On a dark, late November evening, I drove to Vuosaari in eastern Helsinki. I had to complete my daily steps, so walked through the neighbourhood. In a landscape of high-rise residential buildings -- maybe they should even be called skyscrapers in Finland at 26 floors. There was also the glow of the local shopping mall, and then ... the swimming hall.
The destination was Vuosaaren uimahalli, an older swimming facility that has been thoughtfully extended to now feature two 25-meter pools. I talked to some other swimmers and they thought this was perhaps the best swimming hall in the region, with its extended facilities. There's two big pools, jumping platforms, plenty of places for massage water jets, a teaching pool, a kiddie pool, a warm pool with the water jets, two cold plunge pools, and a water slide.
You can still tell the two sides are different, the old part is a bit lower ceilings and old style... the new one is quite flashy. But overall very good. There's also two sets of saunas and dressing rooms for both men and women, both equally furbished and styled. But on the old side there's two Finnish saunas, reportedly "one tool cold and one too hot", and on the new side there's a Turkish bath and a medium hot sauna. I liked both of those.
Finding the parking proved tricky at first, but the secret is to turn into the tunnel entrance at Tyynylaavantie 9 B, which leads to both outdoor parking spaces and a covered parking hall – both conveniently free of charge.
I have previously visited several other pools in eastern side of the Helsinki and the region. These include nearby facilities such as Hakunila (alt. link), and Kontulan uimahalli (alt. link) in the eastern part of Helsinki. Other swimming experiences in the city have taken place at locations such as Malmin uimahalli (alt. link), Puotilan uimaranta (alt. link), and Siltamäen uimahalli (alt. link). Not to mention the old-time favorite, underground swimming hall / bunker in Itäkeskus (alt. link).
Parking entrance:
Vuosaari images:
This article has also been published in Planetswimmer.com here. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! Or all blog articles from Blogspot or Planetskier web site. And of course the full Planetskier skiing article series at planetskier.net. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.
This article was originally published in the Planetskier Blogspot article series.
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