Year-Round Pools and Swimming Spots for a Good Dip in Any Season
Pools and swimming spots across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for a proper dip whatever the month.
A pool only earns a spot on this list if it still makes sense in September as much as February — which is why we've only included indoor options for our Melbourne friends! One of these pools hosted the very first organised swimming races in Australia, back in 1846. Another lets you book a massage table right on the pool deck, ocean swell included. None of them are counting on summer to make the case.
Cremorne Point's Maccallum Pool fills straight from the harbour on the tide, which means it gets drained and scrubbed on a schedule the tide sets, not the calendar. In Collingwood, Sense of Self runs guests through an 80-degree Finnish sauna, a 39-degree mineral bath and a cold plunge in sequence — a routine its co-founder shaped after five months spent touring bathhouses across Europe, Africa and Japan. Brisbane's Spring Hill Baths was the city's first in-ground pool, and still runs a dive-in cinema over summer alongside its heritage grandstand seating. And at The Calile Hotel, the cabana-lined pool has helped land the hotel on the World's Top 50 Hotels list several years running, and is reserved for the hotel's guests. Presented by Honda ZR-V, here are nine pools and swimming spots that don't shut down once summer does.
Read other guides in our A to Z with Honda ZR-V series:
Fish and Chips to Take Down to the Water on a Warm Evening
Road Trips Just Outside of Town to Fill an Entire Day Out
Sunset Picnic Spots to Stake Out and Claim Early Before the Crowd
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Things to DoSense of Self
30-32 Easey Street, Collingwood
An 80-degree Finnish-style sauna, a 39-degree mineral bath and a cold plunge fill this converted Collingwood warehouse, open through winter to help make cold Melbourne days bearable.
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Things to DoSoak Bathhouse South Yarra
10 River Street, South Yarra
Magnesium pools, hot spas, a cedarwood sauna and a cold plunge fill this South Yarra bathhouse, built for loud conversation rather than hushed spa silence, heated and open all year.
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Things to DoAndrew 'Boy' Charlton Pool
1C Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney
This eight-lane, 50-metre saltwater pool on Woolloomooloo Bay is heated for the eight months it’s open, its lawns and Sydney skyline backdrop turning a lap swim into a full harbourside occasion.
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Things to DoMaccallum Seawater Pool
Milson Road, Cremorne Point
Built by local residents into the rocks at Cremorne Point and restored in the 1980s, this free tidal harbour pool comes with a timber sun deck built for winter afternoons and skyline views.
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Things to DoWylie's Baths
4B Neptune Street, Coogee
Cut into the Coogee headland since 1907, back when sea bathing was the height of fashion, this ocean pool still fills and drains with the tide, looking straight out to Wedding Cake Island.
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HotelThe Calile Hotel
48 James Street, Fortitude Valley
The hotel’s name is spelled out in gold tiles across the bottom of this 30-metre pool, ranked among the World’s 50 Best Hotels, where guests gather poolside from morning through late into the evening.
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Things to DoIthaca Pool
131 Caxton Street, Paddington
A 25-metre saltwater lap pool sits shaded under trees in leafy Paddington, heated and open year-round, with a grassy park beside it built for a coffee straight after the last lap.
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Things to DoSpring Hill Baths
14 Torrington Street, Spring Hill
Brisbane’s first in-ground pool still runs its original grandstand seating and brightly painted change rooms, heated year-round and given over to dive-in movie nights when the weather turns warm.
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Things to DoStreets Beach at South Bank
Stanley Street Plaza, South Brisbane
A man-made, white-sand lagoon sits landlocked in the middle of the city, Brisbane’s only inner-city beach, with river views instead of surf and a boat pool and water park alongside it.
This guide was produced in partnership with Honda ZR-V. To learn more about the ultimate car for urban discovery, click here.