Originally Posted by
YVR Cockroach
1) having to wear real bathing suits and not (mostly applying to men) shorts
It depends. Most public swimming pools throughout Europe require you to wear proper bathing suits
and bathing caps (including longer one like men's fastskins made by speedo).
In open-air pools and hotel pools I've never seen anyone complaining about shorts, I usually wear. My shorts are usually surfing shorts by Quicksilver/Speedo/etc...
More problematic is probably drying and washing them correctly. Proper bathing suits are pretty unhygienic if you don't dry and clean them properly given that bacteria love hot & humid conditions.
Originally Posted by
YVR Cockroach
having to shower before entering the pools - (some places make it tricky for you not to shower).
Again. Proper swimming pools tend to force you to go through a shower, whereas open-air swimming pools and hotel pools are more liberal. In open-air pools, the shower's probably useless anyway given how many people pee in it, have drinks and food in the pool, etc... .
Originally Posted by
YVR Cockroach
I remember going to a hot springs in the Pyrenees where the water had a film of oil) on it.
Might have been sun screen.
Originally Posted by
YVR Cockroach
In Japan, onsen bathers make a very public ritual about body cleansing before entering the pools.
Understandable given that traditional Onsen don't receive comparable water treatment as pools.
----
As a longtime swimmer with multiple daily trainings, I can only give one specific advice: The more intense the smell of "chlor", the more pee is in the water. The smell results from the reaction between the water treatment and pee.
The smell was usually stronger in school swimming pools (where we trained a lot). But go to a freshly cleaned pool in the morning: There's barely any smell.
Don't worry too much about hygiene at hotel and open-air pools. Take a proper shower afterwards and you'll be fine.