8 great swims round the world – from Norway to New York

The most extraordinary dips on the planet (and the best cold-water kit to splash out on)

© Lucy Ranson | Swimming in front of the loggia at Hever Castle
Swimming in history at Hever Castle

For the first time, visitors are being invited to swim in the stately surroundings of Anne Boleyn’s childhood home

Postcard from . . . Norway: swimming with salmon

On a ‘salmon safari’, fishing enthusiasts can get off the bank and into the water

13 outdoor swimming essentials

Dive in, the water’s… quite manageable, so long as you’re armed with this all-weather kit

Swimming with Norway’s killer whales

The delight — and dread — of a close encounter with orca

How cold-water swimming saved me

The chilly sea off New York’s Long Island has never felt so welcoming — or necessary — as during lockdown

Swimming in the desert: a Lake Turkana adventure

Away from the fertile safari parks, a newly launched trip takes visitors through Kenya’s desolate, dramatic, far north

More from this Series

Isabel Berwick: winter swimming on Hampstead Heath

‘Wild swimming is a sensible response to the pressures of modern life, especially the isolating effects of life online’

New York’s resurgent ‘urban swimming’ scene

Improvements in water quality have encouraged a growing number of swimmers

A natural high: wild swimming in the Outer Hebrides waters

The FT’s Mure Dickie goes on a personal quest to swim in a remote loch on the Isle of Harris