A new ranking of the world's best ocean pools makes one thing clear: Australia, and New South Wales in particular, is the undisputed home of swimming by the sea without fighting the surf. The state alone has around 70 ocean pools, with more than 30 in Sydney, including at Bondi, Bronte, Coogee and Manly. The appeal is obvious for anyone unnerved by rips, heavy surf or the rare but headline-grabbing shark incident — three in Sydney over two days earlier this year, including a fatality, briefly changed how the whole city swam.
The ranked list spans four countries. In tenth place, Cape Town's Sea Point Pavilion (built 1914) is an Olympic-sized pool with views of Lion's Head, entry about $3 for adults, plus a springboard, dive pool and kids' splash pools. Ninth goes to Bermagui Blue Pool on the NSW Sapphire Coast, five hours south of Sydney — a 1930s pool sunk into honey-coloured rock, with a viewing platform, seals on nearby shelves and humpback whales passing close to shore from August to November.
Portugal claims eighth with Piscina das Mares at Leça da Palmeira near Porto, architect Álvaro Siza's most celebrated work and now a national monument. The pools sit embedded in the rocky Atlantic coast opposite a 17th-century fortress — calm at low tide, wild when big swell pushes in. Fairy Bower Rockpool at Manly is seventh: a tiny triangular pool with the Oceanides sculptures at one end, a marine reserve next door for snorkelling, and front-row seats to one of Sydney's notorious big-wave breaks.
Newcastle lands two spots in the top six. Newcastle Ocean Baths (completed 1922) pairs art deco grandeur with a genuinely progressive history — it was funded partly to introduce mixed-gender public swimming, breaking an 1838 segregation law. Free entry, views to Nelson Bay, and the occasional seal on the rocks out front. The Bogey Hole, fourth, is the oldest of them all: hand-cut by convicts in 1819 as a private pool for commandant Major James Morisset, and Australia's first ocean pool. On calm, low-tide days its emerald water mirrors the sandstone cliffs.
The podium is where things get international again. Third is Charco Azul on La Palma in the Canary Islands — a pool formed by ancient lava flows inside a volcanic cavern, regularly rated the world's best overseas. Entry costs just €0.50, there's a children's pool with a tiny cascade, and a bar above serving fresh fish, goat's cheese and cocktails. Runner-up is Wylie's Baths at Coogee, perched above the Pacific beneath the cliffs at Coogee's southern edge — quieter than its famous neighbours, but a known celebrity hangout for those who can spot them behind caps and goggles.
The number-one pool isn't named in the extract, but the shortlist alone is enough to build a trip around: a coastal swim itinerary could string together Sydney's eastern suburbs baths, Newcastle's historic pair and a Sapphire Coast detour — or go global and add Porto and La Palma to the plan.
