Ahh, the swimming pools of Cadiz and Seville, mostly Municipal, owned by the councils and only open during the school holidays (July to August). They are such a bargain, usually 2.50 for adults weekdays, and 3 euros weekends, children always get a reduction, and pensioners often do. If you live by the pool and will go daily it will be worth your while to get a season ticket.
These are some of my local pools, in general my favourites, they make a circle around the epicenter of my Spanish life in Pruna.
All the Municipal pools have lifeguards, and I have never seen a dirty pool. However one of the reasons they are clean is because you have to shower before entering the pool to wash of dust and dirt, and this really helps keep the pools clean.
The google maps url for all the pools mentioned is below this blog
I have not put these pools in any order other than my favourites first, and of course I am bound to have left loads of great pools out so please post your preferred pools in the comments section.
Rio Corbone
On the A384 between Olvera and Almargen is a large restaurant with large car park in front. The Rio Corbone, I often stop there because they do the most delicious food. This year they reopened their pool, and they have made it stunning. Unusually there is no toddlers pool, and children have to be accompanied by an adult. This makes for a very tranquil swimming experience.
Open seven days a week, from noon till 8pm. Free, yes that's right, free, of course you have to buy a meal or a few drinks, but there is no entrance fee.
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Piscina Municipal Zahara de la Sierra
On the end of a side road on the drive up into the village of Zahara, this is a gem, a real find. Zahara has two pools, and both need a car to get to, so perhaps this is why it is so free of teenagers and children, (nothing against kids, but they do dive bomb, shriek, run around and have fun, how very dare they!) But this pool is a haven of peace and quiet.
Unusually it opens at 11am, and closes at 8pm weekends, and 7pm weekdays. There is a fantastic restaurant on a terrace so you can enjoy the spectacular views and look at the blue blue pool below.
Limited parking, but to be fair it was not hard to find a place due to the lack of customers.
Piscina Municipal Almargen
This is the pool with the salt in the water, reputed to have health benefits and to relieve arthritis and other aches and pains, and I certainly feel better after a couple of hours of swimming in it. It never gets too busy but there is a noticeable lull between 1p amd 3pm, when there only three or four other people swimming. It is always open on or before the 24 June, and also closes slightly later than the other pools, end of the first week of September usually.
Open seven days a week, from noon till 7pm
Easy parking in the car park by the entrance, or on the land next to it.
Moron de la Frontera
Well what can I say? This pool has it all, an Olympic sized pool, an ordinary sized pool, and two paddling pools, plus plenty of grass and a shaded playground for little ones. The restaurant is friendly and used by locals as well as pool customers. I usually combine with the Wednesday market and make a day of it. You can get pensioner rates (I found this out realising they had given me a pensioner rate without my asking, the blow of looking elderly was softened by the saving of over one euro!)
Due to the number of pools there is always space to swim lengths or just pootle around.
Loads of parking both on the car park outside and on the waste land next to it.
Pool opens at 1pm, and is closed Mondays.
Algodonales
On the outskirts of the rather lovely town of Algodonales is a delightful pool, easy parking right by the pool entrance. There is plenty of grass to lie on, and trees for shade. The pool is a decent size and particularly during siesta time (1pm to 3pm) not so busy that you cannot swim lanes. The restaurant is excellent. They appear to chop and change their opening times but in general noon till 7pm is the norm.
Pruna
When I arrive by public transport for a holiday here I only ever go to the Pruna pool, and it is excellent. Loads of grass and trees for shade, a large clean pool, friendly lifeguards, a friendly restaurant/cafe. Parking is not too bad. The pool has two shallow ends, it dips in the middle! This tends to make both ends busier with children so it is easy to do widths even when the pool is busy. It tends to stay really quiet until about 3pm.
Open noon till 7pm, closed on Mondays
Olvera pool
I feel quite guilty, because I always thought of the Olvera pool as one of the dowdier Piscinas, but it has had a revamp and is now gorgeous. And something I have never seem before, a ramp going into the water so that you can push a wheelchair actually into the pool. There are gazebos up for shade and the Bar Piscina does some lovely food. But because I am from Pruna and Olvera is my neighbouring town, this forces me to have tribalesque enmity towards to everything Olveran, so I have to point out that some few patches of grass are a bit sparse. Go on Olvera, feel the burn.
Playita Zahara
If I were going to a pool with a lot of people, and wanted to have a picnic, and make a family day of it then this would be top of my list. It is an artificial lagoon fed by river water before it enters lake Zahara lagoon. Loads of lifeguards, and not too much deep water. The setting is stunning. There is a restaurant seemingly run on Eastern European catering standards of the 1950s. Set menu, queue, and be served by what looks suspiciously like my old dinner ladies. I could not fathom out how to pay, or where to pay, so decided that an ice cream was what I really wanted.
The water is river water, so it has a murkiness and the odd bit of vegetation floating through,but this does not stop the children and their families from enjoying themselves. They do close it occasionally to clean,
Huge car parks, but I would advise getting there early in order to be in a car park near the entrance. It is open seven days a week from 11am till 7pm
El Gastor pool
This is the furthest pool from Pruna, nice size, a bit frantic with children in the late afternoon. The three times I have visited the times had randomly altered so I advise assuming that it is open from 1pm, because hanging around waiting for a pool to open on a hot day is hell (first world problems, yes, I know, but really life is too short to bake while being able to see a clear blue pool)
Camping El Penon, Algamitas.
Up high in the mountains this is the swimming pool for the campsite that they let visitors use for a fee. It costs four euros and you have leave photo ID with the receptionist. The pool is round and had a 'slice' of it shallow for toddlers. There is a really nice cafe, but the restaurant is out of this world. It is a rotunda with the jaw dropping views from the balcony and a very reasonably priced menu that is really eclectic (I had never had smoked cod before).
This is a private pool and tends to open early June till late September.
Easy parking, I have been there at 11 am and it was open, so probably from 10am till late . Seven days a week.
Piscina Municipal Algamitas
I truly do hate to be rude, but this pool is only for locals, or for when you are driving through and just have to have a quick dip or you will die. Even the opening times are weird, sometimes it only opens at 4pm. To be fair this is probably because Camping El Penon is very much nicer and not too far away.
Set in the centre of town it is not too easy to find parking by the entrance, but you would not have to travel to far to park. (I have added this so that the whole article does not gush on about lovely views and clear water, it gives a bit of balance).
https://www.google.es/maps/search/piscina+el+gastor/@36.8584392,-5.3219307,17z/data=!3m1!4b1
Zahara playita
https://www.google.es/maps/place/Municipal+Recreation+Area+Playita/@36.8153933,-5.3772597,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0xd0d14cfffffffff:0x8ac3fc037c030956!8m2!3d36.8153933!4d-5.375071
Camping el Penon Algamitas
https://www.google.es/maps/place/Camping+El+Penon/@37.018775,-5.1776853,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0xd0d4e030283e135:0xf9f20fc5bbe4f79e!8m2!3d37.018775!4d-5.1754966
Google map url for Zahara Piscina Municipal:
https://www.google.es/search?q=piscina%20municipal%20zahara&oq=piscina+municipal+zahara&aqs=chrome..69i57j0j69i60l3j0.7077j1j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rllag=36860102,-5397222,2568&tbm=lcl&rldimm=2687165940086041764&ved=0ahUKEwiQhJvok43cAhVKsqQKHfTcBkoQvS4IOjAA&rldoc=1&tbs=lrf:!2m1!1e2!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:2#rlfi=hd:;si:2687165940086041764;mv:!1m3!1d25072.571673876697!2d-5.35908175!3d36.86010255!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i517!2i377!4f13.1;tbs:lrf:!2m1!1e2!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:2
Google map url for Piscina Municipal Algodonales
https://www.google.es/maps/place/Piscina+Municipal+de+Algodonales/@36.882869,-5.4001589,16z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0xd0d6a79848dc01f:0xf44d7b701327ba06!8m2!3d36.882869!4d-5.3957815
Google map url for Almargen swimming pool
https://www.google.es/maps/place/Piscina+Municipal+Francisco+Morillo+Gonz%C3%A1lez/@37.007902,-5.0242039,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0xd72b28895186045:0x373bd044818c945a!8m2!3d37.007902!4d-5.0220152
Google map for the Moron de la Frontera swimming pool
https://www.google.es/maps/place/Piscina+Municipal+Mor%C3%B3n+de+la+Frontera/@37.1199441,-5.4682342,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0xd0d61705b808a91:0xafc6e2ec5dc79397!8m2!3d37.1199441!4d-5.4660455
Google map for the Pruna swimming pool
https://www.google.es/maps/search/pruna+municipal+piscina/@36.9731751,-5.2259322,17z/data=!3m1!4b1
Google map for the Olvera swimming pool
https://www.google.es/search?q=bar+piscina+olvera+piscina+pool&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rllag=36933022,-5257604,20&tbm=lcl&ved=0ahUKEwjkytHzho3cAhXHPBQKHVs2CosQtgMIKw&tbs=lrf:!2m1!1e2!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:2&rldoc=1#rlfi=hd:;si:;mv:!1m3!1d166.10495698517613!2d-5.25760495!3d36.93302285!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i8!2i10!4f13.1
Google map for the El Gastor pool
https://www.google.es/maps/search/piscina+el+gastor/@36.8584392,-5.3219307,17z/data=!3m1!4b1
Google map for the Zahara playita
https://www.google.es/maps/place/Municipal+Recreation+Area+Playita/@36.8153933,-5.3772597,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0xd0d14cfffffffff:0x8ac3fc037c030956!8m2!3d36.8153933!4d-5.375071
Google map for the Algamitas Municipal pool
https://www.google.es/maps/place/Ayuntamiento+de+Algamitas/@37.0156409,-5.1517038,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0xd0d51fc31636f17:0xe58dff6a768a0df3!8m2!3d37.0156409!4d-5.1495151
Google map for Camping el Penon Algamitas swimming pool
https://www.google.es/maps/place/Camping+El+Penon/@37.018775,-5.1776853,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0xd0d4e030283e135:0xf9f20fc5bbe4f79e!8m2!3d37.018775!4d-5.1754966