Something to declare: the rise of swim holidays

As swim holidays come of age, Rowan Clarke finds out how they’re bringing us more joy than ever before

Twenty-one years ago, a photo appeared in The Telegraph of a man standing in the Serpentine wearing swimming trunks waving two suitcases above his head. Beneath it, a short article announced the very first swim holiday. Under that, a reader’s letter complained that airport security had confiscated her embroidery scissors.

Fast-forward to now and adventurous swimmers have an exciting array of swimming holidays from which to choose. And despite independent travel being ever easier to organise and amid cost of living and environmental crises, we’re booking more swim holidays than ever. Why is that?

Time for adventure

Back in 2003, while embroidery woman was arguing with airport security about her scissors, nobody in the queue behind her would have been going on a swim holiday – just as nobody was using a TikTok hack to pack their changing robe. Virtually nobody described themselves as open water swimmers, either. So, when the man in the photo, Simon Murie, launched SwimTrek, he had some explaining to do.

“I was in a unique position where not only did I create and build up SwimTrek, but I also had to create the whole travel sector that is swimming holidays,” he says. “The toughest part was explaining what swimming holidays were and educating people about it. I was met with a lot of scepticism in those early years.”

But, as hard as it was, sometimes a business concept’s timing is just perfect.

Launching SwimTrek the year before Facebook, his business rode the crest of a social media wave. Growing through word-of-mouth, social media accelerated its growth through shared travel stories, tips, recommendations and inspiration.

The more social media stirred our wanderlust, the more adventure travel took off. The UK represents the biggest adventure tourism market in Europe according to the World Tourism Organisation, and a recent Visit Britain survey found that 40 per cent of British tourists choose sports and active holidays. And, within this picture, a massive growth in outdoor swimming helped swim travel boom.

“On those early trips, we would generally be able to categorise the swimmers as either pool swimmers, triathletes or adventurers,” says Simon. “What’s changed over the years is the massive increase in those people who call themselves open water swimmers.”

Booking up

Scrolling through Instagram, photographs of swimmers in impossibly blue lagoons and magical sea caves tempt us to book dream swim holidays. Many of the locations would be impossible to explore without the support of the tour operators and their expert knowledge, contacts and safety support.

“I think the main benefit is that your guides do all the planning, so you don’t have to worry about safety – you can just turn up and swim and your guides will have sorted out all the tides, weather and backup plans,” says Alice Todd, who co-founded of SwimQuest 16 years ago. “The other thing that I feel is really important, is that you need a powerboat supporting your swim because when you’re doing an island to island or coastal swim, you might need to get out of the water. Boat support is expensive on your own, but on a package holiday, it’s all taken care of.”

Organising open water swims isn’t just expensive, it’s also logistically challenging. If you want to swim beyond a sheltered cove in another country, you need to understandtides, currents, weather, wildlife as well aslocal laws and permissions. The result is that open water swimming travellers not only get safety support and bypass the challenge of organising amazing swims, but they also get to experience beautiful locations from a unique perspective.

“It’s important that we offer swims that a swimmer couldn’t necessarily do themselves, whether that be island crossings or coastal swims in sometimes hard to reach locations,” says Simon. “Swimming around a group of islands, or in a series of lakes, allows you to view and experience the location in a way that no one else can.”

Authentic travel

That unique perspective of swim locations isn’t always physical. For swim holiday operators, it’s about immersing their guests in local culture too. As the sector’s grown and as open water swimming has become more mainstream, opportunities for this kind of immersive experience have grown too.

“We’re seen less as a bunch of crazy people when we travel places now,” says Alice. “The first time we took a group to Greece, the amazing young man who looked after us for the week, his face when we were putting on Vaseline, goggles and swim hats – he just thought we’d lost the plot! I think as more people do it, it’s more in the public eye, so it’s more accepted.”

This not only helps trips run more smoothly, but it also fosters reciprocal relationships between visitors and locals, with benefits for both. For example, Wild Hebridean Swims invites locals to join swims at cost, works with initiatives like social prescribing and offers swim holidays interwoven with local experiences.

“I didn’t want tourists to come to watch locals, I wanted it to be integrated into the community,” says founder Emma MacDonald. “So, this year our first retreat will involve my mother-in-law’s Gaelic-speaking choir, the Ardalanish weavers and the walking group re-enacting how people used to live on the Isle of Mull and speaking Scots.”

This joined-up, sustainable approach to swim holidays doesn’t just benefit the people involved, it also boosts local economies. This is especially important when weighing up the decision to travel by air. Contributing to environmental damage by flying is hard to justify – especially when there are travel locations here in the UK as incredible as the Isle of Mull. But, supporting a struggling economy is one good reason to book a trip overseas.

“Turkey has been absolutely annihilated economically and so it’s really important that we only work with local businesses,” says Sarah, founder of Free Spirit Escapes. “It’s the uniqueness of the experience because we stay in this authentic Turkish pension on the river with a wonderful local family. I think that’s what people really like about the holiday – it’s about the people who make it special.”

Beyond the sea

While there are obvious advantages to swapping the cold, choppy North Sea for crystal clear turquoise oceans, the benefits go much deeper. Used to planning her own adventurous swims with friends, Jane was drawn to SwimTrek for longer, supported swims in beautiful places.

“I think with planning your own swim adventures, the benefit is you have the freedom to do what you want,” says Jane. “The advantage for me of a SwimTrek holiday is that I can have an adventurous swim abroad but feel completely safe. The swim safety aspect is really well handled, and it means that I can concentrate on swimming and forget about worrying about everything that’s going on around me.”

That freedom from organising and planning, plus the feeling of being looked after is very powerful. Not only does it allow you to completely lose yourself in your swimming and in the environment, but it can also be moving, comforting and restoring. The multitude of physical and mental health benefits we get from immersing ourselves in natural water is why we swim outdoors.

Equally important is the groups of people with whom we swim. And this restorative, elemental, supportive group experience is exactly what makes swim holidays so special.

“A lot of people do come with different sets of challenges,” says Emma. “I remember taking someone’s booties off and she was almost in tears because she had been looking after her ill husband and was moved by having somebody looking after her.”

It’s not just letting the swim guides and coaches look after us, it’s also about the friendships that flourish on swim holidays. Bonds are created, stories are shared. It’s something so remarkable and powerful that it moves every operator regardless of how long they’ve been in the business. It’s the ultimate reason they’re all keen to encourage anyone who feels trepidatious to book on.

Sarah talks about one of her guests called Linda. Nervous about booking her first holiday without her husband, she was encouraged to book by the new friends she’d made winter dipping. She went through the departure gates feeling nervous and uncertain, and came home brimming with joy and confidence.

“My husband had died two years previously, and after a long and happy marriage, I was struggling,” says Linda, who’s booked to go back in September. “But I returned home with a new confidence. My life cannot be as it was when my husband was here, but it can be good. The whole experience was kind and supportive with just the right amount of challenge to make you feel empowered. Here’s to doing it all again in September.”

At the age of 21 years-old, the swim travel sector has grown beyond recognition. The breadth of offerings, types of people and the reasons for booking have changed. Still hosting adventures for open water swimmers capable of swimming several kilometres a day, swim holiday operators now cater for every type of traveller imaginable in amazing locations here in the UK and overseas.

Swim coaching camps, experiential trips for beginners and families, retreats, events, ice swimming, liveaboards, trips that mix swimming with running, hiking, yoga and even yarn weaving – the choice is endless. While cost of living and environmental concerns are undoubtably suppressing our wanderlust, they are increasing our need to take care of ourselves. That special formula of beautiful location, special people, being in water and being looked after feels like the joy-bringing escape that we all need.

With that in mind, it’s safe to bet that more travellers are packing changing robes than embroidery scissors these days.

Browse our swim travel pages.