Only in Finland: Ferris Wheel in Helsinki Gets a Sauna

"We have been musing for a long time on how to the name the unique experience. We wanted a name that best describes having a hot steam bath at a very specific location while enjoying the beautiful scenery at the same time," SkyWheel executives Jaron Duivestein and Heikki Häyhä told the news outlet Rakennuslehti.

​"Many of the Finns who came were asking for a sauna," Heikki Häyhä told the Telegraph. "They said ‘why don't you have sauna cabins?'"

Having a steam delight in the sky will not come cheap, however, as the company plans to charge up to 240 euros, with temperatures reaching 90C during a two-and-half-minute round journey. The organizers expect the overwhelming majority of customers to be local Finns, with the demand high: the sauna cabin is booked for months in advance.

The Finns are notorious sauna-fiends: the country is home to five million inhabitants and there are over three million saunas in Finland, yielding an average of one sauna per household. In Finland, the sauna is not a luxury, but a necessity, as well as a place for physical and mental relaxation as well. Saunas are an integral part of the Finnish way of life. They are found on the shores of Finland's numerous lakes, in private apartments, corporate headquarters, and even at the House of Parliament. There is an unwritten code of conduct for the sauna and before the rise of public health care, almost all Finnish mothers used to give birth in saunas.