By the s, bathhouses around New York had been taken up by the gay community as sex clubs and spaces for entertainment (Bette Midler and Barry Manilow both performed at the Continental. Everything about me is self-made, hard-won: this hairy stomach, these chest muscles, this carefully trimmed beard—all of it a mosaic that makes my reflection strange but not dissonant, all of it my ticket into this grimy, foul-smelling, sexed-up space. Essentialist for sure—and a gay bathhouse in many ways is probably not the male bonding he intended to describe, but what could be more homosocial and primal, more of a testing ground, than this? The locker rooms are a silent, filthy dickbonanza—a cornucopia of penises I try not to notice but find startling.
The Russian & Turkish Baths, located at East 10th Street in Manhattan's East Village, have been a staple of New York City's wellness scene since This historic bathhouse offers a variety of traditional services, including multiple saunas, steam rooms, and an ice-cold plunge pool. Gay hookup apps have led to the decline of the bathhouse across America. The good news is that New York City still has one exclusively gay sauna, one mixed one, and two cruise clubs. The almost year-old sauna is in Midtown.
THE RUSSIAN & TURKISH BATHS IS OPEN. Thank you. EAST 10TH ST. "Little Ukraine". Discovering a gay bathhouse in New York City can feel like navigating a maze, especially when you realize the options seem surprisingly sparse in such a bustling metropolis. This is a common puzzle many gay travellers find themselves trying to solve when they visit NYC. In this city, the gay sauna culture diverges significantly from what one might find in European capitals like Barcelona, Rome, or Milan.
The Russian & Turkish Baths is a well-known LGBTQ+ sauna located in the East Village of Manhattan. It offers traditional Russian and Turkish bath experiences, including saunas, steam rooms, plunge pools, and various spa treatments. There is one in Manhattan, but one that has a very good reputation just opened a 'Men's Only' club where you get full treatment of massage, spring waters, and a Russian sauna flogging with herbal branches. Hot tubs, then you jump into ice cold water [40 degrees]. I've had this done twice now, once in Russia and more recently in Budapest.