The Year I Lay My Head in Water – Laura Hall’s 5 Favourite Scandinavian Swimming Spots

Posted on 2026/01/14 , tagged as

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Discover where Laura Hall, author of The Year I Lay My Head in Water: Swimming Scandinavia in Search of a Better Life most loves to take a dip. Whether you’re seeking a new adventure, or a refuge from burnout, take a plunge this January and discover some of the most beautiful swimming spots Scandinavia has to off.

Living in Copenhagen had been a dream for Laura and it was working out – until it wasn’t. She discovered that the trials of life will follow you anywhere and felt herself disintegrating into stress and burn out. She was unmoored and unsure of how to find her place in the world.

What followed was a year swimming the cold seas of Scandinavia in search of answers and meaning. She swam in iceberg-filled seas in Greenland, experienced Viking spas in Iceland and visited beaches and piers all over Norway, Denmark and Sweden. During this year of discovery, Laura met other people doing the same thing and swapped notes, discovering ways to use the water to strengthen a bond with nature and get back to a more human way of life. Here are her five favourite spots to lay her head in water.

 

1) Nordhavn, Copenhagen

 

Nordhavn is a harbour area that can be found at the coast of the Øresund in Copenhagen, Denmark.

There are a lot of places to choose from in Copenhagen but this is one of my favourites, a modern area in the north of the city with a very deep and very cold harbour and a great space for swimming. It’s always a lovely place to come with friends and a picnic on a sunny day.

 

2) The Arctic Hideaway, Norway

 

 

This tiny hotel on an Arctic island in Norway is somewhere I go back to time and again to reconnect with nature, find a sense of peace and calm, and swim in ridiculously cold water. The hotel has a sauna – which really helps – and after you’ve swum, you can sit and gaze out of the windows in the main living space at the sea as it flows by. It’s a place that has stolen a place in my soul.

 

3) Sørenga seabaths, Oslo

 

 

This sea pool can be found right at the end of Oslo harbour. It’s open to the public all year round and has options if you’re a lane swimmer or if you just want a dip. The thing I like most about it is the calm feeling you get when you’re in the water looking out to the horizon, where you can see the Oslofjord’s islands.

 

4) Hvammsvik, Iceland

 

© Sigurjon Ragnar

 

Of all of Iceland’s many, many hot springs and spas, this is the one I like the most: a former Viking hot spring where you can challenge yourself by swimming in the frighteningly cold and terrifyingly deep fjord and warm up in the many heated pools. It’s got a really natural feeling to it, and it’s a lovely drive out of Reykjavik along the coast to find it.

 

5) Uunatoq, Greenland

 

On a tiny island in the south of Greenland, there is a natural hot spring that the Vikings turned into a restorative bath. I like to think of them resting their muscles in there after fighting polar bears and wrangling walruses. Down the hill from the spring, there’s a perfect crescent of white sand, so you can do cold water swimming and warm up all in the same place. It’s the best place to swim in the region, hands down.

 

The Year I Lay My Head in Water: Swimming Scandinavia in Search of a Better Life is out now!