As an adult learning to swim it's pretty daunting. I tried about 5 other places in the past trying…read moreto learn as an adult and never made any progress. I signed up for Foss with some determination and I'm happy to have graduated and am now able to swim! The teachers were great, personalized instruction for me, and even when there were subs (which was rare) I still learned a tip from every instructor I worked with. I was skeptical that only 30 minutes a week made a difference, but if you go consistently it really does. The water was always warm, and since adult classes are at less busy times there was always a good experience. Also everyone was so friendly and the front desk was great about communication and scheduling. Highly recommend!

My kids have taken lessons at Goldfish Evanston and the Glenview park district, and they've…read moreprogressed faster here. However, they are also older now, and we are more consistent in attendance, so those are also factors. Cost wise, it's about the same as Goldfish. At Goldfish Evanston, we had substitute teachers like 50% of the time, but at Foss it's more like 10%. For parents, you have the option to sit on deck (poolside) or outside the pool and observe via the large glass windows. You can also sign up for Family Swim, which means your family can reserve a lane for an hour, but they're currently only offering it on Friday evenings. This location opened in August 2024, so it's still new & clean. Love the location, and parking is easy. Lastly, Foss reinstated their makeup class policy, which is great! Send me a message if you'd like to use my referral code for a discount ($105 off your first enrollment).

My kids have gone through lessons with several area swim schools, but I find Maine Aquatics the…read morebest value and quality, given by high schoolers themselves. It's based on seasonal schedules, and you pick the evening that works best for your schedule Mon, Wed or Thursday. Lessons are 30min at either 6pm or 6:30pm. The one area of improvement would be communication response with their email, but other than that, I highly recommend! My kids have progressed tremendously and their confidence has grown significantly. Note-you pay the full season in cash the first evening so come prepared.

So far, we've had a positive experience with the Maine Township Aquatics swim program…read more The pool is nice, which is located at Maine East High School. There's ample parking which is very convenient . Their prices are very competitive to other local programs, which I've compared to. The instructors seem positive, encouraging, and praise students for their efforts. Would highly recommend this program for young swimmers.

I've been a patron here for about two years. Miss Kelly is awesome. The instructors are very nice…read moreand patient with the children. The changing cabanas are always clean. I like that they are so flexible with the make up classes. My kid always looks forward to the sticker reward after a swim session. My family loves British!

Great coaches everyone is friendly and professional. You can tell that they care a lot about their…read morestudents. The employees connect with each other and keep parents informed of your child's progress. They have fun cute surprises for their birthdays and make up classes are a breeze to do; making it flexible to your schedule. While I think my daughter is the most talented special mermaid, her teachers make swimming look as easy and effortless as walking. It is of piece of mind how my daughter is able to survival float on contact with the water and I know everyone is cpr certified. The swim instructors are great at tailoring the class to each student. Small humans with big emotions, each class is always a surprise. We had one class where one baby started crying and it caused a ripple effect and the next 20 minutes was a real tear jerker. Coach Vicki was cool as a cucumber. Then we had another class where each litte chubby cheek was happy and after each kids turn the other kids would clap in encouragement. Highly recommend this school!

I have been going almost regularly three times a week for the last two years. Clean and friendly…read moretwo things you want in a gym. During Covid they were extra careful about spreading germs. Parking is abundant and in and out. Is what you want. Great place. JLK

My stepdaughter just wanted to swim. In March. Ha! But I wanted to make it happen for her so I…read moregoogled around and found Splash Landings. Off we went. At $6 a person, it's a little steep. More than what we're used to paying for outdoor summer swimming. But it certainly didn't break the bank. The pool is cute. There's one large slide that was closed when we were there (the hours for swim and the slide are clearly laid out on the website so we knew that going in). There's also a small slide for the little guys as well as some water spray features. My 3 year old loves zero depth entry pools so he was thrilled. There's also a second pool that was deep enough for my stepkiddo to get her swim on. There were three lap pool lanes open as well. Again, the hours for all this is on the website. The staff is kinda meh. The woman working the desk was not sure what was going on but the life guards were nice. The locker rooms are nicer than I was expecting. There's also a couple family shower/bathrooms which is nice. Bring a lock and towels!

5/5 -- Big Blue Swim School Has Been Incredible for Our Family…read more We've had an absolutely outstanding experience at Big Blue Swim School, and we want to give a huge shoutout to the amazing team that made all the difference for our children. Our 2-year-old can sometimes struggle with new instructors, and there was a moment where he didn't want to get in the water at all. Brex, Josh, and Xzenia went above and beyond to turn the entire situation around. Their patience, energy, and compassion completely changed the day -- within minutes, he was not only comfortable but laughing, splashing, and having fun. It was such a heartwarming transformation to watch. We also want to give a special side shoutout to Ross, who consistently goes out of his way to accommodate our scheduling needs. He always helps us find class times and instructors that work best for our family, and that level of thoughtfulness truly means a lot. Big Blue has become such a positive part of our weekly routine thanks to the incredible staff. We're so grateful for everything they do and highly recommend them to any family looking for a caring, encouraging, and professional swim school.

My 5 year old has been taking lessons here for almost 3 years (on and off) and my 2 year old for…read moreabout a year and Big Blue has become a consistent part of our lives! The kids love the lessons (or we would have quit long ago), and I love how easily you can start/stop weekly lessons and pick right up where you left off. I also love that the app shows you exactly what skills they're working on and when they've mastered something. My only complaint is that I wish they made it clearer what age/height requirements there are to move to the next level. Sometimes it can feel like your kid is stagnating, but really they just have to age into the next level. Highly recommend trying it out!

One of my grand-darlings had her latest birthday party here and it was a very fun time for both the…read moreswimmer participants as well as their guardians.  It's a fairly pricey event for the host (and that would be the daughter and her hubs), but it seems to me any kid's birthday event venue is up there these days (such as a gymnastics venue, or an art shop, or a Funtopia, or an Ultimate Ninjas, etc).   This venue costs $550 for 2 hours but you do get the whole pool and facility to yourselves, 3 staffers for the party which includes life guard duty, and birthday snacks and cupcakes.  The maximum number of kid swimmers is 24, otherwise the fee increases by $100.  You can bring in additional snacks and food if you wish. The time allocation was broken up into 80 minutes for swim time and 40 minutes for snacks and cupcakes.  Guardians need to sign a facility waiver.  Kids that want to swim without a life vest need to pass a swim test doing 2 widths of the pool, and almost all of the participants were good swimmers.  Anyway, fyi on a quality and quite fun kid's birthday venue to consider.

Aloha! We've been…read morehappy (not so happy when we went through the short phase and being nervous to get in the water/submerge our toddler head into the pool) swimmers here for the last 3 years, and great strides have been made since the first dip! My two daughters get their weekly lessons and have been getting solid coaching from Coach Sarah over the past 6 months. One programming aspect that didn't exist when I grew up swimming is the heated water. No shocking cold YMCA effect here. Younger swimmers also make progress by swimming across half the width of the pool, and there are landing blocks for that. More advanced swimmers easily swim the full width of the pool, go in a rectangular pattern around the end of the pool, or go the full traditional length as part of the "swim force" team. Teacher turnover is fairly frequent, which I guess is not totally unexpected. In addition to the coaches per class, there's a lifeguard on watch on each side of the pool. As expected, the price has gone up over the years. Three years ago, it was $25/30 min lesson (4 student cap), and today it's $30 for the same. If you need to skip a week, it's easy to log the absence on the app and get a make up token, which is good for a year. Second students get 7% off (like a family discount) on the monthly subscription rate. Shower heads available at the end of the pool for a quick rinse. One of the larger bathrooms in the back has a shower too, and there's a dozen dressing rooms as well for a quick change. Overall, swimmingly satisfied with our experience here.

I decided to sign my daughter up for the free "try out" session to see how she, my husband, and I…read moreliked Big Blue Swim School. We were asked to come a few minutes before our scheduled lesson time. When we arrived, there was plenty of parking in their parking lot. We were greeted and given a quick tour of the facilities. I was immediately impressed with the hair drying station, changing rooms, cubby storage, children's play/waiting area, and even the pool, which is kept at I believe 90 degrees year round, which is a huge plus for my daughter. When it was time, someone calls all the kids scheduled for that time to check in with them and tells the kids which swim lane to go to. Parents can choose to wait and watch behind glass, or go in and sit on the benches next to the pool. They do little tests during the lesson, but they make it so fun that the kids don't even realize they're being watched and tested. My daughter was rated on her current abilities, and we were approached by Julie (I think), given a welcome bag with some goodies, and told of my daughter's swim level. She went over how everything worked, rates, and answered all of our questions. When the lesson was over, the kids walk over to the shower stations (which are right next to the pool) to wash off. We decided to sign my daughter up for weekly lessons. She's gone a few times now, tried a few instructors, and we have concluded that Alexis is the best. He is so engaged the whole time, not looking off into space like some other instructors. The kids are always laughing with him, and my daughter actually smiles during her lesson with him. Additionally, I feel that his methods are more efficient and have seen improvement in my daughter's abilities. I have navigated Big Blue's website and give the site 4 stars. As much as I like the ease of signing up, changing/editing, adding, or canceling lessons and paying, I wish there was a way to see a month view with lesson and instructor labeled. Currently, I am having to edit each lesson individually to request the specific instructor. Overall, I am more than happy paying the $23 a lesson for my daughter to get swim lessons here. I recommend trying to free trial lesson. You have nothing to lose and will not be disappointed!

**Rating:** (1/5)…read more We originally signed up for a trial class for my daughter last Saturday. It is a far drive for us coming from Chicago, and we were literally 10 minutes away from the facility when they texted to say the class was canceled. No explanation was given. We gave them the benefit of the doubt and had a second class scheduled for today. Just as we were about to walk out the door to leave, they texted us saying they were canceling again. That is twice now they have canceled on us completely out of the blue, without any explanation, and at the absolute last minute. It's one thing if a business needs to cancel and provides a respectful 24-hour notice, but it is an entirely different thing to consistently cancel at the last possible second. When I confronted them about this via text, they dodged the question entirely. Instead of offering a real reason or trying to make it up to us in any way, they just gave a canned "we apologize and understand you're frustrated" response. As someone with influence over other parents on social media, I will absolutely be sharing this experience. I will be telling everyone to take their business elsewhere. This location operates with complete unprofessionalism and a glaring disregard for simple respect for their customers' time. Look for another swim school.

We had our daughter in park district swimming classes but she wasn't making progress. At Foss she…read morebecame more comfortable and confident, and after a couple years now swims considerably better than I do.

I am truly sad and disappointed in our Foss experience at Elmwood Park. When we started at Foss,…read morethe quality of instruction and kid-friendly environment made it worth the steep price. Our son loved his lessons. However, several major factors have caused us to pull our son out mid session. This year, Foss stopped offering any make up sessions. To us, this was unreasonable as the current session is 13 weeks long and the price is $30 for a half hour. Instead, Foss offers family swim as a substitute for a make-up lesson, which books out months in advance. Other swim schools offer tokens for make up sessions as inevitably, very few families are available for 13 weeks straight. We also experienced a major lack of communication with management. Nobody answers the phone. We missed a session once and when we arrived the following week, the building was closed. There was nothing on the website or any form of communication to inform us of this closure. When I called and asked why the building was closed I was told that there had been a note on the door the previous week (the week we missed.) Most unfortunately, the quality of swim instructors at Foss varies widely. Although our three teachers before this session were great, our most recent teacher wasn't in the pool when class started, had 4 year old kids sitting on the step for long periods of time, and put the kids in time out if they moved to the other end of their lane for their turn. Of course the top priority is safety, but she never showed the children what she expected of them. I'm still not sure how they were expected to get to the other side of the lane for their turn. I had to stick up for my son when the teacher put him in time out for moving down the lane. During the first class with her, my son only swam for 10 minutes total, as the kids sat on the step for the first 10 minutes, played games for 5 minutes and were sent out of the pool early. This is not acceptable when classes cost about $1 per minute. When I spoke with the manager about my concern, another mom was doing the same thing about the same teacher. Instead of listening to me, the manager said she'd call or email me the next day, but I never heard from her until I followed up a few days later. If I were the manager, I would be interested in knowing why families were ending their sessions. Overall, this lack of communication, and poor teacher experience is no longer worth the high cost (and parking nightmare.) We were hoping to keep our son (and eventually enroll our daughter) at Foss as there are few swim environments close to us that are as kid friendly. We know a lot of families at Foss who have had great experiences, but unfortunately, it was not for us.

Easy to enter and plenty of seats. The slides are fun, the kids enjoyed themselves…read more 3 stars though for the following: 1. The price posted online is not what we paid. It said $9. We paid $14 each. 2. The park was barely open and already out of several food items when the kids went to concessions.

A teenager managing the water slides:…read more I have ADHD and sometimes get a little confused, so I was really hoping this place would be easy and fun. But the rides were kind of boring, and the park felt old and messy. Also, a teenage staff member was rude to me, which didn't help. Discipline your staff...Overall, it wasn't the fun day I wanted. Hopefully, they improve things soon!

We've had very few hot days this summer, but when we're lucky enough to have one we head to the…read morepool. There are so many pools in the North Shore to choose from and this is where my fam most recently chose to cool off. When we first arrived the main pool was closed for swimming lessons so we made our way to the toddler play area, which is basically a park and sprayer in the middle of very shallow water. I was about to make myself comfortable on a lounge chair when an announcement was made that the main pool was open to the public (around 11am on a Saturday). My 4 yr old dragged my husband over, which meant I had to go too since my 2 year old insists on doing everything that his big sister does. Sigh. The water was absolutely freezing and no area was shallow enough for my kids to stand. More work for me, but (of course) the kids had a blast. I personally prefer Hidden Creek in Highland Park for swimming while my kids are young and not swimming perfectly on their own. The main pool has both shallow and deep ends so one of us can hang w/ my 4 yr old in the deeper water, while the other can hang w/ my 2 yr old in the shallow water...and he's perfectly content being in the same pool as his sister. The water slide in the shallow end is also a big draw for both my kids (and many others) at Hidden Creek. However, as my kids get older I could see myself loving Meadowhill as much as my kids did. There's also an additional side with a very impressive water slide and diving boards as the kids grow. Also worth noting that Glencoe residents pay Northbrook prices here making it one of the more affordable pools in the North Shore for my fam

This is my absolute favorite place to swim in the summertime! I just can't wait until they open for…read morethe season. The large main pool is divided into areas for family use, lap swimming, and adults. There is a separate, well equipped "kiddie" pool for children, a diving pool, and two water slides with a splash down pool. One slide is for use with a flotation device and the other is for use without. There is a refreshment stand that is open during certain hours, and vending machines for use at other times, You can't bring food into the pool area; you must eat in the designated eating area, which is very nice. There are nice areas around the pool for relaxing on the deck chairs. In recent years, Meadowhill pool has been expertly maintained and kept beautifully clean. They have certain hours for lap swimming. The hours change from time to time, so it is important to check with the front desk for up to date information. They generally keep one or two lanes open during the afternoon "rush hour" when the rest of the pool is in use for swimming lessons. Aesthetically, Meadowhill Aquatic Center is one of the nicest outdoor pools I have ever seen. It is landscaped beautifully with native plants along the south side of the pool next to the family picnic area, which can be rented for parties and other events. A couple of times each summer the Park District sponsors a special night at the pool. Usually they will have a DJ, refreshments, games, and prizes. Signs for these activities are posted in advance. The only issue I've run into is weather, which affects all outdoor facilities. They make everyone leave the pool area at the first indication of an approaching storm, so be prepared if you come on a cloudy day.