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Swimming Holidays

"To be embraced and sustained by the light green water was less a pleasure, it seemed, than the resumption of a natural condition". John Cheever

Like camping, outdoor swimming in Britain has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. Urbanites are flocking back to lidos – a halfway house between indoor swimming pools and the great outdoors. There’s now an Outdoor Swimming Society, whose founder has recently published a book that lists many of the best places to swim outdoors in the UK (See Book List in Appendix).

You can even go on a dedicated swimming holiday with professionals. Swimtrek (www.swimtrek.com; tel: +44 (0) 208 696 6220) organizes holidays in the Scilly Isles and the Scottish Inner Hebrides as well as overseas, including Croatia, Greece, Finland (see p.000), the Egyptian Red Sea, Sardinia and the British Virgin Islands. In each destination you’ll swim several kilometres a day across lakes, rivers and sea under the eye of an experienced guide. For a taste of their holidays, try a weekend “short escape” in the Lake District where you’ll swim the dramatic Western Lakes of Crummock Water and Buttermere, and spend a full day crossing the isolated, picturesque Easedale Tarn.

Outdoor swimming has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. In the UK, urbanites are flocking back to lidos – a halfway house between indoor swimming pools and the great outdoors. There’s now an Outdoor Swimming Society, whose founder has recently published a book that lists many of the best places to swim outdoors in the UK.

You can even go on a dedicated swimming holiday with professionals. Swimtrek organizes swimming Holidays in the Scottish Inner Hebrides as well as overseas, including Croatia, Greece, Finland, the Egyptian Red Sea, and Turkey.

For a taste of their holidays, try a weekend “short escape” in the Norfolk Broads where you’ll swim the River Bure among the beautiful Norfolk countryside.

In each destination you’ll swim several kilometres a day across lakes, rivers and sea under the eye of an experienced guide.

Below we feature a great selection of their holidays, all of which can be reached by train and/or ferry from the UK.