Alimos Municipal Swimming Pool | Δημοτικό Κολυμβητήριο Αλίμου

Residents €4.00; non-residents €8.00. (Local registration requirements apply; see "Facility Notes", below.) [June, 2022]

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The pool's web page describes it as 50m x 25m; when we measured it, we found it to be 50m x 21m.

Registration documents: 2 photos, medical certificate from a cardiologist (or specialist) and dermatologist.
Citizens or Residents of Alimos must present a Certificate of Marital Status (issued on the same day by the Department of Municipal Status of the Municipality of Alimos) or a Citizen Card or a DEKO account.

Having heard about bureaucratic requirements for access to municipal swimming pools in Greece, we sent a note to the swimmer who sent us the information for this listing to ask whether the photo and medical certificate requirements stated on the pool's website were enforced. Following is her reply:

"Unfortunately, all Kafkaesque stories about the Greek swimming pools are true and in Alimos, too, all the usual bureaucratic hurdles apply, unless you're lucky enough to encounter one of the few exceptions of the staff. Chances for that, however, are similar to winning the British National Lottery main jackpot more than once.

"The normal procedure for any municipal swimming facility in Greece is to require even a chance visitor to present a physician's certificate stating that one is free from cardiovascular diseases and from (contagious) dermatological diseases. Two photos are needed too: One for the records and another for a fancy laminated card you'll be presented with at the end of the bureaucracy line.

"The medical certificates aren't just any certificates, though. Unless you're specially charismatic and lovable, they'd better be written in Greek by a Greek physician.

"All this is might be bypassed (exactly once) if you speak fluent and very, very loud Greek. If you have a somewhat recent swimming facility card from some other municipality, they usually let you in -- I've managed to use my card from Athens in Thessaloniki with repeated success, but I'm not sure how well that would go if I had spoken only English.

"The rant above applies only to the municipal pools, though it applies to all of them. Commercial establishments are a different story: They're happy to receive and share any diseases you might carry, as long as you cough up enough money for a single-entry ticket.

"For paddling in Athens without having to dip into the (rather filthy) sea, Lake Vouliagmenis (map link, HERE) is an option. For a hefty 12€ price, of course. But at least a public bus takes you right next to the lake.

"Obviously the lake is not a swimming pool, but there is over 50m length of water and, every time I've been there, someone else has been doing "laps" as well. So, I wouldn't put it into the database, but maybe a side note for those looking for an option outside the sea or the (sea of) bureaucracy.
[September, 2018]