I'm taking a casual poll of the "Best Places to Swim in the World" for a freelance story I'm working on. The topic is very open-ended: I'm looking for anything from the best place for an open-water swim, i.e. La Jolla Cove, to an olympic pool with an amazing setting, i.e. North Sydney Olympic Pool.
Your ideas would be most helpful to me; from the well-known watering holes to off-the-beaten spots, from swimming holes to hotel pools...And please note why you love swimming there.
#1--Lake George, NY near Shelving Rock (just over the mountain
from Hogtown). Clear, clean, cool fresh water with rocky shores
for diving and beautiful pines for a picnic and lots of Bass.
#2--Split Rock Falls on the Ausable River just off Route 9
about 11 miles south of Elizabethtown, NY. Cold mountain
stream with the clearest water I've ever seen. Dive off the
cliffs as high as you want to go into 30+ feet of gin!:D
Yal-Ku lagoon near Akumal in Mexico... an hour south of Cancun. It is a shallow inlet from the ocean full of tropical fish and coral. Some fresh water seeps in from underground, leaving a cool fresh water layer about a foot thick on top of the warmer salty layer underneath. The cool water was so refreshing in the middle of the Mexican summer, after we walked a few miles to get there! A friend and I swam back and forth the length of it, constantly distracted by fish darting around us. Maybe not the best workout ever, but it was definitely the most gorgeous and unique place I have done laps!!
I wish I could remember the name of the beach, but it is about 1-2 hours west of Acapulco, Mexico. We did a short open water workout as the sun set in western ski. I will always remember the color of the ski and water as the sun set. Absolutely awesome.
Favorite open water swim: parallel to the Coronado, CA city beach. On the Pacific Ocean shore of Coronado, enter the water just south of the perimeter of NAS North Island. Swim south about a mile or so along the beach until you reach a point next to the historic Hotel Del Coronado. Get out, and walk back north along the beach that one travel oriented TV show called the best beach in California. This place makes you understand what the term "golden beaches" means. There are little flecks of pyrite in the sand that make the beach shimmer like gold when the sun hits it right. Also, the surf is usually just right for body surfing. Big enough for adults to use, but not so big as to be intimidating. One of my fondest memories of being stationed in San Diego is a Friday evening masters swim at the Coronado beach, then team pizza afterwards.
They don't run my favorite open water race anymore, which is the 12 mile "Around the Island Swim." Start in the Coronado municipal park on the San Diego bay side of the Coronado peninsula, and swim all the way around Coronado and NAS North Island, passing under the San Diego-Coronado bridge, going by the ship piers at NAS North Island, past Point Loma and out the ship channel, until you clear it and make a hard left (SE) back more or less towards the same Hotel Del Coronado. Twelve of the most scenic miles you will ever swim, and your friends and relations drop their jaws and shake their heads when you tell them how far you swam. It makes them appreciate just how far a 12 mile swim is. I was on the organizing committee one year, but running the event got to be such a hassle, that my old masters team (Coronado Masters aka "The Nightcrawlers" ) stopped running it a few years ago. , I'm getting misty...
Matt
Some of the best pools I have found for views are in ski resorts. The lap pool on the top floor of the Cliff Lodge is spectacular! Also the Vail Racquet Club pool and public pools in Cortina d'ampezo and St Moritz are outstanding lap pool experiences with great views.
I really like Darthmouth College's pool. Yes, it's old, but the two 50 meter lanes conneceted with the 25 yard pool makes it fun. A lots of good memories there, Harvard and Brown have great pools too!
