Cold Plunges and Saunas Are Becoming the New ‘Happy Hour’

The newest place to meet a friend after work may not serve cocktails. It may serve eucalyptus steam, a 46-degree plunge and an electrolyte mocktail.

Across U.S. cities, sauna-and-cold-plunge businesses are moving beyond the spa model. They are offering memberships, guided group sessions, breathwork, DJs, social bathing rituals and alcohol-free events designed to make heat-and-cold exposure feel less like a treatment and more like a night out.

That shift helps explain the appeal. A traditional happy hour offers a reliable script: show up, order something, talk for an hour and leave with the evening feeling slightly separated from the workday. Thermal clubs are borrowing that script while swapping intoxication for sensation. The shared ordeal of entering cold water gives strangers an instant subject of conversation, while the sauna provides a place to sit, sweat and linger.

Recent openings and event series show how quickly the format is becoming more social. New York’s Lore, a members-based thermal club, pairs a large dry sauna and cold plunge with communal spaces. In other cities, operators have added sauna parties, guided ice-bath classes and “soft clubbing” events. The result is a hybrid business: part wellness studio, part bathhouse, part alcohol-free lounge.

The important caveat is that the social trend is moving faster than the science.

A 2025 systematic review of cold-water immersion found 11 studies involving 3,177 people. The researchers reported possible effects on measures such as stress and well-being, but emphasized that the evidence base is constrained by small studies, relatively few randomized trials and limited diversity among participants. That is a long way from proving the more expansive claims often attached to plunging—stronger immunity, faster metabolism or a general cardiovascular upgrade.

Saunas have a different research history, and some evidence supports benefits associated with regular sauna use. But that should not automatically be transferred to the cold plunge beside it. “Contrast therapy” is a popular package, not a single established medical intervention. Alternating intense heat and cold changes the body’s circulation and cardiovascular workload; it is not simply relaxation with better branding.

The cold part can be especially jarring. Sudden immersion triggers the cold-shock response: breathing, heart rate and blood pressure can rise rapidly. The American Heart Association cautions that the effect can be dangerous, particularly for people with heart disease, and advises people with high blood pressure not to move back and forth between cold water and a sauna without medical guidance. It also warns that alcohol and sauna use are a poor combination—an awkward fact for any venue trying to recreate happy hour while keeping the bar-like atmosphere.

That does not make every plunge reckless. It does mean the setting can disguise the intensity. A cold bath surrounded by soft lighting, friends and a playlist may feel like leisure, but the body still experiences a sudden thermal stress. Beginners should follow the facility’s instructions, avoid breath-holding or competitive plunging, and leave immediately if they feel faint, confused, unusually short of breath or experience chest discomfort. People with heart conditions, uncontrolled blood pressure or other medical concerns should ask a clinician before trying it.

The business opportunity is clear: venues can sell recurring memberships and events to customers seeking connection, structure and a reason to leave the house that does not revolve around drinking. The cultural question is more interesting than whether ice baths are “good” or “bad.” It is why so many people want an evening ritual that makes them feel present, challenged and briefly unreachable.

For now, the safest way to understand the trend is as a social experience with possible wellness benefits—not as a proven shortcut to health. The sauna may be the new bar, but a cold plunge is still a physiological stress test, even when someone is handing you a complimentary mocktail afterward.