Monday, September 21, 2026

The Swim-Every-Day Challenge

It is good to swim... maybe even every day. In August I had a very nice swim above the rooftops of Stockholm, and decided that I'd try to keep up swimming every day, for as long as possible. It continued through my time at home, on my health rehab in Punkaharju, across business trips to Zürich and Riga, and for the last few days at my summer cottage and once near my office. Sometimes challenging to find the time before swimming pools close, sometimes cold in the September lake waters, but always special. Glad I'm doing this!

By now I've swam on 35 days consecutively. But it will probably fail in the coming weeks, too much travel and work and other things to make it possible to find a place every day. But let's see.

Overall it has been an excellent experience. Every day nice views, every day a refreshing dip, sometimes borderline cold dip :-) And there's been a reason to get out and walk or drive to a place.

Out of the 35 places, I swam at my cottage beach three times, visited my home town swimming pool twice, used a nice hotel pool twice in Riga, but also swam in 22 new places. Most of the new places were beaches either near my work place that I had not been to, or beaches alongside my route to Punkaharju. Some were swimming pool or  spas where I travelled to, a couple were beaches there.

Sometimes the swims were long, 400 to 900 meters. At other times very short, from a half a meter quick swim in cold water :-) to few meters... September in Finland can be cold. And at other times somewhere in between.

Here's the full list of my swims so far:

1. Aug 18 - Selma City Spa, Stockholm, Sweden (see the opening picture above, photo below, or the article, alt. link)



2. Aug 19 - Keski-Espoo swimming hall, Espoo, Finland (no article but pictures below)



3. Aug 20 - Kasnäs spa, Kasnäs, Finland (article, alt. link)



4. Aug 21 - Laukkoski school beach, Laukkoski, Pornainen, Finland (article, alt. link)



5. Aug 22 - Galträsk, Kauniainen, Finland (no article but pictures below)




6. Aug 23 - Kruunupuisto beach, Punkaharju, Finland (article, alt. link)



7. Aug 24 - Kruunupuisto spa, Punkaharju, Finland (no article but pictures below)




8. Aug 25 - Kruunupuisto spa and then later the Kruunupuisto sauna and beach, Punkaharju, Finland (article, alt. link)




9. Aug 26 - Karjalankallio lean-to, Punkaharju, Finland (article, alt. link)



10. Aug 27 - Punkaharju public beach, Punkaharju, Finland (article, alt. link)



11. Aug 28 - Naisvuori swimming hall, Mikkeli, Finland (article, alt. link)



12. Aug 29 - Sinilähde beach, Heinola, Finland (article, alt. link)



13. Aug 30 - Kauniainen swimming hall, Kauniainen, Finland (no article but pictures below)



14. Aug 31 - My basement jacuzzi, Kauniainen, Finland (article, alt. link)



15. Sep 01 - Störsvik sandpit beach, Siuntio, Finland (article, alt. link)



16. Sep 02 - Sandviken beach, Kopparnäs, Inkoo, Finland (article, alt. link)



17. Sep 03 - Sandfjärden beach, Kopparnäs, Inkoo, Finland (article, alt. link)



18. Sep 04 - Kauniainen swimming hall, Kauniainen, Finland (no article but pictures below)



19. Sep 05 - Paavolan salmen uimaranta, Lohjansaari, Lohja, Finland (article, alt. link)



20. Sep 06 - Vilniemen uimaranta, Espoo, Finland (article, alt. link)



21. Sep 07 - Freizeit Bad Opfikon, Zurich, Switzerland (article, alt. link)



22. Sep 08 - Freizeit Bad Opfikon, Zurich, Switzerland (article link above, went twice)



23. Sep 09 - Hallenbad City, Zurich, Switzerland (article, alt. link)



24. Sep 10 - Kylmälä, Kirkkonummi, Finland (article, alt. link)



25. Sep 11 - Laaksolahden uimaranta, Laaksolahti, Espoo, Finland (article, alt. link)



26. Sep 12 - Plaža Kašjuni, Split, Croatia (article, alt. link)



27. Sep 13 - Beach Divulje, Kaštel Štafilić, Croatia (article, alt. link)



28. Sep 14 - Radisson BLU Latvia Conference & Spa, Riga, Latvia (article, alt. link)



29. Sep 15 - Welton SPA Centrum, Riga, Latvia (article, alt. link)



30. Sep 16 - Radisson BLU Latvija Conference & Spa, Riga, Latvia (went twice; see article link above)


31. Sep 17 - Welton SPA Riverside, Riga, Latvia (article, alt. link)



32. Sep 18 - My summer cottage, Teisko, Finland (no article but pictures below)



33. Sep 20 - Still at my summer cottage (no article but pictures below)




34. Sep 20 - Still at my summer cottage (several days here, again no article but pictures below as well as at the top of this article)



35. Sep 21 - Långvik beach, Kirkkonummi, Finland (no article but a picture below)



This article has also been published at Planetswimmer.com here. Read the full series of sauna and swimming stories from planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Riga spas

I had a few days in Riga, and visited both my hotel spa, ESPA Riga (at the Radisson Riga Conference & Spa), Welton SPA Centrum, and the Welton SPA Riverside. The ESPA and Riverside both were wonderful, the former being at the top of the hotel and the latter at the bottom. Both had a selection of nice saunas and pools.

Radisson was by far the overall best choice; they had several floors in the spa. One with the lobby and a cafeteria, another with the changing rooms, a third one with a big pool and the gym (the big pool was under renovation though), and the top floor where the small round sauna pods, steam pods, the big sauna, and the relaxation rooms were at. At the center of this there was also an outdoor pool protected by glass walls, maybe 6-7 meters long and maybe 4-5 meters wide. It was mostly a warm jacuzzi-style pool, but I managed to swin 250 meters on it though...

The Welton chain has several places in Riga, all in hotels. I visited their Centrum and Riverside locations; Centrum was pretty basic with one pool, maybe 7-8 meters long, one sauna, one steam room. Oh and one jacuzzi.

The Riverside was quite nice, they had a bigger pool, 12.5 meters long (did 450 meters on that one...). Then a therapy pool and a cold plunge pool. And a steam room and two nice saunas with different temperatures. I liked this location a lot.

Radisson:






Welton Centrum:

Welton Riverside:

City views:

Flight home:

This article has also been published at Planetswimmer.com here. Read the full series of sauna and swimming stories from planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool, urban exploration articles at theurbanexplorer.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. Pool and sauna photos in this article were taken when the facility was empty or closed.