The West Side Club is another two-star facility located near one of the most iconic gay areas in New York, Chelsea. This is a membership gay sauna, however, so one-off visits can be on the more expensive side. Expect a steam room alongside a traditional style sauna and private cabins. If you're looking for an original style New York gay sauna, however, we recommend hitting up The East Side Club. This two-star rated gay sauna NYC provides all the amenities of a standard bathhouse and draws a more mature crowd. As a result, the gay cruising NYC scene does not rival that of Europe, and most of New York’s best cruising opportunities do not transpire in gay saunas, but rather in sex bars and warehouse parties.
While the gay sauna scene was once renowned in New York, it had a difficult time recovering following the mass closure. Bathhouses in gay New York City were permanently shut down in 1985.
