AdO Arena (Alexander Dale Oen Arena)

I swam here on a Saturday afternoon in October, 2026, and shared a 50m lane with only one other person. It continues to be a great facility (my last visit here was in January 2025). Sauna after laps is a real treat! At some 200 Norwegian krona, it comes with it’s price.

This is my local pool and it has spoiled me. The facility is modern, bright, spacious, and generally clean. The 50m pool is the best I have swum in as a recreational swimmer.

The pool gets very busy and at peak times, only two lanes are available to the public. Lanes are marked with speeds (hurtig/fast; middels/medium; sakte/slow) but these are not enforced and lane etiquette varies. Recommended times are weekdays before 4 PM or just before closing (when you may be able to get a 50m lane to yourself) or weekends just after opening.
[February, 2026].

This is a great facility but heavily programmed, so I suggest checking the pool's lane schedule (click on the "Pool map" link on its website) to ensure best lane availability. I went at 11 AM on a Tuesday (I took advantage of half-price off-peak admission) and had a 25 m lane all to myself. Note that the digital wrist band is both your admission ticket and locker key.

This is supposed to be one of the best pools in Bergen but, unfortunately, it wasn't the greatest place to swim laps. The 50m pool was filled with kids (and adults) jumping in and out of the lanes, there was a lot of debris in the pool, and the locker rooms and showers could have been cleaner. This was a shame, as the pool itself looked nice, it was walking distance from the tourist area, and the entire facility seemed pretty new.

Like most things in Norway, the cost for a day pass at this pool was prohibitively expensive. Discounted rates were available if you bought a 20-pass booklet, but this only shaved a few dollars off the price.

If you can swim here in the morning before the crowds arrive, it may be worth it, but otherwise, I would probably go elsewhere to swim laps.

This is an excellent pool. I swam here at 2 PM in early January 2025. There were a total of 50 people in the water in the big pool - it was not crowded and easy to swim laps. This is a good place to do your workout!

Definitely one of the best pools I have been to in the world. It has everything, including a big sauna in the men's changing rooms. And kids are allowed to have fun here, e.g., access to the diving pool and the slides. (Unlike the "no fun allowed" attitude in UK pools!)

This is an amazing place. The 50m pool was divided into nine, wide lanes - five of which are set up as 50m lanes and four as 25m/23m lanes. Two of the 50m lanes were designated as ‘swim with head above water’ and three were designated as ‘swim with head below water’. Everything is in Norwegian, but with pictures :) so it's really easy to understand and get oriented. There’s also a second pool with five 25m lanes, which is used as a diving pit.