A natural swimming hole is one of those travel experiences that should not be as good as it is. You are essentially swimming in a river or a spring. But the combination of clear water, the absence of chlorine, the sound of water moving over rock, and the absence of a tiled pool surround creates something qualitatively different from any constructed swimming environment. The best ones stay with you.
These are the natural swimming holes worth travelling specifically to find.
Semuc Champey, Guatemala
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Semuc Champey is a series of natural limestone pools in the jungle of Alta Verapaz in Guatemala, fed by a turquoise river that disappears underground and resurfaces below the pools. The water is the colour that swimming pools try and fail to replicate: a clear blue-green that comes from the limestone geology rather than any chemical treatment. The pools are tiered, each one stepping down to the next, and the surrounding jungle closes in on all sides.
Getting there requires a four-hour journey on dirt roads from Coban, which filters out everyone who is not committed. The effort is proportionate to the reward. Swimming in the upper pools in the early morning before the day visitors arrive from Lanquin is one of the best experiences in Central America.
Jiuzhaigou, China
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Jiuzhaigou Valley in Sichuan Province contains a series of lakes at different altitudes connected by waterfalls, the water so clear and so coloured by mineral deposits that the colours shift from cobalt blue to emerald to the colour of jade as you move between them. The valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and receives millions of visitors per year. Most of them stay on the boardwalks. The lakes themselves are not swimmable due to conservation rules, but the experience of walking above them is worth including in this list because of the quality of the water colour and light.
Cenotes of the Yucatan, Mexico
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The Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico sits above a vast limestone aquifer that the Mayans considered the entrance to the underworld. The aquifer breaks through to the surface in thousands of places as cenotes, circular sinkholes filled with water of extraordinary clarity, some open to the sky, some partially roofed with roots hanging down to the water surface.
The best cenotes are not the famous ones near Chichen Itza that tour buses stop at. They are the ones in the network around Valladolid and along the route between Merida and Tulum that require a turn off the main road and sometimes a short walk through scrub forest. Cenote Ik Kil, Cenote Dos Ojos, and the connected cave system at Cenote Angelita are all extraordinary.
Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye, Scotland
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The Fairy Pools are a series of waterfalls and clear pools fed by snowmelt from the Cuillin mountains on the Isle of Skye. The water is cold by any standard, numbingly so in spring when the snowmelt is still active. The colour is the particular blue-green of cold clear water over pale rock, and the mountains rise above the pools on all sides. Swimming here in June, when the water has warmed marginally and the midges are not yet unbearable, is one of those specifically Scottish experiences that has no equivalent elsewhere.
The car park fills by nine in summer. Go on a weekday or arrive before eight. The pools closest to the car park are the most visited. Walk fifteen minutes further up the glen and you will find pools that are equally beautiful and frequently empty.
