Gamlingen — Attraction in Strand

We recently visited the outdoor swimming pool in Stavanger during our 2-week summer vacation in Norway. While the location of the pool is appealing, our experience was marred by an encounter with the staff.

Pros: Great location 🏞️ Suitable depth for experienced young swimmers 🏊‍♀️

Cons: Unpleasant staff interaction 😠 Lack of understanding for children's needs 😢

Details: We have two daughters (ages 6 and 9) who are proficient swimmers. They were enjoying the 2-meter deep pool, diving and playing, but were interrupted during a rest break by a staff member. The staff member insisted that they prove their ability to swim 25 meters, despite my assurance that they were capable but needed a rest.

I explained that I was with them and responsible for their safety, but the staff member's persistence led to my daughters becoming upset and crying 😭. We were so annoyed by this unnecessary confrontation that we decided to leave the pool.

Conclusion: If you have small children, please be aware of the staff's approach to safety, which we found to be overbearing and insensitive. While the pool itself may be enjoyable, our experience with the staff was a significant...

As others have said, it's a lovely pool with decent gym and saunas. It would be five stars if not for the fact that they close for lunch every day. Although it says it's closed from 1-2pm, no entry is allowed from 12pm onwards, so it's effectively closed for two hours, which is ridiculous, super inconvenient and completely avoidable. Why can't staff just stagger their lunch breaks, like literally every other swimming pool I've ever visited? You do also get some people swimming quite slow in the fast lane, and many people don't observe the good swimming pool etiquette of waiting at the end of a length to allow the obviously faster swimmer to pass, but I think that's just some weird by-product of Norwegian culture so I'm not going to blame the facility...

Modern facilities that are sadly not maintained very well. The water temperature is far too high for much training. Although there are dedicated slow, medium and fast lanes, no one seems to choose a suited lane. This results in a slow, over full fast lane. Very frustrating indeed. A bit of active guidence from the Life guards on duty, managing swimmers into proper lanes would make this pool much more effective. Also, even though they close at 13:00 for lunch, no entry after 12:00 is allowed. Such a pity because this place has a lot...