VORU, Estonia -- Through the eye-stinging smoke I could barely see the outline of Eda Veeroja, a self-described sauna expert and my guide to the Estonian "smoke" sauna. As she gently ladled water over the scalding stones, she turned to me in all her glory and said, "So, are you ready for your bath and first beating?"

I tensed up for a second and then, flicking a bead of sweat from a brow, obediently lay face down on a dark wooden bench in the 103-year-old sauna, set near a bucolic stream in southeastern Estonia. Ms. Veeroja took a bundle of leafy birch branches and proceeded to strike me lightly with it -- first my legs, then my arms, then my back and backside. Even as she began to beat a little harder, what I felt wasn‘t pain, but a surprising warm glow that spread across my body.

While nearby Finland is known for being a land of sauna lovers, Estonia is truly sauna-obsessed. In the capital city of Tallinn‘s Old Town, there‘s a Sauna street and a medieval "Sauna Tower." Estonians talk wistfully of spending whole afternoons or weekends in saunas with family and friends, of sauna "parties" where anything goes, of trips to the countryside where sauna visits are central to the holiday experience.

What is it about these small rooms heated by rocks? Defying their icy, snowy winter climate, Estonians love to sweat. They theorize the sauna evolved as a sun substitute, providing the psychological benefits of intense heat during the long, dark months of the year -- though saunas here are enjoyed year-round. No one knows exactly where and when the sauna tradition began, but it may date back 700 years.

Estonians enjoy the familiar "Finnish" saunas, which involve a wood-fired stove (or electric heater) with some big stones on top to hold the heat; they are found everywhere from private homes to health clubs. There is also the Russian sauna, a cooler, steamier version that comes from neighboring Russia, which controlled Estonia for 50 years as part of the Soviet Union. But the centuries-old Estonian tradition is the smoke sauna, usually located on a farm or in a backyard, for use by family and friends. These aren‘t so easy to find -- you need the help of someone such as Ms. Veeroja. The couple whose sauna I was beaten in hasn‘t done anything major to try to boost tourism at all; they‘re content with whatever flows their way.

While Estonians take their sauna rituals seriously, they also know how to poke fun at their sauna passion. Some have built floating saunas or mobile saunas in buses, and one volunteer firefighting company even constructed a sauna in the back of an old firetruck.

Personal Journal went on a cross-country journey to experience what Estonian sauna culture has to offer. Here are the sweaty details.

Smoke Saunas
Those seeking a unique vacation experience will find a trip to an Estonian farm sauna a perfect blend of nature and sweaty stress-relief.

For 1,500 kroons ($112 or about €95), Ms. Veeroja, manager of the Hotel Tamula in Voru (population 15,000) in southeastern Estonia -- a 2½-hour drive from Tallinn -- will accompany you to Ene and Mart Viitkin‘s farm, about half an hour from town. There you can sauna all afternoon and eat a traditional Estonian meal in a museum full of clocks, lanterns and other artifacts dating back hundreds of years. The Viitkin family has been on the farm for six generations.

A motherly figure with a shock of red hair, Ms. Veeroja, who says she typically spends three to four hours on a Saturday in a smoke sauna with family and friends, instructed me in the sauna‘s history and rituals.

Early Estonians installed saunas in caves carved from the small hills that dot the southern part of the country. Later they built saunas of wood, which vented through the floor. They didn‘t ventilate well, of course; hence the name smoke sauna. (After a smoke sauna has been heated to operating temperature, the next step is to open the door and let out some smoke before entering, to prevent death by suffocation.) They are sooty inside. But Estonians couldn‘t get enough of the experience. Because they believed saunas disinfect the air, they performed medical procedures in them. Women gave birth in saunas. Superstitious Estonians believed they met the ghosts of their ancestors there. "All of life‘s circle went through the sauna," Ms. Veeroja says.

Farm saunas also are used to smoke meat, which can be a delicate business: Growing up, Ms. Veeroja remembers her father often rising in the middle of the night to make sure the sauna temperature hadn‘t changed.

My smoke sauna had been heated for two days before my arrival, to get the rocks up to temperature. Alder is the usual wood for the purpose, Ms. Veeroja says, though sometimes dried birch is used, as it burns hotter.

Before stepping in, Ms. Veeroja helped me pick juniper branches to swat my body with. Once inside, I found the juniper too sharp and painful and chose the softer birch instead. Birch is the tree most commonly used for these whisks. The leaves, generally picked in late summer, keep well (they‘re stored dry and last for months); when they‘re needed for beating, a short soak in water softens them up.

After shedding my clothes, I stepped in. A smoke sauna isn‘t something to do alone, at first. The heat can rise quickly and painfully, I found, and the smoke needs to be controlled. At first, my eyes stung from the intense smoke and I had to go out twice while Ms. Veeroja cooled down the stones. A mix of powerful smells filled my nostrils: 100-year-old wood, birch and juniper leaves and probably old smoked meat.

Later, after an icy dip in the nearby river, we rubbed raw honey over ourselves, and I washed my hair with water filled with residue from the leaves of the beating branch. I felt silky smooth, though I still smelled of smoke a day later, even after a shower or two.

Russian Saunas
While not as popular as Estonian smoke saunas, Russian saunas, or banya, dot the Estonian countryside. They are less smoky than the Estonian sauna -- they have a chimney -- and are cooler and steamier than either Finnish or Estonian saunas. While smoke saunas can be heated to more than 100 degrees Celsius, Russian saunas are heated to no more than 50 degrees. "I think women prefer Russian saunas because they aren‘t as hot, there is a lot of steam and it feels therapeutic," says Elina Kononenko, a Voru journalist who recently made her first visit to one at the home of her boyfriend‘s grandfather.

In the Russian sauna room hundreds of stones are placed atop a big firebox and then enclosed by a metal covering. In a smoke sauna, the stones are uncovered. The only downside to the cooler Russian sauna, Ms. Kononenko says: You may not get hot enough to want to take part in the tradition of jumping into an ice hole or cold river to cool off.

While Russian saunas can be hard to find for out-of-town tourists who don‘t speak Estonian (or Russian), Ms. Veeroja at the Hotel Tamula can help interested parties locate a few. E-mail her at eda@tamula.ee.

Finnish Saunas
These are clean, thanks to a chimney, and the rocks are inside a box, as in a Russian sauna, but they‘re drier and operate at a higher temperature -- 70 to 95 degrees Celsius. Visitors to Tallinn can enjoy a host of Finnish saunas in hotels, bars and private clubs. For a traditional, single-sex sauna experience, go to Kalma, Tallinn‘s oldest sauna, built in 1928. There for less than €7, Estonians will be more than willing to teach newcomers the rituals of swatting yourself (or your neighbor) with a birch branch.

Edward Dubrovsky, a 28-year-old customs officer who recently spent a Saturday afternoon at Kalma with his best friend, said the branch should be the same temperature as the sauna. "First, hit your legs. Then arms, then chest, because that is where your heart is," he said. "Then have your friend hit your back. The best is to use two branches at once."

In a Truck, on a Raft
Estonians do have a sense of humor about their sauna fixation. In northern Estonia, a little over an hour‘s drive from Tallinn, you can enjoy the novelty of a relaxing in a sauna built into the back of a 1963 Ford firetruck. Tuve Karner, volunteer fire chief in Jarva County and director of Jarva-Jaani‘s cultural center, charges 250 kroons an hour for sauna visits. He doesn‘t speak English. He said the idea to build the sauna was born five years ago after a concert of the firemen‘s orchestra. Today the firemen drive the sauna truck to concerts for after-performance relaxation, sometimes also towing a trailer with a hot tub.

The truck, which has been visited by everyone from Estonian prime ministers to local television stars, has a changing room in the middle and a nine-square meter Finnish-style sauna in the truck‘s back. The sauna works well, says Daniel Vaarik, a Tallinn public relations manager who recently sampled the truck, though the gurgling noise from the boiler in back "is a bit scary."

Mr. Karner, a jovial bear of a man who plays tuba, is putting the finishing touches on a new sauna, this one inside a 1964 firetruck, and is making a beer car (for keeping beers cold) out of an old 1977 Mercedes firefighting car -- and there are 83 more cars, buses and trucks he has bought for the cultural center that he‘s outfitting with everything from movie theaters to fireplaces. He also has built a museum with old firetrucks and other classic cars and is busy designing a theme park that will showcase wacky car collection.

For another unusual sauna experience, try the floating sauna in southern Estonia‘s Soomaa National Park. Soomaa.com offers an elaborate sauna on a raft that floats down the river through the park. While you‘re there you also can do some canoeing, dog walking, bird watching and even wolf tracking. Sessions last two to four hours and range in price from 500 to 1,500 Estonian kroons.