The Secrets of Finnish Sauna Design: Liikkanen, Lassi A., Smith, Gavan, Muecke Ph.D., Mikesch: 9781683150268: Amazon.com: Books

Well depends on where you live but we found the trip from hot tub to house in the winter in Calgary was not wonderful so next time we would do closer to the house . I love saunas but often they are like jetted tubs great until the novelty wears off . So good planning is a must.

Good resources:

1. Trumpkin's Notes
2. Saunologia.fi
3. 'Secrets of Finnish Sauna Design'

As @Patricia Colwell Consulting mentioned, many saunas are great until the novelty wears off. Getting a few critical details right is the difference in the novelty wearing off vs something you'll crave every week for the rest of your life.

• The foot bench should always be above the stones and cold zone.
• Ventilation.
• Not too small. 8'x8'x8.5' is best
• Include a changing room
• Include showers and options for cooling down.

After we built ours we were able to raise the benches which helped a lot. We also added 'mechanical downdraft' ventilation which was a huge improvement. Next time (yes, we're already planning an upgrade) we'll do a larger sauna.