Welcome to the Planetswimmer blog! Stories from swimming indoors and outdoors, from ice swimming to tropical beaches. Not to mention hotel pools! The Planetswimmer has explored beaches and pools in 32 countries, in a total of 189 places. You can also click on the map below to see where in the world they took place.
The Planetswimmer articles appeared originally in the Blogspot Planetskier series, at TGR posts, or at the Relaa website. See also the articles about skiing, caving, urban exploration, climbing, cycling, flying, and saunas.
All swimming-related articles:
| Ski and beach vacation in Järvenpää There wasn't much snow or sunshine, but hey, there was some. Glad I went! Full story June 2024, Järvenpään jäähalli, Järvenpää, Finland; Tervanokan uimaranta, Järvenpää, Finland Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Swimming (Waterbody-Lake, Beach) | |
| Rantasauna Rantasauna is a legendary party place in Otaniemi, in the student village of the Helsinki University of Technology (now called Aalto University). Full story June 2024, Rantasauna, Otaniemi Espoo, Finland Swimming (Outdoor, Waterbody-Sea); Sauna (Normal) | |
| First mökki-swim in 2024... driving on a Jaguar Too busy, and now without a car I have not been able to visit the summer cottage this year at all. Sigh. But now my car repair shop nicely loaned me a four-liter green '99 Jaguar for the weekend. Very nice! And a fun car to drive. And it was such a bliss to drop into the lake after visiting the sauna. The water was warmer than it probably has ever been on June 1st... Full story June 2024, Arkko summer cottage, Teisko, Finland Car; Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Outdoor, Waterbody-Lake) | |
| Excursion to Myyrmäki A Friday evening excursion to Myyrmäki, a suburb in Vantaa! I went for a swim in Myyrmäki's community swimming hall, but it was of course also an opportunity to do more sightseeing in the nice weather. And ride more trains... given that my car is broken. Full story June 2024, Myyrmäen uimahalli, Myyrmäki, Vantaa, Finland Sauna (Normal, Steam); Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool) | |
| Hotel Vema Spa Hotel Vema is a brand new hotel in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Visoko is a small town near Sarajevo, maybe a 20 minute drive away. It is perhaps best know for the Bosnian pyramids, pyramid shape mountains that some claim actually are ancient pyramids. More on that story later... but for now, we will focus on this wonderful hotel! Full story May 2024, Hotel Vema, Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool) | |
| Urheiluhallit kallio My first time visiting the Kallie swimming pools. Very nice! Full story May 2024, Urheiluhallit Kallio, Helsinki, Finland Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal) | |
| Sveitsin uimala - Switzerland swimming in Hyvinkää After my visit to Usmi, I felt like I *really* needed to have a shower. And a sauna and swim would be a bonus. Fortunately, Hyvinkää's Sveitsin Uimala was nearby. Very, very nice. Indoor and outdoor pools (from June 1st), multiple pools, very nice saunas, clean, and at a nice pine forest area on top of the hill. Full story May 2024, Sveitsin uimala, Hyvinkää, Finland Swimming (Indoor, Outdoor, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal) | |
| Swim in the Tammisaari swimming hall I visited Tammisaari on a Friday evening, after a tough work week. It was sunny... my crappy car was still kind of running (but few weeks left), and the swimming hall, the Tammisaari beaches, and Tammisaari in general were just wonderful. Full story May 2024, Tammisaaren uimahalli, Raasepori, Finland Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal, Steam) | |
| Järvenpää and Nurmijärvi swims Like skiing or sex, they are always at least good, sometimes great :-) While looking for spare parts for my car, I managed to also stop at the Järvenpää and Nurmijärvi swimming halls. Very nice, both of them. But I was particularly struck how nice Nurmijärvi's hall was. Or Rajamäki's hall rather, Rajamäki belongs to Nurmijärvi, and is also famous for their alcohol production. Full story May 2024, Rajamäen uimahalli, Nurmijärvi, Finland; Järvenpään uimahalli, Järvenpää, Finland Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool) | |
| Dobrun caves It was a good try. I think. Or maybe I should have pushed harder. But ... it was getting difficult to stay on the slope, even with some smaller trees around me. But in the end I turned around, and did not reach the Dobrun cave in the mountains of eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina... the slope was loose gravel, and getting steeper on every step. No sign of paths. I do wonder though, I could *see* the cave but not reach it! And reportedly monks have lived in the cave, is there another path? Full story April 2024, Dobrun Cave, Dobrun, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Dobrun Party Cave, Dobrun, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Dobrun railway tunnel, Dobrun, Bosnia and Herzegovina Caving (None, Rock-Limestone, Morphology-Karst); Caving (Basic, Rock-Limestone, Morphology-Karst); Swimming (Outdoor, Waterbody-River); Urban-Exploration (Tunnels) | |
| Back in the K.O.R.S.O. Me: "Last time I was here was 35 years ago." Receptionist: "Not much has changed since then.". But, Korso's swimming hall still rocks. Small but functional. Full story April 2024, Korson uimahalli, Korso, Vantaa, Finland; Korson siirtolohkareen luolanen, Korso, Vantaa, Finland Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal); Caving (Basic, Rock, Morphology-Boulders, Rock-Gneiss) | |
| Omorika - swimming in the old Yugoslavia army hotel This really is an experience. An old Yugoslavia army hotel, now a tourist destination? Omorika sits in the Tara mountains in southeastern Serbia, close to the Bosnian border. The architecture is just right, it does say Yugoslavia. While the all-inclusive model in an affordable hotel may not be to everyone's tastes, it was quite reasonable experience, fish for dinner, etc. And the saunas and pools were good, even if the other facilities were a bit 1960s... Full story April 2024, Hotel Omorika, Planina Tara, Kremna, Serbia Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool); Sauna (Normal) | |
| Urheiluhallit Töölö I did not know that there were swimming halls here! But Urheiluhallit runs many sports facilities that I now have to visit, including this one in Töölö, next to the Tullinpuomi intersection and my old computer science department house. Full story March 2024, Urheiluhallit Töölö, Helsinki, Finland Swimming (Indoor, Waterbody-Pool) | |
| Brisbane's Streets Beach Swim at the ”Australia’s only inner-city, man-made beach”, Streets Beach. Full story March 2024, Streets Beach, South Brisbane, Australia Swimming (Outdoor, Water) | |
| Pool and sauna at the Hope Street Apartments While in Brisbane, I stayed at the Hope Street Apartments, a hotel/service apartment facility in South Brisbane next my conference venue. Affordable, my own kitchen, laundry machines in the apartment, etc. They had a pool and sauna as well. Of course, otherwise I would not have stayed there :-) Full story March 2024, Hope Street Apartments by CLLIX, South Brisbane, Australia Swimming (Water, Waterbody-Pool, Outdoor); Sauna (Normal) | |
| Paradise Caves at the Sunshine Beach Paradise Caves. So near (maybe just 1m from the drip line) but so far. There was only three ways in, one covered by tide, and the other two were rock ledges sloping towards a cliff. And the rain and the sea swell had made everything more slipper than I liked. Turned around. Full story March 2024, Paradise Caves, Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia; Sunshine Beach, Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia Caving (Basic, Morphology-Erosion, Rock-Unknown); Swimming (Waterbody-Sea, Beach) | |
This is the 1th set of articles. The next sets are set 2, set 3, set 4, set 5, set 6, set 7, set 8, set 9, set 10, set 11, set 12, and set 13.