Summer’s just about over, but you don’t have to give up that wonderful smell of chlorine and chronically-wrinkled fingers. Thanks to Swimmers Guide, at http://www.swimmersguide.com/ , you can find an indoor swimming pool in a directory of over 18,000 facilities in over 10,000 cities. It looks like it’s updated about once a month (last update September 1.)

You can do a keyword search for drill-down geographically. With the US, you select the country, then the state, then either the city or the county. Swimming pools are presented in a table that includes name and size of the pool, postal code, access details (public or not, hotel or not) and some other details (whether it has diving, whether it has a swim team, etc.)

Detail pages provide some additional information including telephone number and admission cost (the site notes that even with the admission costs, some of the facilities listed are not public) along with details of the pool (size, number of lanes, and pool temperature.) There’s also a link to the map, and random comments about other features of the pool. Some pools also have reviews that cover the pool itself, availability, and fees. (“The marble pool walls and flooring are attractive, but make flip turns impossible.”)

If you’re interested in swimming in general, also check out the link directory for swimming at http://swimindex.lornet.com/ . Both this site and Swimmers Guide are pretty basic design-wise, but have lots of great information. Of course now I want to go swim 20 laps…