Love this pool! It has so many shade trees with lots of space to spread a blanket or set up chairs to read/nap, plenty of pool space to play water games or swim, plus a diving board. Oh yes, and always plenty of parking spaces. It's not the swankiest pool but it's a gem! read more

The water is just right on a hot day. The trees and park are really pretty. Parking is always easy.

Holy Goat Balls! am I glad this place exists! Costs three bucks to get in there's almost always no people and I can ride over on my scooter in like 15 minutes. This is totally my favorite city pool short of Deep Eddy and Barton Springs. I drop by here after work quite a bit for a swim, its only 3 dollars and never crowded. The lap lanes are almost always empty and the diving board is the shiznit. I'm baffled that there seems to be so few people here at all times given its location. Its near the ACC and Crockett campuses and you'd think it would be over ran with children. The real eye-catcher here is that the pool always seems to be extremely clean. City pools arent known for the cleanliness generally so color me impressed. There also tons of life guards so .. while I dont have children if I did I'd totally feel comfortable setting them loose on the pool while I read a book. Speaking of reading books I spend about half my time here laying on serape under a tree reading and its an amazing experience. The sounds of a few children playing in the park. The occasional splash of the pool as someone leaps from the diving board. I cant say enough good things about Garrison Pool and I'm sure if you check it out you will feel the same way. read more

See all

the staff gave my friend the death stare upon entrance then refused to give us a refund when we walked in to see the whole pool was taken over by a lifeguard class. will not be coming back read more

Garrison Pool - old man's face - Swimming Pools Near Me - Austin, Texas

I'll deduct one star because it's not open year-round. Now, I understand this pool is not as cool as Barton Springs or as historic as Stacy. And yes, it's chlorinated. (It's about $3 to get in.) But ask yourself the following questions: 1) Do I hate cold water? 2) Do I hate small swimming pools crowded with small kids? 3) Do I hate having to struggle to find a parking spot, when all I want to do is lolly gag in a pool for about 30 minutes, maybe do a couple of laps? If you've answered "yes" to all of the above, mark your calendars for next May 27. While the shallow end is full of kids (there is a smaller wading pool for the real tiny ones, though), the lane is most always empty (definitely wide enough for two people). The pool is 50 meters in length. It's warm. It's got a great diving board into the 12' deep end, and you don't have to wait in life for it. It might even be in your neighborhood, if you're lucky. Dates/times of operation: May 27-August 6, 8 AM - 9 PM August 7-13, 12 PM - 7 PM read more

Garrison Pool - Swimming Pools Near Me - Austin, Texas

Cheap, not crowded during the week, shade available, big and lots of parking. Hooray Garrison! The grass is kinda eh so bring a big, thick blanket to spread out. And to make it all better....a separate baby pool so the Mommies don't worry about their babies getting splashed by the older kiddos. read more

I love this place! It's like the working man's deep eddy. They have a great kiddie pool, long 50m laps, a diving board and huge main pool, lots of shade to sit and bake and there is always space. It's a municipal pool so it cost $$ to get it, but it is totally worth the $3 entry fee. read more

This is a review of the kiddie pool, mostly because with two Littles, pretty much anything adult never happens to me. I consider 3-stars to be average and would have given three and a half stars if that were an option. PROs: The kiddie pool is separate from the main the pool, and not only is it a separate pool, it's also separated by a fence which makes it much less tempting to the Littles to try and check out the bigger pool. They never even glanced that way which helped me feel more at ease. The depth of the pool was PERFECT for the Littles who were two and three years old. They were able to walk around inside the pool, climb out the side of the pool, use the ladder to climb back in .... all by themselves. No super clingy, I can't touch the bottom, I must hold on to my human so tight I might choke them going on that day. We went around 6pm during mid-August and almost the entire pool was in the shade! Even with soaring temps, the water and shade made for a super nice evening activity. The bathrooms are close by so we didn't have to go far when nature called. The bathrooms are "open-air", meaning no ceilings. We didn't bring any pool toys, but we were told that toys would be okay as long as they weren't water guns. Plenty of parking, none of which puts you too far from the entrance. There is a separate playground in the same area if you have energy for that afterwards. CONs: There is no seating in the kiddie area, and the concrete area around the pool is not very deep so even if you brought your own chair, you may end up blocking the walkway around part of the pool for others. The area around the pool seems to be pebbles mixed with concrete and can be a little painful to walk on for little feet so swim shoes are recommended. The grass is also pretty nonexistent in this area so when it comes time for the pool "safety-check" there aren't to many options of where to plop it. The two year old got over excited a couple times and started the "walk-run" from point A to point B, for which he was reprimanded and put in time out. Towards the end of our adventure he tried it again, and both I and the life guard called for him to walk. However there was a teenage girl who had visited with the lifeguard almost the entire time we were there (and I'm assuming an off duty guard) and must have felt the two year old wasn't responding quick enough and started screeching at him like a dinosaur with a toothache to walk. I mean at that point everyone in the area stopped what they were doing and looked at the velociraptor to see WHAT was going on. I have no idea who she was, and an unidentified stranger screeching at a small child wasn't helping anything. It put a slight damper on an otherwise nice evening. Even with all the great positives, we haven't been back to this pool due to the velociraptor incident which left me with not such a great opinion of this summer's lifeguards at this particular pool. read more

Garrison Pool - The Littles standing in the pool and touching the bottom, they loved it! - Swimming Pools Near Me - Austin, Texas

See all

My 6 year old daughter and I really enjoyed the time we spent together at Garrison! She's still getting "her strokes" down as she calls them, but she's a pro doggy paddler and can float like a cloud. There wasn't a lifeguard free for the diving board, bummer. We had a great time all-in-all! I'd recommend this pool to anyone looking for a laid back place to cool off in Austin, TX. Oh yea, we were there during the weekend so I don't know what the weekends are like. One really sweet perk, free for Veterans! This saves $5 for adults that served in the military. Thank you Vets. read more

Growing up dirt poor in South Austin in the 90s, this place was a perennial summertime splashing/stomping ground. Ahh, memories. I can still smell the chemicals and the undersides of my feet hurt just thinking about those brutal gravel sidewalks that felt like walking on hot coals. read more

I bring my kids here all the time. Gets pretty busy during the summer. It's free for military members, but be sure to let them know bf you pay. read more

Awful staff, very rude. Don't expect to use the restroom if you're at the park and are paying for other services produced there.

This pool is a great find! There's a playground in the shade next to the pool so your kiddos can run around (separate from the pool area). There's lots of parking and restrooms inside (no ports-potties!). There's a smaller, shallow pool for the littles with some area around to put your stuff up. The grass isn't too great, but there's room to put a blanket down for snacking and it's shaded. The larger pool has a diving board and a few lanes for lap swimmers. The shallow end is 3 feet deep and fairly large. This is where I spent most of my time with my 2.5 yr old. We enjoyed it greatly and for $1 for her and $3 for me, it's money well spent on these hot hot days. You can even get a stamp/slip to leave and come back if you want in the same day. We'll be back! read more

This little jewel of a pool is a nice neighborhood pool that is big enough to not run into someone in the pool. There are lanes for laps and the rest is a free swim area. A diving board with a roped off area for diving. The occasional mandatory exit of the pool for about 5 min. can be annoying. they call it a safety check but never saw anyone doing any water testing and the people doing laps stayed in. $3 for adults $2 for kids. It's a no frills pool, lifeguards that patrol the pool. The 'grass' is just mowed weeds so it gets all over your towels with leaves and twigs too. A kiddy pool off in another area for the tots. Easy to get to with plenty of parking. read more

Been going here for 25 years. Ever since i was a kid i have loved this spot. Shaded seating. Plenty of parking and a diving board. Fun fun

I used to go here as a child and now as an adult I have started to go back with my husband and step-son. The separate kiddie pool keeps a lot of the kid traffic isolated and there are two designated lap lanes that I have never had to wait to use. I started swimming laps here because my body all of a sudden couldn't handle the cold water at Barton. I miss Barton for sure but Garrison is closer, warmer, and more convenient for me. Plus it brings back happy childhood memories for me and I like that I am making some new ones with my step-son. read more

Too much chemicals! My eyes were burning badly. The water was dirty with lots of dirt and stuff. No chairs to sit, bring your own. I am giving two stars because they have a separate kiddie pool which was nice. read more

If you are a lap swimmer, I don't want you to know about this pool, because I swim here regularly when it is open in the summer, and generally they reserve 2 lanes just for lap swimmers in this outdoor 50 meter (!) long pool. The awesomeness of a 50 meter public pool that I can walk to is partially off-set by the following negative factors: 1. the season is way too short. They are generally open during the AISD summer break, which means they close it too frikken early in the season, generally mid-August when it is still good swimming weather. They keep Northwest open later, why not this one? 2. the men's dressing area/bathroom is down right skanky, seems like it is rarely cleaned 3. the water really heats up by mid-August to almost bathwater temp, too hot to swim sometimes. one summer we convinced the management to drain off and refill with cooler water, but with the drought that is impossible 4. by the little half wall between the main pool and the baby pool there is often poison ivy growing, WATCH OUT! that is where a lot of like to put our towels and other gear. sometimes we have been able to get the staff to weed it, but it seems to come back each year. 5. sometimes the many, many kids don't realize that the lap lanes are for swimming laps so you need to be careful of kids jumping into the lanes. 6. no backstroke flags, so take your life in your hands. 7. shallow end is pretty shallow, so you need to do a tight flip if you don't want to hit your head. 8. it is chlorinated, so if you love algae, or semi-natural pools, stick to Deep Eddy or Barton Springs If you have kids, this is a swell place I would think for the following reasons: 1. It has a true, separate "baby pool" for the little toddlers, and they generally assign a guard just for it. 2. a separate diving well with a diving board for the older kids, one of the few diving boards outside of Barton Springs 3. a huge general swimming area 4. shady picnic areas galore, just outside the pool fence....you can smell the BBQ when you swim...mmm! read more

I love go here with my nieces they have pools for kids separated from adult pool... I usually go here during my weekday day-off the place is not crowded in this time.. read more