Chilly? You’ll feel the heat in these Twin Cities hot spots

We know cold water plunges are all the rage these days, but face it: Some like it hot.

As winter approaches and the temperatures drop, many Minnesotans are like cats perching on the radiator. We want to find someplace warm to chill out.

The traditional solution is to take a trip it to a more clement part of the country.

But winter in Minnesota is also hot yoga and sauna season. If you don’t have the time or money to snowbird it to Boca or Palm Springs, here’s our curated list of literal hot spots right here in the Twin Cities where you can thaw out.

The historic glass-domed Marjorie McNeely Conservatory at Como Park in St. Paul isn’t the hottest place on our list, but its warm, humid environment, full of smell and light of green, growing things, instantly transports you to a place or time when you don’t need mittens and everything isn’t covered with snow or ice.

On a sunny day, our pocket thermometer hit 81 degrees under the soaring glass ceiling in the conservatory’s Sunken Garden.

In the Fern Room, it got up to 84 degrees with a steamy 79% humidity level. Come in from outside on an even moderately cool day and your eyeglasses will immediately fog over in the tropical environment.

There are other hot yoga offerings in the Twin Cities, but I sampled MÖV Hot Yoga because it’s probably the biggest hot yoga studio in town, it says “hot” right there in the name, and it has a beginner-friendly vibe.

The Minneapolis studio offers a range of classes, each with a “sweat level” rating. We tried the 45-minute “MÖV Classic” which has a sweat level of three out of three, thanks to 101 degree infrared heat radiating down from the ceiling.

There’s space in the hot room for up to 50 people to be downward dogging at the same time, so it can also get pretty humid.

The humidity level hit about 66% when I was there. The yoga mat towel I got to catch the dripping sweat as we went through the yoga moves came in handy.

If you’re a man who likes to exercise with your shirt off, this might be the place for you. That seemed to be the norm in the class I was in.

3252-B W. Lake St., Minneapolis. Prices range from $35 for a drop-in class, $49 for an introductory month or $115 a month for an annual membership.

Hotworx is another exercise-in-a-hot-room option, but instead of being in a big hot room with dozens of other people and a live instructor, you’re in a little hot room with a couple of people and a virtual instructor.

This franchise chain with hundreds of locations bills itself as a 24-hour infrared fitness studio.

Exercise options in this workout-in-a-sauna model include yoga, Pilates, rowing machines, stationary bicycling, high intensity intervals and resistance bands.

At the Hotworx branch in northeast Minneapolis, I tried a 30-minute “advanced isometric workout” called “Hot Warrior.”

Yeah, it was hot work. More than 100 degrees, according to my thermometer.

It wasn’t particularly humid, but I was the only person in the sauna room that measured roughly 6-by-9 feet.

If there were two other people exercising with me, elbow to elbow, it would have felt a lot closer.

401 1st Av. NE., Minneapolis. First class is free. $20 for a day pass. $59 for a monthly membership.

Nick Fox, owner of FoxFire Breathworks, says he’s Minnesota’s first certified Wim Hof instructor, so he knows a lot about cold immersion.

“My goal is for people to walk in here and say, ‘Oh it’s hot,’ Fox said.

My thermometer only hit about 157 degrees when I tried Fox’s Lake Nokomis sauna, but it still felt about as hot as Satan’s toenail in there.

I was sweating so much, I couldn’t keep my eyeglasses from sliding off my face. Then I worried the plastic frames might melt.

Of course, the way to cool off was simply to jump in the lake.

4860 E. Lake Nokomis Pkwy., or 2707 W. Lake St., Minneapolis. $30 for an 80-minute session.

You can choose your own adventure, rotating through the bath, a sauna, a steam room and a chilly cold plunge pool.

The sauna didn’t feel as hot as the one I tried at Lake Nokomis, but the steam room made up for it with an intensely humid sweat.

There’s New Agey music, but no talking, and cellphones aren’t allowed.

It’s too dim and moist to read anything on your phone anyway. But a little enforced boredom has a therapeutic value of its own.

If you’re tempted to say “Calgon, take me away!” while soaking, just whisper it to yourself.