From Olympic-sized swimming pools in inner city parks to magical waterfalls hidden in the bush, Sydney is home to some world-class swimming spots. Of all the beautiful places to swim in the Harbour City, one takes the cake as the most universally recognisable: Icebergs pool. The beautiful ocean pool jutting out into the ocean on the southern corner of Bondi Beach is one of our city’s favourites, and according to a new study, it’s among the top ten natural swimming pools in the world. We’re not quite sure that the human-made walls of the pool qualifies it as a natural pool, but we’ll take their word for it.
The people behind the research are Travel Insurance providers AllClear, who identified the world’s top 20 natural swimming pools after noticing an 83 per cent year on year increase in searches for “natural swimming pool”.
Using information from Google and travel and tourism websites, the researchers compiled the number of searches per pool, and analysed these figures against Google reviews – determining which natural swimming spots are the most-loved globally. Two of our gorgeous ocean pools are up there in the top ten.
The other Sydney-based pool to make the top ten list was nearby Bronte Baths – the smaller (but no less stunning) ocean pool on the south corner of Bronte Beach. The popular sunrise spot ranked at number seven on the list of the world’s best natural swimming pools.
To them, natural swimming pools can be “either naturally occurring pools that are formed through volcanic activity, tidal movements or erosion, or man-made but still function like a natural body of water – with non-chemically treated fresh or salt water”. Filled with water from the ocean, Bondi Icebergs counts as the latter – and it ranked highly, as the fourth-best natural swimming pool in the world.
These were the 10 best natural swimming pools in the world:
- Charco Azul, Spain
- Porto Moniz Natural Swimming Pools, Portugal
- Los Charcones Natural Pools, Spain
- Bondi Icebergs Pool, Australia
- Las Salinas de Agaete, Spain
- Clevedon Marine Lake, England
- Bronte Baths, Australia
- Vico Baths, Dublin
- Kitsilano Pool, Canada
- Doca Do Cavacas Natural Pools, Portugal
In the mood for a dip? Pick your dip spot based on your swim persona, with our handy guide.
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