By now, the nearest swimming halls that I have not been to is 1 hour and 45 minutes away. I picked Turku's Impivaara swimming hall as my destination in the west (in the east there was another one). This is a massive, massive swimming complex. I really liked the 50 meter pool, it was easy to swim a long distance in it.
But otherwise, despite the many pools.. I wasn't particularly impressed. Maybe it was the busy time, the hall seemed packed. But not as packed as in the shower and sauna area. For some reason this part of the hall is designed with so narrow spaces that you can't pass if a person is fetching a towel from the racks or opens a sauna door. Bad design.
But otherwise the pools are of course spectacular. There was an eight track 50 meter pool *and* a *ten* track 25 meter pool. And a jumping pool with 10 meter platform, a therapy pool, a cold plunge pool, kid pool, and a water slide. Two saunas (hot and mild) and one steam sauna. The biggest swimming hall I have ever seen, with all the facilities.
There's a nice cafeteria overlooking the pool area.
It has also been recently renovated, just sad that the shower and sauna spaces are so cramped.
Tickets are 8,40€, a bit pricey compared to other community swimming halls which are more in the 6-7€ range, or even 5€ in some places. Website is here.
I have previously been to the Kaarina swimming hall near Turku, report here (alt. link).
This article has also appeared here. Read all swimming stories at planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at saunablogger.cool. Or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. The pool picture is by Turun kaupunki, taken from their website.
This article was originally published in the Planetskier Blogspot article series.
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