sauna on_wheelsIt is the ultimate luxury for the camper who has everything – a mobile SAUNA.

Carpenter Tony Goulden, 72, built the two-wheeled hot room to make his partner feel more at home following her move to Britain from Finland, the land of the sauna.

 

The plush pine wagon includes a wood burner to give up to six people a sweltering sauna and there is enough room for holidaymakers to sleep in the dream machine. It fits on the back of a car or caravan, making it the perfect accessory for glamorous campers – nicknamed ‘glampers’.

The barrel-shaped trailer, complete with a chimney and balcony, is now up for sale after the couple put it on the market - for a cool £3,800. Merja, who lives near Glastonbury, Somerset, said:

‘’Everybody who has been inside it has loved it - so it would make a great luxury for campers. ‘’In Finland you have saunas most days to clean your body and your mind. ‘’I loved my old sauna but when I moved house, I had to leave it behind. ‘’I tried to get one when I moved over here but I was told the best place to get one was back in Finland, so we ordered a wood burner from there and Tony built one instead.

“He put wheels on it so we could take it wherever we went but now we are moving house we have decided to sell it.’’ Merja, 48, who came to England in the 1980s, began to miss her daily sauna so she persuaded boyfriend Tony to build one four years ago. The project took him about two months to complete and cost £3,500 after they imported a wood stove from Finland.

Tony said: ‘’All we had to import from Finland was the wood-fired stove, which cost us about 600 euros including transportation costs. ‘’I built the trailer and then built the sauna on top of it. The trailer can be removed if a permanent site is available. ‘’The sauna is double-skinned and fully insulated. It uses scrap wood from skips but will also burn logs up to 16 inches long.

‘’It heats up so quickly and you get the best steam. In 20 minutes it’s ready.” The couple spent a lot of time in the sauna after it was built, mainly moving it around the large garden of their country home.

Now they have put the ingenious invention up for sale after Tony began to build a permanent sauna, without wheels, in the garden of their new home. Tony said: ‘’you can sleep in it on a double air mattress, and cook on the stove.” Saunas have played an important part in Finnish life for more than 2,000 years. In fact, there are estimated to be more than two million saunas in Finland, a country of about five million people.

 

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