Steamworks, a Vancouver branch of the popular gay bathhouse chain, near Gastown

Part of the enormously popular Steamworks brand, which also has gay bathhouses in Berkeley, Chicago, Seattle, and Toronto, this beautiful and very popular gay sauna on the edge of downtown and just a few blocks from Gastown and Chinatown is a bit of a walk from the Davie Street Gay Village. However, if it's a good mix of attractive guys - from college students to silver foxes - it's worth making the trip over to this facility, which is one of the nicest in Canada. Steamworks Vancouver (123 W. Pender St., 604-974-0602) is open 24/7 and has lockers starting at just $11 during the day, all the way up to extra large rooms that run up to $50 on weekends. Theme nights - such as Bulge (jocks, latex, underwear, etc., the third Saturday of each month) and Lights Out Night (a nearly pitch-black, sensual experience that takes place on Thursdays from 4 pm until 4 am) bring in especially good crowds, and - as is typical of saunas - Steamworks really packs them in on Friday and Saturday nights.