Travelling in Iceland - Community Pools
Sept 10 to Sept 24 - My girlfriend and I rented a campervan and drove around Iceland following the route shown above.
Community pools are everywhere
Having done quite a bit of research prior to our travels to Iceland, we felt we were well prepared for what we would find. Many of the guidebooks had mentioned community pools as a nice, inexpensive activity ($6 pp). We expected to see a few pools in the larger communities, but as we were driving around the island, we noticed that there was a sign for a community pool in almost every community with a population over 1000.
The sign for a community pool looks like this:
A typical pool
We expected ... a pool.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that every pool we visited had:
- at least 3 hot tubs (each set at a diffrent temperature)
- at least 1 full size swimming pool
- a steam room and/or sauna
- at least one water slide
This is an example of the layout of one of the nicest pools we visited:
There were 7 hot tubs, 3 pools and a 6 storey waterslide!!!
You must shower before entering the pool
Being a member of a gym, I know the layout of a typical locker room. Take off your footwear before entering the locker room. When you enter the locker room, there are rows of lockers. After the lockers, you proceed to the showers. The layout in these locker rooms was very similar - with a bonus feature.
Junk Wash
For the pools, you stripped naked, left your towel and bathing suit on a rack located between the lockers and the shower, then proceeded to thoroughly wash - paying close attention the areas indicated above.
The bonus feature was the Shower Guard. Sitting next to the showers in a rain jacket and rain pants, was a person who watched to make sure that you scrubbed your bits to their satisfaction. If he/she did not think you did a thorough enough job, you would not be allowed to proceed to the pool.
The pools were all pristine - so the Shower Guards were all doing a fantastic job.
Dry off before returning to the lockers
When you returned from the pool, you were expected to strip naked in the showers, then completely dry off before returning to the lockers. There was a swim suit spinner/dryer located there for your convenience. It was nice to not have to worry about wet floors when you were putting your clothes back on.
A great way to end the day
We ended up visiting a community pool almost every day of our trip. For $6 (the typical price of a coffee over there), I feel the price was right. The typical temperature during our stay was 10 to 12 Celsius. It was nice to go to the pools after dinner, soak in the hot tubs for half an hour or so. This left us nice and warm when we went to sleep at night.
I had to show this one. It was a beautiful water slide that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.
More to come
As we get all of our pictures organized, we will post more stories/tips from our trip.