Overview:

Open: This is a year round pool

Price: $3.50, or 10 swims for $35 for residents

Pool Hours: Open all day, 7 days a week. Detailed hours are on their website with hour-by-hour lane availability.

Locker Room: Lockers are outside by the competition pool. Bring your own lock. 

Website: Here

Showers: Heated

Parking: Easy

Crowds: High, but it's never been a problem. 

Details:

The Santa Monica Swim Center was opened in 2002. It is located at the Santa Monica Community College campus along Pico Boulevard. There are two big pools here: one is entirely a fitness pool meant for swimming and diving and the other is a shallower recreation pool for families and kids. The rec pool also offers lap swim lanes. I think this pool has the highest availability of lap swim lanes in the entire metropolitan region (it feels like it outshines the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in terms of lane availability!).

I really love swimming here. I’ve never had more than one other person in the lane with me and I generally have it to myself. Most of the fitness pools lanes are in 6 feet of water or more and the temperature is steady year around. The rec pool is much warmer than the fitness pool if that’s your thing, so the two temp options is another benefit. Both pools have ground level edges so there is no jumping into or pulling yourself out of the pool. It makes for a much more dignified entry/exit situation.

Lap Passes: Yes. 20 swims for $55 for residents and $110 for non-residents. Drop in swims are $3.50 for residents and $7 for non-residents.

Equipment: Kickboards and pull buoys of varying quality. There are not a lot of them as I think most swimmers bring their own equipment.

Ladies Locker Room: 10/10. This is best women’s locker room that I’ve been experience in my years of public pool experiences. The showers are always warm. There are plenty of benches. There are lots of toilets. There is a huge brightly lit mirror with lots of plugs for hair dryers or curling irons. There are lots of hooks to hang things on. It’s heated during the winter. It can do no wrong!

Parking: There is metered street parking along 16th Street or you can park in the garage on the corner of Pico and 16th. During the weekend, parking is free and during the week you would use a parking pass provided by staff when a lap pass or activity card is purchased.