Sava Pool

I swam here after hours and loved it! It is very spacious and clean. What else does one need from a pool?

LOVE LOVE LOVE Sava Pool. This is where I get a lot of Physical Therapy as well as Recreational Swimming. The Staff have all been nice to me. The lockers are great. This is a public pool but it feels more like a private pool. I really enjoy coming here despite the shouting children. Water is perfect temperature and not too chlorinated, and the big glass windows are gorgeous on foggy, cloudy, rainy, and sunny days.

In my opinion, this building’s design, lack of amenities and management policies said to me: «Just take your swim and get the hell out.» No off-​street parking and no towels for rent are acceptable for a large public pool. But having a thick acrylic wall in front of the check-​in desk for robbery prevention like at a cheap motel, a slot in a steel plate for the required exact change only payment, no credit card service, remotely activated changing room doors, no quarter-​fed lockers (it’s bring your own locks), no soap in the showers, no vending machines, no diving boards or pool wheelchair ramps, no hot tub, too low water temperature for young children, no bleachers for parents to watch classes or competitions and only a 15 square foot pen-​like room for waiting families are not acceptable. The great city of San Francisco deserves better than this.
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I’ve been to going to this pool for years. The life guards are always friendly & helpful and the place in general is clean, shower & changing rooms etc. When it’s sunny the rays warm the waters thru the large windows and it’s just a peaceful and calming scenery. If it gets cloudy/​foggy, well, the water will be colder so all the more reason to swim faster ;)

Came here for a child’s 6^th birthday party. You can tell that this place definitely went under renovation. The whole building is made of large concrete slab, which makes it very memorable! Thankfully we didn’t have to share the pool with the general public.
First impression was that the place was clean. And of course the weather was cold and foggy. But, from what my kids said, the pool was warm and once you get into the pool area, you can tell the place is somewhat heated.
The hosts of the party get to use a small room to set up food/​cake and there’s a large enough window to check out those people that are swimming. I believe there were 2 lifeguards on duty during the party. If your child didn’t know how to swim, there had to be at least 1 adult with them.
The women’s locker room was fine and. The showers were communal, the changing area was spacious and was equipped with a swimsuit spin dryer.

The people working here were very helpful, the biggest problem I noticed is they did not have very good clocks for lap swimming. It’s also not a very large pool so expect to at least split a lane.

Brought my 2yo daughter over here. First impression for changing room is nice and clean. You have to bring your own lock to lock the locker. After that we went to swimming pool. When I touched the water, it was a bit cold for baby. My baby got into the pool and she was shivering at first time. We stayed in the pool for like 20mins. I wished that the water in the pool bit warmer so my daughter could stay longer

Love it here! They made a lot of great changes to the place. The pool doesn’t seem as it did at all before, but looks amazing!

Very nice pool. Very clean and the staff is incredibly friendly. Make sure to bring exact change ($ 5 for adults) for an hour of free swim and try to bring a lock for your belongings. No parking lot but some decent street parking behind the pool.

So clean, so pretty! It’s not super packed during lap swim and the locker rooms are kept tidy. I love the big glass windows!

I try all SF public pools and this is my favourite pool in the city. It is always bright and clean. They accept only $ 5 bills; no cards or bigger bills are accepted.

Sava pool is gorgeous with natural lighting (when it’s not foggy in SF) and boasts a large pool.
The biggest issue with Sava pool that makes me drop down my rating to what, otherwise, would have been 4 stars is the ridiculous amount of people that come to this pool.
The ridiculous amount of people who do not care about pool etiquette here is insane. I understand that it’s really difficult to adhere to the rules since there is such an insane amount of people that come here but it makes it a lot less satisfying for people who are quick swimmers and do not appreciate people popping up suddenly.
I normally come to the pool to relax and swim to my heart’s content but Sava pool is much too crowded for that sort of insanity.
Otherwise, this pool is gorgeous and looks well-​maintained (for how many people come here).

Sava Pool in the outer Sunset is a great neighborhood SF parks & rec public pool, perhaps the best facility in the city. According to the city’s website, this pool underwent a 17 million dollar renovation. It shows. I swam there before the renovation when it was a very dated 60’s or 70’s style building. The new structure is beautiful — simple gray concrete slabs pieced together in a modern design. My favorite new feature by far is the south wall, made entirely of glass. Beautiful sunlight floods the pool and throws light patterns into the water that make swimming more visually interesting.
Sava pool has a square footprint. I swim laps for fitness and had to share a lane with 2 people, which I don’t mind. Generally, people are accomodating and choose a lane that approximates their speed. 8 lanes are set up for laps, I believe, with a section for unlaned swimming. The water is very clear and clean. If I am not mistaken, the pool is saline. I like saline pools a lot. Chlorine is bad for your skin, hair, eyes, ears, sinuses, everything.
The shower and locker room are very clean. There is hot water, and new, more spacious lockers. Bring your own lock. $ 5 entrance fee. There are swim sessions for kids as well as for aquatic exercise classes for senior citizens. I love Sava pool. I would swim there regularly if I lived in the outer Sunset. If you do, check it out.

Nice pool, good if you are a casual lap swimmer who goes for light exercise. I am a serious swimmer and this pool is NOT good if say, you want to swim 10×100s on the 1:20. The «fast» lane is populated with people who are overflow from other lanes, which is fair enough at times but it is annoying as heck when someone just kicking gets in and the lifeguard doesn’t seem to do anything about it.
This pool is great if you are learning to swim or looking for a newer public pool or a triathlete who is not that fast :) It is odd to me that the showers are sooo extremely low flow that you can’t really rinse off and that the locker room doesn’t have floor mats. It can get kind of gross with hair. However, this is my preferred place to swim with my boyfriend who is learning to swim. It has a shallow bottom and is low key.

From what I can recall, I’ve only been to Sava Pool once before the remodel. Before the renovations, the locker rooms were small and dirty. Lockers were made of some metal material, so they rusted and had an unpleasant odor. The pool area wasn’t that bright. Also, there wasn’t a lobby.
But after the remodel (circa 2009), the pool area has more natural lighting. The lockers are now wooden and coated to minimize water damage. The shower heads are cheap, but the temperature is right. The swimsuit spinner is a nice addition. And now there’s an indoor lobby area for waiting.
The pool entrance fees are currently $ 5 for adults age 17+ and $ 1 for children. The difference is outrageous (but of course I’d think that because I pay the adult rate). They also have an exact change only policy, which is silly. Parking is relatively easy around this neighborhood. Overall, Sava Pool is one of the cleaner and nicer public pools in San Francisco. The pool is heated (though it is a bit chilly when first getting in) and the water isn’t overly chlorinated. During recreational swim time (one of the options that’s open to the public), the shallow end gets very crowded; so it’s only fun if you know how to swim and go to the deep end, where there aren’t as many floating noodles whacking you in the face. I would swim at Sava weekly, but $ 5 per week adds up quickly.

As far as public pools go, this one is great! Just used it for the first time this past Saturday – locker rooms are way cleaner than you’d expect them to be. Now, this doesn’t mean gleaming floors and shiny lockers – this is still a public facility, mind you. But $ 5 will cover locker room usage, and whichever type of pool usage you want.
Lap swim was an awesome experience. I used to live near the Temescal pool over in Oakland, and it was ALWAYS packed, no matter what the time. Mostly with old, wrinkly men. Not pretty.
Sava pool is miles above that – apparently this pool isn’t Olympic-​length, but for recreational lap swimming, that’s not really my concern. The water was not only clean and heated, but it wasn’t overly chlorinated, which was really nice on my skin and eyes. And, I hope that this wasn’t just a rare occurrence, but I had no trouble going at my own speed in the faster lanes. Even in ones that were more crowded, other swimmers were always very courteous and never pushed behind you or slowed up in front, aside from one girl who probably should have moved a few lanes over to the slow side.
Also, the entire building is just gorgeous. Lots of natural light pours into the pool area, which makes it feel open, spacious, and relaxing. It’s quite convenient to the Lakeside/​Parkside/​SFSU residents, too – just off of Wawona and 19^th Avenue.
Definitely going to become a regular here! Bring your combo lock to store your junk safely (not that I think lots of people come to public pools to steal… but you never know?). They also have those AWESOME Swimmate machines that spin your bathing suits dry! I got unreasonably excited by that.
Go find the swim schedule on the SF Recreation & Parks website!

San Francisco’s premier public pool. And it’s now on sfgate’s list of «101 things all SF kids should do in the city before they grow up.»
And being the premier pool, it gets crowded. If you are an avid lap swimmer, the crowds will get to you and throw a wrench in your workout (particularly since the speeds are not very well monitored by the lifeguards). It’s getting better with the single lanes for the faster speed lanes but in SF city-​pool fashion the medium/​slow lanes are still double-​wide and awkward.
Facilities are better than the old pool, with the pool now 8 lanes and a standard 25 yards (old pool was 6 lanes and the awkward 100 feet; or 33.3 yards) and thus holds the majority of the high school meets. Add to that gutters that are water-​level (making the pool faster and eliminating most of the waves) and you have a great pool. Wish it was an olympic size pool though (the only one in SF is USF).
Reasoning for the 3 stars is the cost ($ 5/​visit isn’t conducive to an everyday workout), limited lap swim schedule, and the locker room/​shower facilities which are starting to show age despite only being a few years old. Plus, the male locker room is much smaller than the old one with no sense of privacy (not that I have anything to hide, but just saying…).

I’m probably not the best person to write about this but hopefully it will help some people.
I came here looking for a quiet clean pool in which to kinda float around and get acclimated to the water since I’m just learning how to swim. I’m not even swimming laps yet but I wanted to get some practice and familiarity
Came in for lap swim at the 6:30pm time. Lovely location, wonderful facilities all around. I love how they have huge windows right by the pool, makes for a lovely setting.
Now what I learned was that lap swim was not the time to do what I was hoping to do. Plus I got glared at by a 10yr old asian boy who was outswimming me. One of the employees recommended recreational swim which is 2:30 — 3:30 for what I was looking to do. He saw me leave and felt bad and was trying to help so kudos to him.

Before this pool was renovated I was not a fan. The locker rooms used to be dingy and dirty but now they are clean and spacious with a swimsuit spin dryer. The pool looks amazing and the new window makes the pool look so open. If I was not just a guppy swimming I would come here more.
What I recommend:
Whether you are a guppy or shark swim here.

In an attempt to get my long distance swimming up-​to-​par prior to getting scuba certified in a few months, I made my way here to Sava Pool during the Lap Swim session this afternoon.
I haven’t been back here to Sava since it was a dark, gloomy, dirty facility that it was when I first swam here learning how to swim years and years ago was a little tot.
The new remodel is amazing. Gone are those dark, gloomy rooms, molded floors and walls, and in place of all that is a very nice modern new facility with a great open space, well lite from the floor to ceiling walls surrounding. The pool itself is also a whole lot bigger than it used to be.
The locker room area is also spacious and comfortable, with an abundance available lockers, private dressing rooms for the modest, and a 5 head shower area. This area is definitely such a great change to the old locker room which was cramped, and dark from the lack of lights.
As for the pool, Lap Swim was separated into three sections – Slow, Medium, Fast. 1 big lane for the Slow swimmers, and 2 – 3 lanes for the Medium and Fast.
I made my way to the Slow lane as I’m am no where near being competitively swift in swimming. It would’ve been nice to have a bit more space in the Slow lane as some folks were actually extremely slow. Understandable and fine… but 1 big lane is just not enough. Eventually, I will slowly get back up there in the faster swimming aress!
Overall, the new remodel of Sava is great! Spacious and well-​lite, and definitely a lot cleaner than it used to be. Use for adult admission is $ 5.00.