Björk is well worth the small portability penalty.

That’s about 81% more floor space, and the internal height will feel larger in the Björk as well.

The stove is also aprox. 20kg, and the stones another 20kg. Small accessories like the bucket and whatever benches you bring will of course add more weight to the mix so I would say it’s about 70kg in total. Certainly not nothing, but considering the fact you’re moving around an actual sauna, it’s pretty good.

You could get away with only bringing half the stones to cut down on weight as well, but please don’t use random rocks because water trapped inside random stones could expand and cause stones to violently explode – like a hand grenade! Example here!

Build quality/materials

Saunas go under lots of wear and tear – extremely high temperatures paired with high humidity causes a lot of stress onto any system. Add into the factor minerals in the water, salt content in the air (I live by the beach) – it’s imperative that things are well built, and most importantly – not hazardous to health.

Evidently, I don’t have means to measure microparticles in the air, so trust is something I need to go off of. And I trust the Swedes more than almost anyone (except the Finns) when it comes to sauna safety.

The tent is a durable 3-layer, 300D thick, cotton insulated, Oxford fabric with TPU windows – important that the windows are TPU and not a different plastic like PVC as melting/off-gassing from the high temperatures can be extremely toxic.

Likewise with the stove – now, a ~2-hr burn-off is required before first use to help rid any lingering manufacturing oils/contaminants, which was certainly needed since the smell was notable on that burn off.

The body is clearly of steel and a good balance between lightweight and hardy. I can’t say much for long term durability yet as I’ve only just received and used it, so I’ll have to update that. However, I did notice some warping of the heat shields quite quickly and the black coating on the stove and bolts quickly scratches off.

These are evidently only cosmetic disturbances, but I do wonder if rusting may occur from these scratches, or if the coating is simply visual. I’ll have to update in due time.

Overall the build quality and materials is a good balance between durability, longevity, and most importantly – safety.

Ease of use

Can a single person carry it and set it up?

And the answer is yes – mostly!

The stove and tent have their own carrying bags, and the rest of the accessories will need a bag of sorts.

For reference, I’m 190cm, 85kg, and athletic, so carrying all the gear in a few trips isn’t really so hard for me. Setting up the tent is certainly do-able for someone my size, though I have a feeling a smaller person may have a tough time setting it up alone.

Regardless, I was able to set it up within a few minutes of unpacking and then able to use it after approx. 20 minutes of heating before use.

It did require a bit of time to setup the stove as it comes partially assembled – that took about an hour of time. Now with the whole kit in front of me I can put it together in about 5 minutes all by myself. Pretty ideal!

Overall in terms of ease of use it’s quite simple for an individual person, though I’d definitely say it’s better off as a 2-person job to move and setup the gear.

Overall

It’s not what anyone would consider cheap, ranging between 1,859-2,739 eur for the Näver models, and 2,119-3,149 eur for the Björk. That again – saunas are pretty expensive in the first place.

My philosophy has always been this: You get what you pay for.

And in this case I believe it’s true. You certainly can buy cheaper models from Amazon or scrape together a similar kit from budget manufacturers online and save some cash, but at best you’ll save a few hundred dollars, and at worst you’ll expose yourself (and others) to dangerous fumes and toxic offgassing.

To me it’s a no-brainer to opt for the larger model for 81% more internal space.

So for me it’s a good investment – some portable sauna tents in the market are cheaper, some are more expensive. I think the Bast saunas hit a good middle ground by providing you an excellent experience which is well-rounded.

I will have to see how long term reliability is as I use and abuse this unit for myself, friends, and clients. If it can stand up to the stuff I subject my gear to, then it’s a gold star from me. So far though, quite good!

Of course, check out my Bast Sauna video review for more thoughts and opinions there.

Thanks for reading, and any questions please drop them below! Peace 🙂

Note: The Bast coupon code: NOMAD85 will save $85 on checkout