Luna Hut Saunas - The story so far
Founders Laura Brown & Mike Lord
How a love for creating community, connection and contrast therapy inspired Luna Hut’s 5 Sussex saunas.
Words SHELLEY WELTI
Photography CLAIRE WADDELL
Hello fellow sauna-lovers, and welcome to our first post on our new journal; an online space to bring together stories from our sauna community, share the health benefits of sauna sessions, and take you behind the stoves (metaphorically speaking) to hear what we’re up to. We hope you enjoy these updates - and if there’s any topics you’d love to see us cover, please do drop us a line!
Our first entry is inspired by a question we get asked often (and love to answer!): ‘Why did you open Luna Hut?’.
We have always been into understanding the importance of doing ‘small things’ as a ritual to take care of our bodies and minds, and as yoga enthusiasts and trained instructors, the story starts with us opening Luna Wave as a pop-up yoga studio, alongside other wellness-focused businesses at Brighton’s Sea Lanes back in 2020.
Luna Wave began life as a simple geometric dome, with sea views and a sprawling outside area, giving plenty of space to practise yoga in nature. We loved how immersed you could be in the ever-changing surroundings during practice, after-all, during one day of British summertime, we can easily experience atmospheric dark rain clouds rolling in and then epic sunsets, just hours later.
Our first wild sauna experience
Seeking out more connection with nature (this was following Covid lockdowns after all, and craving space and nervous system regulation!), we visited a yoga teacher friend, who had been part of our Luna Wave pop-up at a retreat in Cork. They were collaborating with Wild Wellness Sauna; a Finnish style sauna, located right on a blustery, wild Irish beach. It was there, our sauna journey began.
Stepping from the wood-fired heat straight into the Atlantic was transformative, we felt grounded, energised, and deeply connected to nature. Amusingly, Mike had even gone in feeling a little grumpy, so the contrast of coming out feeling completely reset made it even more meaningful. The simplicity of it spoke volumes: natural wood, a glowing stove, sea air, and a sense of community,
The ritual of sauna
Over the following months, Mike then had the opportunity to further explore European sauna culture, when working on tour with The Cure, including in Finland and neighbouring Scandinavian countries. And after experiencing how ‘everyday’ using a sauna was; a practice that was focused on ritual, connection, community and slowing down, we decided to create a space for people to reconnect with nature, with others and with themselves.
Luna Wilds - an off-grid ‘wild spa’, sauna, and retreat space in the idyllic South Downs was born.
Image - Daria Szotek
We quickly saw how the wild sauna became the centrepiece, with people gravitating towards it for hot/cold therapy. We loved how guests seemingly transformed compared to their arrival - leaving feeling lighter, relaxed and revived; just like we had felt back at the Cork sauna. Many people became regulars to the sauna, a calming ritual within their busy schedules.
After three years, we made the difficult decision to close the site (although it’s now The Wild Space, with yoga teacher Sam Roy and Tom Butcher doing a great job at the helm!), to focus on growing our yoga and sauna communities.
Luna Hut Sea Lanes
Once our Luna Wave yoga studio had a more permanent home - and with a growing sauna community and a clear vision forming - it felt like a natural fit to open our Brighton beach sauna.
We opened within 3 months of the build starting, with thanks to Patrick Ayton and our talented team for all of their hard work. As you can imagine, building a sauna ready for Brighton beach in just a few months (and Mike being on tour with The Cure in South America during this time too!), it wasn’t without its challenges!
The Luna Hut Sea Lanes sauna welcomed its first guests in December 2023. It was fantastic seeing people enjoying movement, the heat, the cold and the sea in one place, and easy wellness rituals forming.
Pop-up Sussex saunas
2024 saw us experimenting with pop-up saunas and locations - with Mike towing saunas all across Sussex. We learnt so much from each location and the people who visited us, and it became invaluable to help shape and refine Luna Hut’s Sussex saunas. We think about these wild and wonderful days often and with such fondness
Luna Hut Eastbourne
After seeing the overwhelming appetite for our pop-up saunas and having people visit the Sea Lanes sauna site regularly from surrounding seaside towns, we jumped at the chance to open our first year-round sauna, Luna Hut Eastbourne, in August 2024.
Our Eastbourne sauna can be found on the town’s beautiful Victorian seafront, near the iconic Wish Tower, offering a front-row view of the sea. There’s cold plunge pools, a cold shower - or of course, the English Channel to cool off in. There’s also beach huts for changing, and a chill out area on the beach to continue enjoying that post-sauna high.
With everything we do, there’s always always a sense of natural nervousness, but the lovely community were so welcoming and within just a few weeks, our sauna became a hub - a place for people to relax, connect and enjoy a sauna right next to Eastbourne’s beach.
Luna Hut Worthing
In late 2024, we headed further west to wonderful Worthing! Set back from Worthing beach, yet still enjoying sea views, Luna Hut Worthing sauna offers a tranquil escape, whilst still being just a stone’s throw from the town’s beachfront cafés and restaurants (we love a trip to Coast, Perch on the Parade, The Crabshack and Flour Pot, to name just a few eateries within a few minutes walk!) . We installed our first ice cold chiller tubs and for those wanting to up the ante with their cold water exposure, there’s also an invigorating bucket shower.
Being an enclosed space allowed us to create a more refined version of our wild spa (Luna Wilds) - complete with decked area and calming planting, to enhance that post-sauna relaxation and social feel.
Luna Hut Brighton Café
We were so excited to open the first sauna café in Brighton in May 2025 (even if it was during an unexpected heatwave!). We wanted to create a hidden garden retreat which was still very accessible via foot and public transport, but tucked away from the hustle and bustle. The space is designed for nourishing rest, complete with two saunas, cold plunges, and quiet corners to unwind, connect, or simply do nothing at all.
The Luna Hut Brighton sauna café serves up nutritious bites and guilt-free indulgent treats, alongside coffee from non-profit specialty coffee roasters, Skylark Coffee. In just a year, it’s grown to one of our busiest sites, and we love seeing the community use the space - popping in for a sauna session, meeting a friend for a cuppa, relaxing with a good book, or simply whiling away an hour or two on a solo self-care date.
Luna Hut Bognor
Our Bognor Regis beach sauna opened on the promenade in October 2025. It’s a relaxing spot to soak up the seaside town’s picturesque beachfront and easily access the sea for a refreshing plunge. For those that don’t fancy a dip, an alfresco shower is on-hand to give that all-important contrast therapy. We’ve enjoyed seeing the Bognor sauna community grow over the last few months, and love how regulars have become friends.
Finding balance
For us, hosting and enjoying sauna sessions has taught us the importance of slowing down and adopting a more deliberate pace. The gentle hiss of steam, the warmth relaxing muscles, the endorphins of a cold dip or plunge, witnessing nature unfold around you, and gentle conversation with others always brings us back to ourselves. The to-do lists can wait, the mind chatter quietens and we can just be, right there in that moment,
Luna Hut saunas are not only a business venture, but a path to a more balanced and mindful way of life - and it brings us such joy to share this with our sauna communities across Sussex, in the hope that others can gain the mental and physical benefits from it as much as we have.
We now have a fantastic team of over 40 members of staff, helping us to deliver our vision of creating spaces for community, connection, and restorative experiences. We are so thankful to everyone who has joined us on the ride so far! From visitors, members, friends and our brilliant team, thank you for helping us to grow and share the Luna Hut spirit!
Will there be more Luna Hut saunas?
As you can probably tell, we’re passionate about sauna as a restorative ritual, one that can easily fit into busy schedules and connects people with each other, the nature that surrounds them and also with themselves. We love that whether you’re in Brighton or sunny Bognor, Eastbourne or Worthing, there’s a Luna Hut sauna for you to visit, unwind and just take some dedicated time for yourself. It’s for this reason that our memberships aren’t site specific either, you can choose to use whichever sauna you would like to on that day.
We’re currently working on opening a new sauna in another Sussex seaside location, which we can’t wait to share news with you about - watch this space!
See you in the next journal post,
Mike & Laura
To find out more about our story, visit here.
