On the third day of our trip, we swam around Mamula Island, home to an impressive Austro-Hungarian fortress built to guard the entrance to Kotor Bay. In World War Two it was used as a concentration camp.
“I’ll probably always remember that island, along with the waves and currents that changed as we swam around it, and I doubt that’d be true if I’d only seen it from the boat,” said Nancy Meade, an attorney form Anchorage, Alaska. This was the second time she had come to explore Europe from the water. “The special thing about a swimming holiday is that it combines being active and outdoors all day long with a great chance to explore in a unique way. Most tourists can walk out to the seashore, and maybe even take a boat tour or cruise, but actually spending the day on and in the water and seeing the many small towns from the water is very special. Being at eye level with the shore and rocks makes you feel a part of the place much more than if you just spent a week on a boat looking around.”
More like this:
• Cheese, beer and a wonderful view
• Why wild swimming is Britain’s new craze
• The River Waveney: The ‘secret’ UK waterway most Brits don’t know
The rise of the swimming holiday goes hand in hand with an increase in outdoor and open water swimming generally. In the UK, this took place after the 2012 London Olympics, which featured the first open water-swimming event. Globally, wild swimming saw another boost during the pandemic, when most indoor sport was banned.
Naturally, as with any sporting holiday, there are risks – and safeguards against them. Trained guides check locations before swims and routes are amended if the weather or water conditions are unsuitable. Safety briefings are given at the start of each swim, and guides help and encourage less confident swimmers to get the most out of their trip.
“Each trip has something special about it,” says Marlys Cappaert who has worked as a Swim Trek guide for 10 years. “I really like those moments when someone overcomes a fear or tries a swim that they didn’t think they could do. The joy when they succeed is giddy. And it can become quite emotional, too. In my first year, at the end of a week, one lady came to me sobbing. She shared with me that six months earlier she had received a challenging medical diagnosis and was unsure if she’d even be well enough to make our trip, let alone complete the swims. But she had. By that point, the whole group was sobbing.”
