Swimming is the only bearable outdoor exercise in the summer. Nothing's more relaxing than slicing through the cool blue water. Breathe, stroke, breathe, stroke. The rhythm is hypnotic, meditative. The only problem is that unless you live in a semi-upscale apartment complex or have a lap pool in your back yard, finding a place to swim is tough. Private health clubs are pricey, and public pools are full of kiddie pee and obnoxious, squealing, cannonballing adolescents intent on killing your buzz.
The only sane thing to do is find a pool to crash. This takes a little preparation and some research, but once you've laid the groundwork, you should be able to swim in peace, comfort and even luxury till the young'uns take their little bladders back to school.
First the research: You need to find at least four or five pools to rotate through because if you crash the same pool every day, you'll eventually get noticed. Some people swear by apartment and condo complex pools, and it's true those can be great if you can find a nice one that's accessible. But at many of the nicest ones, like the pretentiously named Madison at SoHo in Tampa's Hyde Park, security's tighter than a yuppie's butt. That's one reason I prefer hotels.
Hotel staffers expect strangers tramping through their lobbies, so if you behave yourself and vary the times and dates of your visits, you're unlikely to raise any alarms. Plus, hotels often have larger, cleaner pools, and they even supply towels.
When scouting hotel pools, dress neatly and enter the building through the front door. Feel free to wander around until you find the natatorium. Hotel personnel are used to people wandering around lost and will even direct you to the pool if you ask.
You're looking for a nice pool with easy access and no security, preferably one you can enter without having to pass by the reception desk. (If you're lucky enough to live near the beach, you don't need any of this advice; just walk the beach and find an inviting pool, enter and dive in. Hotels with poolside bars are especially cordial to non-guest swimmers, as long as you buy a drink or two.)
In the interest of finding hotels accessible to folks on both sides of the bay, I checked out pools near the Tampa International Airport and on the Courtney Campbell Causeway.
I hit pay dirt on the first stop, the Days Inn just east of Rocky Point on the north side of the road. It's a fab '50s-style Florida gem with a slightly skeezy outdoor bar attached, overlooking the water. You can have a beer and sammich and enjoy the noise of traffic roaring by on the Parkway, which may explain the bar's name: Thunder Bay Cafe. Bypass the hotel entirely and go directly to the bar. Take the boardwalk around the bar to the back, and there you'll find a lovely, large, empty expanse of swimmable blue.
The Radisson, on the south side of the Causeway and a few miles west of the Days Inn, also has a very nice, easily crashable pool. Just enter through the attached restaurant, Damon's Clubhouse, or the external door halfway between the restaurant and the lobby. Of course, they'll probably start locking that door, thanks to this article.
Sad to say, the rest of the Causeway yields precious little swimmable footage. The Holiday Inn and Hampton Inn both have stingy pools hidden away. Chase Sailport has a skimpy pool with no amenities, but it's fairly easy to get to and has a lovely view of the Bay.
Nearby West Shore Boulevard in Tampa yielded similar pickings. La Quinta has a smallish, but pleasant pool with pretty Spanish tiles and nice picturesque landscaping, accessible directly from the parking lot. The Best Western's pool is crashable but has all the warmth and charm of a gulag. The Marriott has by far the nicest, with plentiful access to a pool that's partly indoors and partly outdoors. Its weird shape makes laps more difficult but not impossible. The only problem: It's pretty busy most days.
The absolute best spots are on Cypress, just east of West Shore. The DoubleTree's pool sits in a shady outdoor garden grotto, equipped with comfy lounge chairs, whirlpool and a phone for ordering frosty drinks. The Embassy Suites next door offers a veritable spa experience, with an indoor tiled pool, Jacuzzi and exercise room, complete with treadmill and bicycle. The former Poynter Institute instructor who introduced me to pool crashing took me to Embassy Suites on my maiden voyage several years ago. On the day we visited, there was a lavish convention reception in the gorgeous atrium lobby just outside the spa. After we swam, we joined the crowd for free food and drinks. That's pool crashing with panache.
This article appears in May 15-21, 2002.