The public pools in Iceland are beautiful and warm and a great place to take your little ones any time of year. (Swimming outside with snow in your hair is a really cool experience!) It is well worth the effort of getting everyone ready for the pool. BUT yes, what you’ve heard is true–you are expected to shower naked (soap, shampoo, and all) before entering the pool. No, you can’t skip that part. No, your kids can’t skip that part, even if they don’t want to be naked in front of strangers. What you need to know, then, is how it all works; that’s what we’ll tell you in this post.
With my kids, at least, part of making a new and anxiety-inducing situation more comfortable is talking through it step by step beforehand so that they know exactly what to expect. Kids who feel like experts and who are telling you what happens next are not kids who are worrying! So in this post, we will try to give you the info you need to let them become experts. All the pictures here are from public pools, not the fancier spas, so they won’t be showing the upscale end of things!
When you enter the building, usually the first thing you do will be to pay your entry fee (not usually the children’s job!). At this point you should still be in street clothes. When going to the Y at home, it may save you time to put all the kids in their bathing suits ahead of time, but that won’t do you any good here–as we noted above, you would have to take the suit off to take a shower anyway. If you are not bringing your own towels, this is also when you can rent towels. You may or may not be given a locker key or token at this point, but everywhere we have been, you will eventually have access to a locking locker, included in the admission price. Once all the business at the desk has been taken care of, you will be directed toward the locker rooms.
But before you get to the locker rooms (rarely, inside the locker room), is the shoe area! (The shoe area? What is a shoe area?) It is a room/hallway/sectioned off area with benches and shelves where you leave your shoes (and probably socks too)!
Sometimes this area will also have coat hooks for hanging up your cold-weather gear. So everyone sits and takes off their shoes and then goes barefoot into the gender-appropriate locker room. (I suppose if you are bringing flip-flops, this would be when you would put them on.)
Once you enter the locker room, it is a good idea to scope out the layout before starting to undress–more comfortable to wander around looking lost now than later when you are naked! You will be looking to see where a few things are located. First, the lockers. You may or may not have been assigned a specific locker, depending on the pool/spa you are at. Next, the showers and the towel/swimsuit cubbies.
There should also be a bathroom somewhere. Sometimes there are two: One between the lockers and the showers and one between the showers and the pool. Finally, look for any baby-related supplies you may need. There is always a diaper changing area, usually a lot more sturdy than the plastic fold-down ones in the US. Unfortunately, the one locker room where we asked to take pictures was the one where they had the standard US-type! I will try to get another picture later of the Iceland-typical changing table.
The men’s locker room will also have a baby changing area, though not always as nice. Here is the corresponding area in the men’s locker room at the same pool:
There is usually also at least one high chair. These are small and easily moved high chairs, typically near the towel cubbies.
Why would you need a high chair in a locker room? Well, it is a handy place to stash the baby when you are changing into or out of your swimsuit or drying off–much nicer than a towel on the floor. I’ve not tried to bring it into the shower with me, but it is very difficult to shower with a baby on one hip and the high chairs aren’t the kind to be damaged by water, so that might not be a bad plan, either!
Once you have the layout figured out, it is probably best to send everyone to the bathroom before you really get started. Then everyone undresses, putting your bags/clothes/etc. into the lockers, but keeping your swimsuits and towels (and goggles or any other supplies you need *at* the pool) with you. Ideally, you won’t come back to the locker after this until you are leaving! You all head to the towel/swimsuit cubbies and put your towels and swimsuits (and swim diaper if your child needs one) there. Note that occasionally these may have numbers that correspond to your locker on them, but usually they are unnumbered, so you can choose whichever one(s) you want.
The showers are usually all in one open room, as you may remember from gym classes in high school (if you are old like me!).
You do not have to bring soap with you, as every one we have seen has had shower gel at a minimum. The fancier spas will also have shampoo and conditioner, though you can’t count on that. To minimize the stuff I need to carry, we usually just use the shower gel to wash our hair as well, and worry about conditioning (if necessary) when we get home. So once your suits and towels are stashed, take your showers as the signage directs–usually there is a visual (to avoid the language barrier) indicating that you must wash your hair, underarms, crotch area, and feet. (You can see an example of this on the wall in the picture of the changing table above.) After showers, you go back to the cubby area–not the locker area: they try to keep the floor there dry-ish–to put your swimsuit on. You can leave your towel in the cubby while you swim or you can take it outside with you if you are worried about the temperature. At many pools you will be encouraged to leave your towel inside, as sudden rain would not be an unusual event, and you don’t want to emerge from the pool to a cold, wet towel.
You might wish to give some thought ahead of time to the mechanics of showering and suiting up with your children. Since I have an infant with me, but also older daughters, we can trade off who is holding the baby so that I don’t usually have to shower with a baby on my hip or pull on my swimsuit while holding a slippery wet baby. The high chair is invaluable for the times when I have been there without one of my older kids.
Another useful thing to know is that on the way from the locker room to the pool, you can usually find a box of water wings that are free for children to use. That was a hit for us on our last trip seven years ago, and the seven year old still uses them at some pools—even the 10 year old occasionally. (Most pools have very shallow areas, but one spa was almost uniformly 4 feet deep, which was slightly deeper than she liked.)
As far as entering the locker rooms with a child of the opposite gender, I am not sure of the cut-off age. I have certainly seen little boys of 3 or 4 with their mothers. At the other end of the range, my 10 year old went to the women’s locker room by herself when she went swimming with just Dad and brothers.
When exiting the pool, we will sometimes rinse off with a warm shower on the way in, just to minimize the amount of whining about how cold the air is! Pick up your towels at the cubbies, and then reverse the whole process until you are back outside with your shoes on. Remember to dry off near the cubbies where you pick up your towels to keep the floor dry near the lockers!
The first pool we went to, I heard some complaints from my kids about having to undress in front of people, but given how much they enjoyed swimming in the nice warm(!) pools, I haven’t taken much flak for it since then. Hopefully, with a little preparation, the locker rooms won’t seem scary to your kids either, and they can just look forward to splashing in the pools!
Wonderfully informative post! Prior to our trip, we had heard we would need to shower before entering the hot springs and pools, but did not know about the shoe area, lockers, cubbies, pool toys, etc. until we got there, so I expect this will be great info for folks.
The only thing I would add is how absolutely “worth it” it is to go to swimming pools in Iceland. Yes, it’s work to get those kids undressed, properly showered, into their suits and into the pool, but our trip to the pool was the highlight of our trip for our kids and my guess is that’s because it is the least “touristy” and most “fun” thing we did (and we did a lot of neat stuff!). At the pool, they were able to play with the local kids and that was pretty special. Our next trip to Iceland will allow for a lot more swimming in our schedule.
Thanks! I agree that getting the kids to at least one Icelandic pool is a must! Look for another “Swimming in Iceland” post soon that will have fewer how-to details and more advice on which pools we liked best.
You are right that interacting with locals is a special experience for kids. We’ve been looking for ways to do that! One neat thing we found is a nature camp offered by Náttúrubarnaskólinn at the Sheep Farming Museum outside of Holmavik, that is currently almost exclusively Icelandic children. You can sign up for each day of camp individually, and they welcome tourists, whether they speak Icelandic or not. The kids get to collect eiderdown from eider duck nests, feed bottles to lambs or other cool stuff, depending on the day, but also have time to just play outdoor games with the Icelandic kids.
As you mentioned, meeting kids at the pool is also a great way to meet Icelandic kids; we will be keeping our eyes peeled for more ways!
AHH!!! This post is perfect!!!! I’m a logistics nut and this was so so so useful, thank you so much for writing it!!!
Hi, few things at least. We all put our suits on in the shower. 🙂
Its at school age or 6 that you have to go to the right gender rooms.
Some pools have plastic basins you can have on the floor for babies while you shower.
At least my kids used to like playing in the water in them while I showered.
Regards
Inga
Thank you, Inga! I will update the post to reflect your information. We are always happy to get more accurate details!
The basins sound like a great feature–I wish I had known about them last summer!
Lora
As an Icelander I say it is nothing wrong to show ones birth suit at any age. And the swimming pools are great place to relax and have fun with kids. But what we Icelanders learn very young is “Not to stare at people” we talk to strangers in the hot tubs but we do not stare. By the growing tourism I have noticed and I am plus 60 that foreigners stare in the hot tubs — and thus invade our private space. So either engage in conversation with people in the hot tub or just have your eyes relaxed not staring.
Thanks for your comment, Regina! I will add that into the post in my next update. Tips for fitting into Icelandic culture are helpful!
Lora
Hi, we are going to Iceland in a couple of days and would really like to go to a hot spring. We have a baby and a 5 year old. I am not too worried about the 5 year old, but as far as logistics with the baby, do you know if they have the high chairs/basins in either the Secret Lagoon or Myvatn Baths? These are the two we are most likely to visit. I just don’t know how I would get showered and dressed with a baby without a handy place to “park” him. Thank you!
Hi- I don’t remember seeing high chairs or other baby options in the locker rooms at Myvatn or Secret Lagoon. I will reach out to ask (or let us know what you found!) In general it seems like the local thermal pools were more likely to have these amenities. But I’ll see what I can find out!
Edited 6/26/18: I received responses from both places. Myvatn says: “We have high chairs for babies, they look excatly like the blue chairs (except they‘re white) in the post.”
Secret Lagoon says: “we have diaper changing table in the women`s shower and at the restroom close to the reception.”
Lora, this was one of the two most helpful posts I found to prepare for a visit to Iceland’s public pools with my kids. Yours is THE BEST for families. I’m writing a post about my own locker room experience right now, in part because I have some mild accessibility needs and I coudln’t find the information I wanted before I was there to see for myself.
I noticed that this post didn’t come up when I searched your site for “pool.” You might want to add a few more links between your Blue Lagoon and other swimming related posts to make this one easier to find. 🙂
This is a great, helpful post! I’m overthinking this, but the logistics are still slightly unclear to me. So you shower (naked), and then you walk (dripping wet) back to the cubbies to grab your swimsuit and get dressed in your swimsuit without toweling off (I have a 1 piece that is difficult to get into when I’m dry – being wet, this is going to be comical… but you wouldn’t want to “waste” your towel by drying off from the shower, right?). Then you go out and swim. When you come back in, you aren’t necessarily ‘expected’ to shower again? (but can if you choose..?) So you come in and immediately dry off OR stay wet and head for the shower (because, again, you’re saving that 1 precious towel) but in any case, you don’t go into the locker areas while you’re still wet. You dry, then head to the locker to re-dress. My other question involves the nudity – I’m good with the naked showers; not going to try to sneak out of doing it or anything, but I’ve heard there’s actual shower police who watch you shower. Is that as awkward as it sounds? Are we talking someone who gives quick glances just to make sure everyone is in compliance, or are we talking someone who actually watches your whole shower, making sure you wash all the highlighted parts? My main worry is for my 8yo son. He has an actual, diagnosed anxiety disorder. I don’t know how he’ll do with the nudity aspect (both his and being around strange naked men). I’m hoping the draw of the warm swimming pool will overcome that!
Hi Tara!
I think you have it mostly right. Yes, assuming you don’t want to get your towel wet, you have to put your swimsuit on after your shower while you are still wet. I guess you could bring a second smaller towel as your “before” towel to help get your swimsuit on?
And yes, on the way out of the pool, showering is entirely up to you. The showers are on the way back into the locker room, so you’ll get to them before you get to your towel; it kind of works out?
The shower police are overstated. I think we saw one person once who was making sure people showered first, and I don’t think he (this was in the men’s locker room) was watching to make sure you hit every body part. He was making sure people didn’t skip the shower, and didn’t shower with their bathing suits on. That’s one time out of a couple dozen swimming trips. Maybe there were more that were much less conspicuous?
You could consider visiting one of the less touristy swimming pools first? This might reduce the chances of encountering the shower police (though again, I think finding them at all is rare.) We really enjoyed the pool at Álftanes, which is where the inside pictures in this post are from. (This pool was walkable from our house outside of Reykjavik, though!) You’ll find lots of friendly locals.
We are having to children aged 7 og11 years old. Can they use the slides in the pools alone?
Hi Elisabeth- yes they can! Parents typically seem to hang out in the same pool where the waterslide ends. So you’re off to the side, but in the same area.
Hi, thanks for this… going to show it to my son!
We are visiting Iceland in May for 5 days and plan to swim a few time’s but with him being 13 and us from the U.K. the nudity will be challenging for him probably..
His attitude to nudity has been inconsistent to say the least lol, the bathroom doors locked but then he’ll casually stroll back to his bedroom naked occasionally?
Has anyone else visited with teenagers?
Any advice for my tweens/teens who are more self conscious? Also just out of curiosity what are pubic hair grooming standards in Iceland so we stay with the norms.
Hi Wanda,
I would just try to tell your kids that the local Icelanders really aren’t going to look or care at other people’s bodies. They’ve grown up with having the showers work like this. You could also work out a system to keep them covered, like wearing a bathing suit until you get to the shower.
I wouldn’t worry about grooming. I promise no one really cares! You may want to start with a local thermal pool instead of something like the Blue Lagoon. That way you’ll have mostly locals in the locker room.
Showering naked doesn’t seem to be an issue at the Secret Lagoon. The venue is well aware most of the visitors are tourists. Shower in your costumes or be relaxed and go nude like the locals.