13 best adult swimming goggles for pools, open water sessions and triathlons

Made from light density silicon and thermoplastic rubber, these are feather-light around the eyes. If you want to cut through the water for a fast, streamline swim, these won’t drag you back or weigh you down in any way. They’ll also allow you to swim without fear that you’ll suddenly be blinded by sunlight, thanks to world-class light-changing photochromatic lenses. A patented dye on the lenses is triggered into action by exposure to UV rays. When the UV rays get stronger or weaker, the coating darkens or lightens, respectively.

We witnessed this light-changing magic in action and were blown away by how speedily it happened. Although we started swimming on a cloudy morning, the sky cleared for bright and sunny conditions and these goggles became darker to reflect away the sun’s glare. According to HUUB, it takes only 160 seconds to go from clear to dark, which means you’ll be covered when you turn around buoys or face variable weather conditions.

While many goggles promise to be leak-proof, they are often disappointing. These pretty pink goggles from TheMagic5, however, are a revolution, helping to save our eyes and our concentration and make us faster swimmers in the process. After testing them indoors and in open water, we can confirm not a drop of water entered under the seals around the lenses, so, we could concentrate fully on our stroke, without worrying about the pool of water building up at the bottom of each lens. This is truly game-changing, whether you’re building up your confidence in the pool or pacing yourself for a new PB.

The reason these are a league above other googles when it comes to being leak-proof is they’re made to be custom fitted to your face. After paying for the order, we scanned our face, using an app on our smart phone. This recorded the exact shape of our face, and the goggles were then made to fit. When they arrived a few days later, we were impressed to find they suited the curvature of our features and felt light on the nose. The lenses are lightly mirrored but not too tinted, making them suit brightly lit lakes as well as indoor swimming pools. The goggles come with a durable case and anti-fog spray to keep them at their best for longer, too.

These feel tiny on the eyes, compared with the other swimming goggles we tested. However, once in the water, we were pleasantly surprised by the suction strength. Despite the low price, these are watertight and the small strap is surprisingly comfortable. We were also impressed that the goggles came with four different nose piece options. If you’ve got a particularly wide or narrow nasal bridge, you can tinker around with the different sizes until you find a secure fit.

Only a couple of details let this affordable pair down. Firstly, the adjustable piece on the head strap is quite flimsy and easy to snap, so you need to be careful when you’re fitting them to your face. Also, there’s no photochromatic detail or polarisation on the lenses, so, we’d suggest keeping these in your gym bag for pool swims.

These swimming goggles offer full UVA/UVB protection and an anti-fog coating. The polarised lenses are curved for clarity in both light and darker conditions, and they’re wide enough to offer a 180-degree view. We found they blocked the sun’s glare brilliantly during early morning swims outside, without being too dark for lengths in the pool. In fact, these goggles worked a treat inside when the artificial pool light was bright, eliminating distractions, so we could focus on our catch and overall technique. For triathletes training inside during winter and then outside come spring and summer, these are a great value piece of kit for year-round use.

Another positive is the ultra-soft silicone eyepieces ensure a great fit, even without the option of re-sizing the nose piece. We never suffered any of those annoying marks you sometimes get when goggles are too tight, either.

With a sleek mirror finish on a chic black strap, these looked and felt a lot more expensive than £23. They didn’t disappoint in the water, either. Thanks to a three-dimensional gasket that reduces pressure while keeping the seal tight, these are extremely comfortable when swimming. After we’d played around choosing from one of the three nose pieces, we found them to be leak-proof and fog-proof. Not once did we have to stop a swim to drain or wipe these goggles.

The strap is lightweight, which is great when you’re pushing yourself in speed interval sessions in the pool. However, we would worry slightly about it getting knocked or even snapped during competitions, so, you might want to keep these for training rather than racing.

These goggles were originally launched in 2010 and have been a popular choice for triathletes and open-water swimmers ever since. Given the popularity, Zoggs could have rested on their laurels but instead, the brand has adapted and reinvented the OGs over the years, for better visibility.

Like other goggles we have tested, the predator flex reactor update has light-changing photochromatic lenses, so you can see clearly in all weather conditions. There are two features that set them above the competition and justify the slightly higher price tag. First is the brand’s unique curved lens technology that offers more than 180 degrees of visibility. When swimming crawl, we were aware of what was going on in all directions, which would be pretty handy on a race day, to help spot another swimmer coming up and avoid being elbowed unexpectedly in the face. Second, they fit securely to the face, so, if there was to be any knock to the head, these wouldn’t go anywhere – this is thanks to the 3D flexpoint technology that allows the nose bridge to flex, providing a personalised fit. The quick-adjust strap locks into place once you’ve fitted it, to keep the goggles firmly in place. A hardy, zip-up case comes with these goggles, so you can look after them between swims and keep them in good condition.

If you want to progress in swimming, just like any other sport, you’ll need a plan of how to get better. You’re getting much more than just a pair of goggles when you buy into Form’s, because you’re receiving coaching, too. Not just any coaching but real-time, underwater coaching with immediate feedback. You don’t have to stop and chat with a coach on a poolside to analyse your form and make changes. Simply look down at the corner of the lens, where a display will show you how fast you’re going and you can adjust your technique for a more efficient swim. It’s little wonder they’re the goggles of choice for serious swimmers and triathletes such as multiple Ironman champion Lionel Sanders.

Although they’re undoubtedly clever, no technical knowledge is required to set them up. It’s easy to get started out of the box, by following step-by-step instructions on the app, which has training plans that you can send to the goggles via Bluetooth, so you can remember what to do once you’re in the water. It also walks you through how to connect to a Garmin or Apple Watch, for a GPS connection and heart rate data.

We found seeing our stats in real-time to be hugely motivational, as we wanted to push harder to see the numbers go up. The goggles can display the number of lengths, strokes per minute, split times, stroke count and distance per stroke in the interface. Using the stroke rate is especially helpful in open water, where a high stroke rate is associated with better performance.

Despite one side sporting what looks like a small, rectangular box with two buttons on it, the goggles feel balanced on your face. The seals are tight – we never had any water drip in during tests – and the goggles don’t fog up.

The price of the goggles includes a year’s subscription to the form app, after which it’s £13 a month. If you’re chasing a specific swim goal, this is still a huge saving on employing a swim coach.

Speedo is a household name and has made swimwear for more than 100 years. It can be hard to know where to start looking for a pair of goggles on the brand’s website, because there’s such a dazzling array of choices, but if you’re looking for a comfortable fit and a pair sturdy enough to last for years, you can’t go wrong with the biofuse 2.0.

We really liked the fit of these goggles, as the push button strap adjustor is easy to tweak and lock into place. The lens frame and nose strap feel flexible, so you can get away with bending it so that it sits flat to the contours of your face. If you tend to throw your goggles around when you’re carrying them to and from the pool, these feel durable and we’d guess they could take a knock without scratching or snapping. As a further bonus, these are planet-friendly, too – Speedo has used materials that reduce the impact on the environment in the design of these comfortable goggles, rather than single-use plastics or rubber.

HUUB makes some seriously stylish wetsuits that are engineered for performance, and these goggles are the icing on the cake for any image-conscious triathlete or open-water swimmer. With huge external soft silicone gaskets that spread out around the eyes like the wings of a manta ray, these goggles will help you start a swim with the confidence that you’re prepared for anything and that you look better than most of the competition, too.

We felt that the photochromatic lenses performed exceptionally well on sunny days during laps of the lake, adjusting to reflect when we were swimming into direct sunlight and when the light was behind us. But it was the expanse of silicone on the face that made us the happiest in the open water, confident that none of the cloudy, murky water would seep into the goggles and slow us down. The strap is also satisfyingly thick and would stay in place in a crowded competition environment

With their ski-mask size and bright yellow mirrored front, these goggles drew a lot of attention at the pool and in the lake. No other swimmers were sporting eyewear as big or as colourful as these during our outings and, after testing them, we think these deserve to be more popular than they are.

The first thing to note is they are incredibly streamlined. Cool silicone is injected directly into the lens, resulting in an ultra-light frameless construction that is hydrodynamic and built for speed. A low-profile compact skirt brings the lens closer to the eye, to further increase the field of vision. The lens has duo curve technology, so you can see panoramically both vertically and laterally. We never had to physically move our head to look up, down or side to side, as all we needed to do was glance with our eyes and the goggles revealed all we needed to know.

If you want to protect your eyes from the sun’s glare but aren’t ready to spend the money on light-changing photochromatic technology, these are a decent middle ground for open water swimming. The reflective front of the lens can effectively reduce high levels of glare reflecting off the water, so you’re never squinting or struggling to see what’s ahead. Or to the side, for that matter, as they have Zoggs excellent curved lens technology, so you can see all around you without straining your eyes.

These lenses are best for swimming outdoors, as the titanium that’s useful for blocking the sunlight makes it too dark for swimming indoors. But for invigorating morning dips or for swimming while watching the sunset, we found them to fit securely to the face and to be reliable against leakage.

Founded by former triathlon champion Scott Unsworth in 1992, Orca’s products are designed with resilience in mind. The brand’s killa 180 goggles will power you through a swim session, without letting any water into the lenses, no matter what the wave conditions or wind are like.

These goggles feature big, soft gaskets that fit close to the eyes and we found that these offered excellent suction and seal without compromising on comfort. Orca says this pair fits comfortably, thanks to TPE rubber being attached to the lens and frame, using the latest injection technology, and we would agree. We felt a distinct lack of pressure when wearing these goggles, and this made swimming much more enjoyable. We were also impressed by the curve lens technology, which offered a wide field of vision, especially given the low price point of this pair.

The design is available in six different colours, we tested the white strap and blue lens option, which felt quite fun to wear, given that most goggles come in black or darker shades. However, the serious design reason for the blue lenses is that they enhance warm colours in full sun, while eliminating reflective glare.

With quartz crystals dotted around the lenses, these goggles from Bling2O cheered us up the moment we laid eyes on them. Once on, we could not stop smiling and we weren’t the only ones they brought joy to – on their first outing, we received not one but two compliments within the first five minutes.

Made from soft silicone, they’re more comfortable than you might expect. The flexible silicone nose strap ensured they fitted close to the face, so there wasn’t any leakage and the back clip was really easy to adjust. The lenses don’t adjust to changing light conditions, so, we wouldn’t recommend them for triathlons, but they’re brilliant for everyday swimming, especially if you’re there to have fun as well as get fit.