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    Palisades Recreation Center

    4.1 (14 reviews)
    Closed 9:00 am - 9:00 pm
    Updated 2 months ago

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    Basketball court
    Damon B.

    This is one of the best recreation centers in DC. I write this review with much hesitation in knowing it could fill up with visitors, which is a huge negative to me. But I just feel compelled to share my love for this place! From the start, if you think this is only a kids playground, you're missing out on A LOT of other amazing features of this rec center. To me, the playground is great but it's also the least exciting feature, according to me and my kids. The parking lot is very small and often fills up. The problem is that everyone wants to go here at the exact same time for some reason. It's not a big deal if the lot fills up, however, because you can park in the surrounding neighborhoods. You can even park on the other side of Reno Road and enjoy a beautiful walk along a trail to the Rec center. If you are someone who has trouble parking, however, maybe this isn't for you. This wall of text lists everything that the rec center has: woodland trails with deer and wild life, views of the Potomac River Valley that extend to Virginia, tennis courts, skate park, batting cages, golf practice tee area made with turf, a grass softball field, grassy tree covered picnic tables, gardens with food and flowers, a turf soccer field, outdoor basketball, indoor basketball in a beautiful half court gym, indoor tennis if the gym is converted for it (elderly people play something called pickle ball which is like tennis but with a really slow ball), and a kids park with everything from climbing structures to swings to slides to a spray park with a small water slide. Inside the rec center there is also a foosball table, kitchen area, workout gym that is free for DC residents, a multipurpose room that is beautiful and has trophy/display cases showing artifacts recovered from the park, and plenty of equipment that can be checked out, as well as new and clean restrooms and water fountains. It is the most complete park in the city, in my opinion. It's not lacking for anything I can think of. There is even a weird hippie art thing next door to the park called the Glass Forest, and it has deer in it. It's creepy and cool at the same time. The first thing people think of here is the kids park. It can get very crowded and some of the people tend to leave more trash than others. The other negative that I have a big problem with is the rec center workers like to drive their cars up the pathways for no reason whatsoever, just to avoid walking 20 feet up the hill to the rec center from the parking lot. It's dangerous. But that's not going to spoil this amazing place for me. Whether it's hot or cold, there's always something to do here. Just a note: it took me a long time to understand how this place works. I can sum it up as, this was a favorite for elderly residents of the Palisades and they supported it for years and might have taken part in renovations that were recently completed. So everything is setup with old people first in mind. I found that frustrating at first because there were just a few things that didn't make sense to me, but now that I kind of have the right mindset for why the basketball court is reserved for elderly pickle ball tournaments from 9am-1pm some days in prime kids play time, it makes sense. That's probably just a personal issue lol.

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    Review Highlights - Palisades Recreation Center

    You can even park on the other side of Reno Road and enjoy a beautiful walk along a trail to the Rec center.

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    Chevy Chase Recreation Center - Basketball and tennis

    Chevy Chase Recreation Center

    4.5(4 reviews)
    3.0 miChevy Chase

    A great park with lots of options for fun: 2 tennis courts, hoops for adults and kids, playground,…read morebaseball field, dog run, and more. Having lived overseas where such amenities are simply not available or only to those who can pay, I say 'thank you' for providing taxpayers with something we can use every day.

    This is a fantastic recreation center that has it all. From an inside classroom to a posh grass…read moresoftball field complete with folding chairs instead of bleachers, one of the best toddler spray parks in the city, multiple climbing gyms, sandboxes, tennis courts, swings for kids and toddlers, and a basketball court. It has restrooms and a The splash park is full of not-bad plastic toys (cars, things people drop off at the park) which are not even broken, unlike most parks around here. This is a really nice thing for kids, but what makes it better is that the splashing isn't huge. It's just the right amount of water for a toddler. The play structures are also the perfect toddler size as well. And the entire place is fenced in with multiple rounds of fencing. There is so much fencing that many of the nannies are not interested in even closing the toddler park fence. For me this is a place I can relax as a parent. There's almost nothing that can harm my kids here, except for the yucky goldfish and cheerios from the other kids, ha ha. The patrons are what you would expect: extreme helicopter parents and nannies. They are more high strung than most, but hey that's what you get with the neighborhood. All in all, this place was amazing and I look forward to coming back.

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    Chevy Chase Recreation Center - Swings

    Swings

    Chevy Chase Recreation Center - All the plastic toys

    All the plastic toys

    Chevy Chase Recreation Center - This is apparently important in Chevy chase

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    SwimBox - Our instructors work with you in and out of the pool to keep you swimming safely.

    SwimBox

    4.3(35 reviews)
    2.5 mi

    Overall: 20/10 The highest review I've ever given a…read morebusiness. Dominic Latella works miracles for swimmers! I took his "treading water" clinic and in 10 minutes, I was treading water effortlessly; something I've struggled doing for years and even after taking numerous lessons with private instructors (not affiliated with SwimBox). He's taught for 22+ years! and it shows. He simply knows how to coach all the minute details in swimming mechanics. I've always 'm someone with a high muscle to fat ratio and have ALWAYS sank like a rock. He taught me 3 styles to use my hands to tread and 4 styles using my feet. He demonstrated things in the water (such as corkscrews) that I've never seen/heard of before. He's very friendly and personable as well. I've taken the swim analysis and it was super helpful/beneficial. Looking forward to signing up for more classes! Highly recommend!

    Another attempt at learning to tread water. Another rip off. My single goal was to learn to be able…read moreto jump into deep water and to swim back with my head above water. Basically, vacation-style swimming where you jump off a boat, tread for a bit, and swim back to the boat. I asked if I could learn this at SwimBox. I was told I could. If they don't teach this, they should have said so. Instead, I took 10 classes and was never taught either of these things. The instructor, as usual, wasted time in the beginning treating me like I'm afraid of water. I can already swim underwater and on my back (not expertly, of course). Instructors should start off with new swimmers by allowing them to show what they can already do vs. starting them with blowing bubbles and floating. At SwimBox, they have no incentive to move you along quickly since dragging out the lessons equals more classes, which equals more money for them. I gave the instructor the benefit of the doubt that she was teaching me some basic things I needed to know. However, as the classes went along, I noticed we were headed towards what I feared -- teaching me freestyle swimming and perfecting my form. This IS NOT what I asked to learn! I don't plan to swim laps or join the Olympics. When I clarified again that I wanted to learn to swim with my head above water, she dismissed that type of swimming as not real swimming. Well, that's how people swim socially and that's what I asked, upfront, to learn. Finally, I was lied to when I was told we would work on treading water, which is the MAIN THING that I wanted to learn. The pools are, obviously, not deep, but I was duped into believing I would still be taught. Each time I take swim lessons, they teach what they want to teach. I will just have to get a friend to teach me because formal instructors are apparently hard wired to teach every new swimmer freestyle. I wasted my money.

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    Guy Mason Recreation Center - Decomposing rat in sandbox!

    Guy Mason Recreation Center

    4.5(8 reviews)
    1.8 miGlover Park

    We had a family picnic here yesterday with my Cousin and her kids, my Sister, and my parents. The…read morekids loved it,because to them this place probably seemed gigantic. For the rest of us though, it is a relatively small space. My Cousin and I shot a few basketballs for about an hour, and then we just hung out and ate barbeque sandwiches and potato salad. There aren't a ton of trees in the area, but we were lucky enough to find a shady spot next to the children's playground. This recreation area also features a decent sized baseball field, although I think it was closed while we were there. All-in-all we had a great time, and the recreation area gave us all something to do on a late Friday afternoon. The kids had a great time, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to add a couple of more slides and play areas for the kids.

    My sister and I came here during a trip to MD to visit our sisters. We stayed with one sister in…read moreLanham and the other organized a Caribbean arts and crafts station for #tastetheworlddc, a local event in DC. This was a new venue for the event but it's a great space. They have a huge ball field, multiple playgrounds for the kids and even a stage/amphitheater for performances. I believe you can rent the space for private events as well. We were able to try many different cuisines and there were different performances happening at the stage area. There were tons of vendors selling goods from their respective cultures and there were even few food trucks. It was a nice event. Unfortunately, the venue staff was not very organized. They had a private event booked right after the public event but failed to tell anyone so all of the vendors, including my sisters, had to pack up shop hurriedly because the next event was due to start withing 30 minutes. It was ill-timing and the venue staff should have let the organizers of the public event know well in advance so that the transition of events would be seamless.

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    Guy Mason Recreation Center
    Guy Mason Recreation Center
    Guy Mason Recreation Center - Decomposing rat in sandbox!

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    Decomposing rat in sandbox!

    Palisades Recreation Center - parks - Updated May 2026

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