Rainier Beach Pool

I am impressed! What a nice pool!
This is one of the nicest public pool I’ve seen. It’s clean from in side out! I love this place!

Love the aquatic classes offered, the instructors, clean facility and resources! The other attendees are nice as well.
Quarter reserve lockers
Sauna
Lap pool and fun play area
Weekly classes
Staff is cool!
Happy there’s such a great center in the community.

I wanted to learn how to swim at the ripe old age of 33. I’m not athletic or in shape at all. After pricing personal lessons, searching for pools, & looking at schedules, I settled on RBCC. Price was great, pics were impressive, location was good. Spoke to Jackie, the coordinator, who listened to my concerns & matched me with with Dee. Dee is an angel! She is patient, encouraging, & fun. In 3 lessons she has me, of all people, swimming! Added my mom & sister to my time & they are too! DEE IS AMAZING! The lap pool when it’s adults only is great. The sauna is relaxing & I like the women’s locker room. I can change or shower out in the open or go to a private stall. I can get blown dry by the dryers on the wall & even dry my swimsuit in the handy dryers they have. They didn’t miss anything when they remodeled. It’s clean & well cared for. Haven’t experienced the family pool yet or the hot tub, so I can’t comment on it, but I enjoy my time here.

Yes I am giving this beloved pool two stars… It’s a shocker I know based on the rave reviews from other Unilocalers. Perhaps if I had a young child who only used the water slide, the lazy river or took swim lesson I also would have a glowing review. However I have two older girls; one in middle school and the other in third grade. For my girls this pool is a huge disappointment. It started when we came for public swim and found the pool bursting with Children ages 7 to 17. The pool was extremely packed and that would have been fine if safety rules were being followed. Also 95% of the swimmers were boys; these boys were very comfortable and aware that they were the dominate gender in the pool and took full advantage of it. There was extreme rough play including throwing younger boys into the deep end, wrestling on the pool side, fighting and even pulling down each other’s pants down. The worst part was the life guards could nothing to control the chaos. After about thirty minutes we were forced to leave. To accommodate my girls the lifeguard suggest they attend the female only swim held on Sunday. We were happy until we came for Female only swim and found out after paying full price that girls are only allowed to use the lazy river/​slide side of the pool! When would my girls get to swim at this «five star» pool the answer is never. I was told from the administrative staff that due to the ethic demographic this pool allows girls to swim (free of chaos and male nudity) during female swim but they are excluded from the actual swim side due to a city age limit designated specifically for women only swims??? So to sum it up if you have wee ones or boys you are safe at this pool. If you don’t fit that bill hop in the car and drive on down to another pool.

Very clean & nice pool. My kids had their swim lessons there & they loved the coaches. The locker room is also clean. They have private bathrooms & showers which we like the most. We will be continuing taking swim lesson there & it’s also near by our house.

Nice warm pool that was great for both our 5 month old and 22 month old. Loved the family locker rooms that made it very easy to get both kids ready to leave… Will definitely be back.

Great pool and community center. So far we are just enjoying the play land side with lazy river, fountain and slide. We took the tot, just shy of two months old, for a swim. The family locker rooms are handy, nice wide benches, shower, changing table etc. Clean, well staffed. Note it does sell out during peak times (weekends) so get there early to buy wristband. If just going to watch your wee one (who needs to be attended to in the pool with adult) just ask for separate colored wristband.
Clearly this place is putting the community in community center. Well done — consider of fans and supporters.

This place rocks. The water is warm and the pool is clean and there is a good waterslide. Just wish they were open longer. Just when you’re into the whole experience the time is up. The shifts need to be more like 3 hours instead of just 1.
The rest of the facility is also excellent. This whole place is worth the drive even from north of downtown.

Very nice pool (great temperature), very nice locker rooms!
The lap pool had 5 lanes total (one was a very wide lane for the easy swimmers). One end was about 4 feet deep which made resting between laps nice.
Locker rooms were very clean — you can lock your belongings with a quarter, take the key, and upon returning and opening the locker again, it returns your quarter (a very neat feature in my opinion). There was a separate open shower room and another shower room with individual stalls with curtains. The locker room also had a bathroom area and mirror area including a swim-​suit dryer and wall dryers for your hair/​body.
$ 5.25 for a daily use and 50 cents for a towel rental.
Over all very clean and nice pool and facilities! I will return.

Unilocal readers should ignore any reviews of this pool that were submitted before September of 2013. The new pool and community center opened then.
When plans were announced to tear the old facility down, a record amount of community members attended each planning meeting, contributing pages of good ideas. When the building finally closed down, we all waited for the demolition and rebuilding. However, nothing happened for a year! Some of us became discouraged, thinking that once again, Seattle was kicking the southend to the curb.
But, believe it or not, it got built… and they did a damn good job on it. In fact, it’s the best public pool in the city. Yes, as Benni says, it has some problems. My main complaint is that the showers are way too hot! But Meredith, I ‘m pretty sure most public pools do not provide towels. And we are delighted that the locker rooms are crowded. It is so great to see all the families using and enjoying the pool!
One last comment. The saturday morning water exercise class with Erin is so much fun that you ‘ll forget that you are working out. It’s more like a party!

The only reason I am giving this pool a 4 star is because some of their equipment is broken and has been broken for a while. The slide is broken which is a major bummer, and all the suit ringers are broken): But we are in love with the swimming teachers here. This is my girls’ third professional lesson, and of the 3 pools we have attended this one is the best — definitely the best teachers we have had. My little girls are tiny so they shiver but they are excited to be there the whole time! They are finally learning to swim!!! So exciting!!! We highly endorse the swimming lessons here (:

No towels provided. Crowded locker rooms during busy kid times. Really awkward hours and not consistent with their website. Great pool.

I brought my daughter here yesterday and she had a blast. The slide and the lazy river are a big hit. My only complaint is that the swim hours are very limited. It is such a great facility, why is the time so restricted? The hours aren’t accurate on the website, only stating: Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Monday-​Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Friday & Saturday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
But when I called I found out that it is open for one hour in the morning (I forget when). Then again between 2:35 — 3:55 and one last time from 7 – 8 at night. We arrived at 2:35 and there was already a sign posted that the swim session had sold out. Luckily, after asking at the desk, we found out that there were 3 remaining tickets — just enough for the kids in our party and they were able to swim for just over an hour. Frankly, an hour and 20 minutes isn’t that long, and certainly not long enough for our crew. They would have been happy to have, at least, another hour.
In spite of the limited time, Rainier Beach Pool is a lot of fun! We would definitely go back. I recommend calling for their hours before you go.

Had my kid’s birthday party here recently as he’s really into swimming and it went super well. They tore down the old/​run-​down community center and pool that was here and in its place put up a super shiny new facility with all the amenities you could want.
There’s two separate pools — one with a slide, lazy river, play area and hot tub for all the family fun you could want; the other with 6-​full lap lanes and a diving board. The showers and changing/​locker rooms are super nice — especially compared to the older community centers that were built in the 60s and 70s.
There’s also a small fitness room and a bunch of multi-​purpose rooms that appear to hold classes or can be rented by groups for events. Outside there’s a nice new playground and some green areas for kids to run around in.
I wish there were even more public facilities like this as I think it’s a great asset to the community and city for these types of places to be accessible to all.

This is a great location for swim lessons for my pre-​k daughter.
I agree with the previous poster about limited time with each child but for the price it’s totally worth it. My daughter enjoys being in the water with the other kids and overall, it’s working for us for sure.
We started with the tot and parent classes– took 2– then moved on to the bigger kid lessons and took 3 sessions so far. She’s comfortable in the water, loves the instructors and has a basic understanding of swimming overall.
One on one is a good next step but for a great activity once a week– conveniently timed as well– I think it’s a great deal.

My kids are taking lessons here. $ 33 for 6 weekly lessons is a good price, but it comes… at a price.
There are nine kids in my son’s class, which means he gets about 5 minutes of individual attention during the 30 minute session. The students aren’t learning much which the other kids are being taught.
When this session is over, I’m going to opt for the $ ³⁰⁄₃₀ minute private lesson on a less frequent basis. I think he’ll get a lot more out of it.

A good location to swim especially if you live in the Southend and don’t want to drive all the way up to Medgar Evars or down to the Tuwkila Pool. Parking is commonly full on Sundays where they have Chaplain service, but you can use the school parking lot just right next by. The staff isn’t very lively. There is no proper time for Lap swim and only three lanes are open during the week; they’re probably trying to save on cost. I seldomly come here during the weeks because of the three lanes and I don’t like sharing with slower people. The people don’t follow swimming etiquettes and the speed cones. You’ll see a very slow person go into the Fastest lane alot of time which is very rude. Their is only one entrance to get into the Pool and that is through the locker room. People will be going in and out while you’re changing and they’re going to all peek at you which is very gay.

The staff isn’t all that great. I swim here and get lessons here too. The locker room isnt all that great, people could just walk into you changing, because there are only curtains as covers. The water doesn’t smell that good. Since they change it only once a year, I’m a little to scared to get in sometimes. But the late night swim is nice.

Best kept secret in Rainier Valley, the Rainier Beach Pool is one of my favorite neighborhood hangouts. Unfortunately it has no early morning lap swim, but it does have some decent evening hours, and the Saturday 9 – 10 swim is never overcrowded. Even better is the hip-​hop water aerobics classes that are offered many times during the week, though admittedly there is at least on instructor who blasts the music a bit too loud. Not long ago the pool got new LED lights, and on rare and happy occasions, the instructors will dim the overhead lights, and set the underwater ones flashing in a wave of color.
Currently the parking situation does suck though, due to construction, and within the last year there was a small problem with people having their catalytic converters stolen while parked here. But other than that… its great.