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Balboa Swimming Pool

3.5 (53 reviews)
Open 7:00 am - 8:00 pm
Updated 3 months ago

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Great pool! Took this photo before the scheduled time started.
Chick G.

Wonderful clean, bright pool! The most important part - it's warm! I went at 12:30 and there were about 15 people, the pool has 6 lanes and one shallow pool where adults swam too, so not sure how shallow it really is. I wish the locker room was a bit larger with sections to avoid any awkwardness for shy people but it didn't bother me.

After the remodel there are still only 3 showers total in this massive pool facility. (3rd ADA compliant shower behind a wee wall.)
Bea B.

It's a spiffy-looking joint as it only reopened this past February & that's a plus. A minus is the fact that there would appear to be no till at the entry/reception area. One can either buy a pass of some sort (10 visits, one month, one year) online or pay an exact amount of six dollars for a single visit to the pool. Bring in the payment paperwork & exchange it for a tiny plastic doohickey to put on your keychain. Scanning the barcode each visit is not always simple. There's usually some glich with the computer system & folk are often asked to scan their bar codes twice. You will not know how many visits to the pool you have left if you've purchased a 10-visit pass, so, if you've not written it down somewhere, you will need to ask upon entry. All public pools in SF function this way and (this payment set-up) is about as efficient as Muni's. There's a huge laundry list of rules at the entrance as well that many visitors don't choose to follow (swimming in t-shirts &/or full on work out gear, bringing your second grade son into the women's changing area, kids diving into the pool) and aren't getting called out on, so just do what you like, I guess. The ladies' change room is fine as long as there aren't too many other folk (4-5 other women) in there with you. There's a narrow bench about ten feet long in front of a bank of lockers and a two-seater bench adjacent to another series of lockers. One may find that people who aren't swimming, but for some reason need to be in the changing room with their whole family, will be sitting on the bench you would wish to use in order to change out of your clothes or wet bathing suit. My advice is to get good at balancing on one leg. Unlike the public pools (and museums of Europe) that have a lock and key system whereby the key is freed and worn on one's wrist once a coin deposit is given, lockers here are only secured when one brings one's own lock. Most folk who use the Balboa pool deposit their belongings in lockers sans locks. Expect to open and close many-a locker before finding an empty one on busy swim days. There are two showers in the communal showering area with a third around a wall that is meant for those with limited abilities to use. I find it's often used by body-shy people. That's fine as the other showers work perfectly well and the hot water flows. They've recently posted signs in the ladies' shower stating that one should limit their shower activities to no more than 3 minutes' duration. These signs are about as effective as an umbrella made of fishnet. During the spring, lap swim and recreational swim are always paired Monday through Friday (Thursday has neither at the mid-afternoon time slot). Rec swimmers will be given a space along one of the poolsides & lappers will swim adjacently. At the weekend & over the summer months, these activities are divided into separate time slots entirely. But just like all the humans with their dogs running around on the athletic field directly in front of the pool facility that is a 'no dogs allowed' zone, you rec swimmers during assigned rec. swim time will invariably be contending with lappers who will swim at you, arms a-flapping with no regard for others. There's an especially delightful woman who does a version of the backstroke where her arms repeatedly shoot out perpendicular to her body & slap the water as she scoots across the pool. Expect to repeatedly have water be splashed in your face by this person. Bonus: She may even swim into you, not say a word & just keep on truckin'. Parking lot fills up quickly with folk parking illegally along the side of the facility facing San Jose Ave. in a pinch. Street parking is hit or miss. Fee-based swim lessons are to be had at various public pools around the city, Balboa pool included. Create a user profile in order to log-in to the Parks and Rec website and purchase the course you'd like via the main registration page. Choice courses go quickly. You may request to be put on a wait-list in the hopes that a slot will open. PS: ph. no. listed for Balboa Pool is disconnected. Other nos. attached to the facility funnel you to a recorded message re: general pool activity schedule. You cannot talk to a staff person unless you are already at the pool.

Lana O.

Ive been looking for a good affordable swimming pool for lap swimming for a few years... and i finally found one i totally love! It belongs to Parks and Recs and it was just remodeled.. The water is around 82°F..which is perfect( not cold..brr)..and its clean too! Its indoors but it totally feels like outdoors cuz of the glass wall looking out to green grass field...and lots of sky. I gets to 10 feet deep..wow.. never swam in one of those..it feels crazy. Oh... and its $6 to get in..and 10 min. away from my house!:) hehe.. Im in heaven.. and so excited to be able to swim on the regular base again. Few things can be better: Shower need more benches or stools, shower water pressure, need more shower towel hangers. And thats it!! Everything else is perfect. thanks to SF Parks and Recs!

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1 year ago

Love swimming at Balboa Pool! Great facility, friendly staff and a great community of swimmers!

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Review Highlights - Balboa Swimming Pool

The location is mostly residential, so there is not too much to do after your swim besides buy a sandwich from the corner store or get some Hawaiian shaved ice.

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Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Pool - The dance

Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Pool

4.3(78 reviews)
3.2 miLakeshore

Enrolled my baby into the Cuttlefish class and he enjoys it! Some instructors are more enthusiastic…read morethan the others, but that's okay. I like that the pool is heated since it gets pretty cold in the area. The first 15 minutes is free time, then the rest of class consists of sing-along and additional activities. I thought an hour would be too long, but it goes by pretty quickly. One session isn't enough to teach them to swim, it's nice to get them acclimated to being in the water and getting their whole head wet. Especially when we don't know anyone that has a pool near us.

Wonderful place to do swim lessons with your little one! I've done at last 3 Cuttlefish sessions…read morehere now with my daughter, which have been fantastic. You sign up for day of the week, and get a 1 hour swim lesson with other children around the same age (6 months - 6 years for Cuttlefish). The first 15 mins of the class are free time in the water, you can play with the various water toys. The next 15-20 mins is Karaoke in the Pool, with nursery rhymes in a circle time. The last 15-20 mins of the class are divided into age groups, with the youngest kids on one side, and older kids on the other. Some of the teachers are really wonderful, Mary is my favorite, as she has a passion and affinity for working with the little ones. All the teachers are great though in different ways. My daughter loves swim lessons here, even though the class week after week is the same thing lol. The classes are also inexpensive compared to Le Petite Balen. The makeup sessions are very flexible too - just be sure to call Monday morning at 10am the week you'll be needing a different day - and generally they're able to fit you in. Or even in my case, they couldn't, but said to call the following week to have me do the make-up, which was so kind. Parking is super easy here too, and conveniently located next to the Zoo and Sunset district.

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Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Pool
Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Pool - The set up

The set up

Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Pool

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Stonestown Family YMCA

Stonestown Family YMCA

3.5(191 reviews)
1.8 miStonestown

So I have been a member here for about 6 months. Of all of the San Francisco YMCA locations, this…read moreone has the best set up if you are doing strength training by Free Weights bar none. Besides an indoor weight room with multiple squat racks and benches, this location has an outdoor area were you can Squat, Deadlift, and Press to your heat's delight on Sunny days as well. The members are friendly and willing to help out on spots as well. Highly recommended this location.

Last Saturday, I brought my 3 year old son into the women's locker room to use the bathroom…read more There's a vanity area where women get ready, however there was an older man just sitting there, watching the women get ready, completely naked. I went over to the front desk and told them there was a naked man in the women's locker room just sitting there, watching everyone and he responded that they are legally not allowed to remove him. Please educate me because this doesn't seem right. I told them I usually let my 11 year old daughter go to the bathroom herself and I don't feel like it's safe and yet, YMCA did nothing. I was at the YMCA because my daughter had a game. After her game, I checked the women's locker room (about an hour after I took my son to the bathroom) and the naked man was still there, sitting there and putting lotion on his body. This is not okay. Please be careful everyone, especially those with children.

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Stonestown Family YMCA
Stonestown Family YMCA - YMCA Stonestown {9/30/2025}

YMCA Stonestown {9/30/2025}

Stonestown Family YMCA

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Sunset Recreation Center

Sunset Recreation Center

4.2(48 reviews)
3.2 miOuter Sunset

This review is specifically for the use of the event space. While the space was good for events…read more(overall I'd say a 4), the experience we had with a staff member was very alarming and needs to be known to anyone who is considering using the space. We had received a referral from using this space from the ease of rental and no frills set up and involvement from the staff. I unfortunately have to seriously call out the behavior of a staff member Cynthia who not only was so condescending, overbearing and disrespectful to us as we held an event for a family birthday but she also extended this behavior to guests. Extremely appalling and unacceptable behavior. She was not a guest but domineered like she knew everything better than we did, proceeded to try to demand to have my mother who is disabled try to help set up when she was sitting down and practically yell at her when she didn't comply. I had to repeat many to her without calling out her disability that she was just helping us look at the final result to which Cynthia did not immediately pick up and proceeded to say under her breath "well she's just sitting there she should help". Cynthia had no business bossing everyone around as we had a plan. At most helping set up the tables and chairs was probably all that we expected and even then we had hired people to do that, all she needed to do was tell us where to get them. It got worse during the day. She would go around like she was a guest helping at the event and her interactions were rude and belittled everyone she interacted with. She stressed all of us out the whole day and had many guests on edge, several of whom came up to us asking who she was and why she was so angry and mean. She put a cloud on what was supposed to be a joyous event frankly and we will never forgive her for taking that away from an otherwise special occasion. To top it all off she at the end of the day as we were cleaning up and waiting for the trash guy to come said "I've already done more than I'm supposed to do" - WHEN WE DIDN'T ASK FOR YOUR HELP OR OPINION!!! I expect so much better from a center geared towards bringing the community together - she certainly is not a representation of SF or SF Rec and Park and should seriously be considered to not be involved in these events in the future. So if you decide to use this space make sure you ask who will be working and demand a different staff if you find out it's Cynthia or get another place. She will absolutely RUIN your event.

This review is for the multipurpose space and kitchen inside the rec center for events and parties…read morebooked on the sfrec website. I booked this place for my son's first birthday because of its location - there's a playground and parking is not too difficult! Thankfully it didn't rain so guests got to enjoy the indoor party with food, drinks and other activities while also running out to the playground.. a perfect way to keep restless little kids entertained! The staff member was kind and helpful. He helped pull out all the tables and chairs from the storage room and helped us with take down as well. Another pro was the weather was really nice and sunny and the room was bright and had high ceilings, so it felt very spacious. Unfortunately some tables were broken so we couldn't use them. The permit did say that it was not guaranteed. However this impacted our party because we had many guests with not enough seats/tables. Maximum capacity written on the wall was 130+ also and I know I had a little less than 100 show up, so that was a bummer! Another con is that you do have to remove the trash after your party is over. I am not sure if this applies to all sf rec reservations but at Lake Merced Boathouse they have the same policy. It's pretty challenging to remove the trash from the site as they expect you to bring your own bags and to bring it home to toss...but we got it done. The kitchen is rather small but has everything you would need. It's not the cleanest but it did its job. We actually didn't use it as much as I thought we would but it was nice to have access in there and use the sink to clean off any food trays we had. Heads up that it does cost an extra fee per hour to rent the kitchen. They also have a keurig coffee maker if you're interested in that! I accidentally left my half and half in the fridge too...oh well. All in all I would recommend this location for a party especially if you're inviting kids. Booking the space was a little troublesome because I had issues booking online on their calendar with the right time frame so I emailed sf rec instead. I suggest looking into the prices online as they change and check the availability online as well.

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Sunset Recreation Center
Sunset Recreation Center
Sunset Recreation Center

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Fog City Masters Swim Team

Fog City Masters Swim Team

3.0(2 reviews)
3.3 miOuter Sunset

On the FAQ owner states that its a heated pool , my little kid shivers standing on the side of the…read morepool because there are four teachers for ten kids and other parents tell me that its a cold water and not friendly for 5 years old child, there is swimming competitions at this pool and can not be heated. I asked the owner for his name , he only refers to himself as JD and refuses to identify himself, rudely accuses me of lying ! I am all for education of children and community and never Yelped any business but this one needs to yelped. If you have a young child please check the temperature of the pool before enrolling . Very disrespectful owner/PR

I dropped my gym membership and joined!…read more I don't know about anyone else out there, but I'm a little intimidated by all the equipment of a gym. And I'm not excited to pay for a membership...AND a trainer, seems redundant. Group classes, well they're geared to one level, and if you aren't in it..too bad so sad for you. Step up fog city masters swim. Might I just preface this by mentioning, I AM a swimmer..as in I actually LIKE the smell of chlorine. (those who swim will understand) First, there are multiple levels of swim going on, so you can be in the fast, mid or slow set. Everyone there gets a good workout. Practice times are at a feasible hour...not 10am when us working folk are in the office. You have the choice of 5:30am, getting you out before you need to be in the office, or evenings at 6:30, plenty of time to get there, even if you want to put in a little overtime. You can work out up to 6 days a week, some days 2 times a day should you choose. When you get out of the pool, you actually feel like you accomplished something! & you're not committed, unless you want to be, you can choose, $50/month for all access, or $6.00 a drop in. (first time's free) For those who swim, at ANY level, I highly recommend it! You get personal attention. You feel like you WORKED, times are feasible to your day. The other people on the team are really nice. It's great, give it a try!

Balboa Swimming Pool - swimmingpools - Updated May 2026

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