The Best Sea Pools for Saltwater Swimming

There’s a certain magic to swimming in a sea pool, those man-made vessels carved into, or placed atop, rocky ocean shores. You’re in the ocean, with its invigorating salinity (and welcome lack of chlorine), but also mostly protected from crashing waves and creatures. And since long before infinity pools were a thing, these early 20th-century innovations, which first flourished in Britain and Australia, have been providing breathtaking views of the open water.

“By definition, a tidal pool is a seawater pool that is naturally refreshed twice a day by the high tide,” writes the architect Chris Romer Lee in his 2023 book, “Sea Pools,” which showcases examples from Laguna Beach, Calif., to Namibia. An outdoor saltwater pool simply near the ocean, in other words, doesn’t make the cut.

Like many, I first submerged in a sea pool on a visit to Sydney, Australia (no city has more of them), when, wary of sharks, I took my then very young daughter to the famed Wylie’s Baths at Coogee — one of the few lap pools in the world with a rocky bottom and the occasional crustacean. Since then, I’ve sought them out on my travels, including a cycling tour of Japan conducted in the heat of August, where I was delighted to find one in the beach town of Komeno, in the Fukui Prefecture.

While many of these pools languished for years, often damaged by storms or neglect as they were surpassed by indoor pools or the rise in cheap flights to other shores, the recent interest in wild swimming — not to mention cold plunging — has helped drive a new appreciation for them, as well as a host of community-driven restoration projects. Here, five of the finest sea pools, with options for nearby lodging.

Jubilee Pool, Penzance, England

Built in 1935, this enormous triangular pool — with its Art Deco terrace and stunning views of St. Michael’s Mount — is one of only five seawater swimming facilities in Britain. In 2019, the pool, which has a Grade II listing on England’s Historic Register and is community run, added a heated section fueled by a geothermal well. In addition to simply taking a dip, one can sign up for synchronized swimming classes, attend dances on the terrace or even hold a wedding there. The Chapel House, a six-room B&B in a sun-drenched Georgian townhouse, is just a three-minute walk away. Rooms from about $200 a night, chapelhousepz.co.uk.

Emerald Gate Pool, Dinard, France

Dinard, on Brittany’s Côte d’Émeraude, is often referred to as the “Cannes of the North,” and has drawn visitors including Winston Churchill and Pablo Picasso (who painted scenes for his “Bathers” series there.) Occupying a small cove overlooking the beach, the town’s Emerald Gate pool opened in 1927, thanks to the efforts of Franck Bailly, a local entrepreneur, and the noted architect René Aillerie. The elegant Grand Hôtel Dinard, a stately Belle Époque landmark (completely refurbished in 2019) is a seven-minute stroll along the shore. Rooms from about $365 a night, hotelsbarriere.com/en/dinard/le-grand-hotel-dinard.

Designed in the 1960s by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siva Viera, these two adjacent pools occupy a rocky stretch of coastal Matonsinhos, a former cannery town north of Porto that’s been undergoing a renaissance. “The idea of my project,” he wrote, “was to optimize the conditions created by nature, which itself had already begun to design its own pool.” An accompanying structure with changing rooms and a cafe is low slung and Brutalist, another testament to Siza’s desire to blend natural and built environments. The Yeatman, on a hill above Porto, has indoor and outdoor pools as well as a two Michelin star restaurant and is a 20-minute taxi ride to the piscina. Rooms from about $445 a night, the-yeatman-hotel.com/en.

Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

Sea pools are particularly plentiful in South Africa, their popularity driven by “the enduring influence of English culture on the Cape’s customs,” writes Serai Dowling in her book “A Guide to Tidal Pools of the Western Cape” (2024). They make practical sense too: The ocean is so fierce there that the area is known as the Cape of Storms. One of the best sea pools — with mountain-and-sea views and brisk, revitalizing waters — is the one at Camps Bay, built in the 1930s.

To warm up before or after a dip, try one of the mobile saunas run by Hot Huts and book a room at 12 Apostles, which offers a free shuttle to Camps Bay. Rooms from about $400 a night, 12apostleshotel.com.

First opened in 1914 by the Chilean chef Antonio Olivera, who envisioned a waterfront restaurant with the added attraction of ocean-fed pools, Carpa Olivera, like many sea pools, has been subjected to the ravages of nature (in this case, two strong hurricanes). It was restored in 2014 by the architect Erick Pérez Páez and the group Colectivo Urbano, who added a mermaid statue, new seating and decks, fountains and a nautilus-shaped water slide. (This short film captures the place at its wild and enchanting best.) Remarkably, it fell into disuse once again in the years after the restoration but is now being repaired, with a planned reopening in a few months. Stay at the nearby Pueblo Bonito Centro Historico, a 24-room property that opened last year. Rooms from about $125 a night, pueblobonito.com.