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June is when the swimming season properly begins: the sea has warmed up, the days are long, and the water is busy from early morning. It is also, in most years, when the jellyfish turn up for a few weeks. Both of those things are worth knowing before you pack.

The short version

• The sea is swimmable from roughly late spring to October.
• Gordon Pool is a seawater pool on the front, five minutes from us, and it has no jellyfish in it.
• Jellyfish typically appear for a few weeks around June and July. It varies every year.
• Swim near a lifeguard and read the flags. The currents are stronger than they look.

Gordon Pool

A large seawater pool right on the seafront by the marina, a few minutes' walk north of us. It is filled from the Mediterranean, it is heated in the cooler months, and it has proper lanes for anyone who wants to swim rather than splash.

It is the answer to several problems at once: jellyfish season, a day when the flags are red, small children who are not ready for surf, or simply wanting to swim lengths. There is an entrance fee and it gets busy at weekends.

The sea

Swimming here is genuinely good. The water is warm through the summer, the beaches shelve gently, and the whole city is in the sea by evening.

Two things to respect. The first is the flag system - black means closed, red means dangerous, white means fine - and it is enforced by lifeguards who will shout at you, correctly. The second is that the apparently calm surface hides rip currents, which is exactly why the flags exist. Swim between the markers, near a staffed lifeguard tower, and it is a non-issue.

Lifeguards work set hours through the season. Outside those hours nobody is watching, which is worth remembering for an early morning swim.

The jellyfish

Every summer, usually somewhere in the June to July window, a swarm arrives along this coast and stays for a few weeks. In a bad year the sea is essentially unswimmable for that stretch. In a mild year you barely notice.

Nobody can tell you in advance which kind of year yours will be, and any blog that says otherwise is guessing. What you can do is plan around it:

• Ask when you arrive. Everyone locally knows whether they are in.
• Gordon Pool is unaffected, and is the standard local fallback.
• Stings are painful rather than dangerous for most people, but they are genuinely unpleasant and children mind a lot.
• They come in waves rather than staying put - a bad week is often followed by a clear one.

It is not a reason to avoid a summer trip. It is a reason not to build the whole week around one swim.

Practical notes

• Showers and taps are along the promenade, which matters when home is three minutes away.
• Midday sun in summer is severe. Morning and late afternoon are when people actually swim.
• Every apartment has a washing machine, which after a week of salt and sand is not a small thing.
• See which beach is which for where to get in.