A Swimmer’s Guide To Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland And Greenland

If you like swimming, you’ll love the Nordic region. These seafaring nations have long lived from the sea and continue to have deep bonds with the deep blue. I spent a year swimming around different parts of Scandinavia, meeting people who swam in wild fjords and around tiny islands, in clear turquoise waters, along rocky shorelines and in floating harbour pools as I researched my book, The Year I Lay My Head In Water. If you’re concerned about the cold, don’t be: that’s what the sauna – beloved in these parts – is for.

These are the best places to swim in the Nordics.

All of the city’s life is here in the summer, diving into Copenhagen’s clean harbour. Floating swimming pools protect people from the buzz of boats and occasional seals in the water, while teenage boys perform daring jumps off high towers, splashing down into the cool water. It’s quieter but still active in the winter, as hardy winter swimmers dip in the dark mornings and holes are cut in the ice on the coldest days. Islands Brygge Harbour Pool is the most iconic spot of all, welcoming to everyone with a paddling pool for toddlers and a lap pool for serious swimmers.

Sweden is an iconic swimming destination – I’ve enjoyed swimming in lakes and off rocky beaches all over the country. Perhaps my favourite overall was a trip taken with friends to a secret spot near the small coastal town of Arilds in Skåne, the southernmost county of Sweden, where steps led down into deep blue sea populated by dinnerplate sized and completely harmless moon jellyfish.

The sauna boat has been one of the biggest trends in Norway in recent years as swimming culture in the country has exploded. Oslo is the capital of this trend, with an astonishing array of small, hot wooden floating cabins around its waterfront, booked by the hour. The sauna rafts at Sørenga are a good place to start. Elsewhere in Norway, I’ve always been captivated by Nordnes outdoor pool in Bergen, a historic 29-degree heated outdoor swimming pool right beside the harbour with saunas and access to the sea for cold water swimming. It’s been a city favourite since 1910.

Iceland’s swimming culture is distinctive within the region because it’s not about the cold: it’s about how hot you can take it. The biggest question, with multiple new spa options popping up all over the country, is how to choose between the pools. I’ve long been a fan of Reykjavik’s many municipal swimming pools Laugardalslaug is a vast open air pool with a 50m pool for serious swimming – but for the peak Icelandic experience, I’d go to Hvammsvík, a spa around an hour’s drive north of Reykjavik, where you can combine wallowing in natural hot springs with dipping in a deep, ice-cold fjord.

There is a growing polar plunge scene in Greenland, where visitors dive into the icy water from boats during their trips. Sauna culture is also making its way to the country, with wood- fired saunas appearing on local beaches on Qeqertarsuaq, Disko Island, and in lesser visited spots in East Greenland. But the best swimming secret of all in Greenland is Uunartoq hot springs, on an island in South Greenland. Take a boat from Qaqortoq and you could be soaking in 38-degree water in a thermally heated pool in full view of icebergs and dark mountains. Pep it up by running down the hill, swimming in the gin-clear cold water at the island’s perfect white sand beach, and running back up to sink into the silty hot spring pool.

Laura Hall is the author of The Year I Lay My Head In Water, a memoir of swimming around Scandinavia in search of a better life.