During the pandemic, when Miriam Leitko couldn’t swim because pools were closed, the lifelong swimmer built a lap pool at her home in Willis, Texas. Once travel restrictions were lifted in 2021, she signed up for a week-long trip to Hawaii with SwimVacationa Maine-based tour operator specializing in open-water swimming.
“Swimming in open water becomes energizing,” said Ms. Leitko, 64, who made 12 trips with the company. The tours, he said, allow him to leave his stress “literally in the ocean.”
Summer vacations are often built around the fun of cannonballing in a lake or splashing in the ocean. Conversely, these tours build trips around organized swims that might include diving with sea lions in the Galápagos, island swimming in the Adriatic or gliding over coral reefs in the Caribbean.
“You don’t feel smaller than when you’re on the ocean, which has a transformative effect,” said Hopper McDonough, the founder and partner at SwimVacation, which bases most of its trips on yachts in places like Turkey, if where available the next departure is September 2024 ($6,995 for one week).
“After the pandemic, we sold two years early,” he said.
The swimming wave
If participants seek transformation, pursue a passion in the Covid-stymied or travel revengeswim tour operators say they are experiencing a tidal wave of growth.
The company based in England SwimTrekfounded in 2003, driving the explosion in the outdoor movement driven by the pandemic.
About one-third of SwimTrek’s clients — and growing — are from the United States, where the company has added vacations in Hawaii and Oregon (five days in Oregon’s Cascade Lakes worth $2,600) as well as trips to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
“When you swim in open water, every experience is different, whether that’s the state of the sea, the tide or the wildlife,” says Simon Murie, the founder of SwimTrek. “That’s the beauty, the unpredictability.”
Strel Swimming Adventures, founded by Martin Strel, a marathon swimmer who holds the Guinness World Record for swimming distance at 5,268 kilometers, and his son Borut, found new destinations in Mexico, including the Sea of Cortez ( seven-day trips in October and November from $1,990). The company also offers tours in Greece, Slovenia and Turkey.
Active England, an English adventure operator, has seen “exponential” growth in its swim tours since resuming travel, according to Will Cairns, the company’s founder. Its trips include four days in Devon from June to September for 759 pounds (about $984), with sea swims, a crater and, after a two-mile walk in Dartmoor National Park, a natural pool in River Dart.
“We have what we call ‘advanced swimmers’ who measure their swims in kilometres,” Mr Cairns said. “But most people do it for the love of the water.”
Wild swimming for everyone
Most tour operators divide swimmers into subgroups based on speed and claim to take everyone from former Olympians to occasional dippers interested in swimming two to five kilometers a day (often expressed as swimming in open water in metric terms).
Not all new swim tours are hard core. Bluetits Chill Swimmersa group dedicated to wild swimming — a popular term in Britain for swimming in natural bodies of water — recently partnered with a travel company to offer swimming trips to places like Icelandwhere a five-day package includes a dip in hot springs, seas and cracks between tectonic plates (the £2,265 autumn trip sold out shortly after it was announced this spring).
“Swimming with a group of like-minded people who don’t want to do a marathon swim is a wonderful, fun occasion,” said Sian Richardson, who founded the group, which celebrates participation rather than competition. and now has more than 120,000 members on community groups from Copenhagen to the Great Lakes.
Much Better Adventures offers wild swimming on its multisport tours, which also include hiking and biking in places like Canadian Rockies (10 days from $2,103), the canary islands (six days from $1,166) and Dominica (nine days from $2,375).
“We don’t believe all wild swimming needs to be about speed, tow floats or fancy neoprene,” Sam Bruce, the co-founder of Much Better Adventures, wrote in an email. “Instead, being in the water in a wild place is enough.”
Regardless of the difficulty level of the tour, safety is a selling point. Most operators send boats to escort open-water swimmers and choose their locations to avoid dangerous currents, strong winds and boat traffic. Also go on trips where it may be difficult to swim alone.
“Someone else does the planning for you,” says Kate Rew, the founder of the Outdoor Swimming Society, a British volunteer group promoting outdoor swimming, traveled with SwimTrek. If you’re doing a few kilometers in new areas, he says, “you need a lot of knowledge and local contacts.”
And there is even a side benefit. “People are sleeping soundly,” said Mr Cairns of Active England. “Two to three swims a day is exhausting.”
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