Pool Review: Couldn't Pass up Another Portuguese Pool (#724)

28 February 2025

After the very hard Breakthrough 100s set the day before, my plan on our last Friday in the Algarve was just to enjoy a nice walk along the coast with my wife and chill out ...

... which we did.

I was going to take a day out of the pool.

But, then I had to go to the Post Office to mail our post cards ...

... and while looking at the map for the nearest post office, I just happened to notice that this was a very short walk from the post office:

... so I couldn't stop myself from stopping in!

What I found was an almost empty, quite warm, generally shallow, six-lane 25 meter pool:

... which was absolutely perfect for the stretch-out swim I wanted to do in order to make this, the Complexo Desportivo de Alvor officially pool #724 on my #1001Pools list. A delightful wrap to my week in Portugal.

There were two interesting aspects of this facility:

1. They had a two-step entry process. First, you had to go around the yellow wall to the right in the picture above to find the business office. In the business office, you paid for your ticket and got a receipt. Then, you had to go back out and around the yellow wall to the left to the actual entrance to the pool. There was an attendant there who then checked the ticket and let you in.

2. They had the coolest lockers - when all closed, they formed this perfect picture for a pool: