Top Outdoor swimming pools in Washington, United States

Excellent pool, nice facilities. Could do with more shade, but the buildings cast a long shadow in the afternoons, which covers half the chairs. Some complain about strict life guards, but I’d rather have strict ones than lax ones. Beware there can be a line on popular days.

Great pool and clean!
Needs more shade, water is too cold, and it is ok to allow baby and small kids to grab small bite.

Great rooftop bar and pool at Yotel. The food was really good, simple menu with good options. The staff is very friendly and helpful.

I didn't enjoy myself! The showers and restrooms were horrible, it had spider webbs and dead bugs. No tissue in the stalls. It was very disgusting in there. My children or I will not be returning to this pool. First and last visit!

Beautiful, clean pool and locker/shower room. Some of the lifeguards, especially one of the ones who is older and seems to manage the younger ones, is very abrasive with people and unnecessarily exerting control over the children at the pool. It creates a less than ideal environment for such a beautiful facility. Better training for kinder lifeguards would make this place a five star pool!

The pool and facility is amazing, but not so for the lack of maintence. The mens showeres did not work, the locker room floor is flodded out into the lobby. At 3:30 pm they closed the pool to add chemicals instead of waiting after hours. There is dirt, leaves and trash in the pool area. Clearly a violation of health and saftey standards @DPW

The pool is OK and fun. But organisation is poor. It is catch 22 to buy entrance tickets for non-residents. Web site doesn't work, and if it works it puts you in the resident cathegory by default demanding documents to prove that you are resident (and you are not - this is the problem). Crew on the spot can do nothing or there is no one on the spot.

In June it was a great pool.
In July started to get colder and colder, staff members meaner and meaner.
15 minutes recess starts earlier a few minutes and takes longer. (Some lifeguard enjoys to walk as slowly as possible back to their seat and watch kids next to the pool wait to be able to go back.)

Now in August just don’t go there if you do not want to get sick from that cold water. My son is still coughing after a week.

Deep end is randomly closed. No signage or explanation. When I ask the manager about it I’m told it’s closed because “it just is.” Very helpful

The other day, I visited the security guard at the door, which was really nasty and mean with one lady. The lady had a can on water, and she told her she couldn't bring it in. As she was finishing the water, the security guard told her to throw it away, or you don't have to come in at all! She was already in the process of finishing the water and throwing the can away. Perhaps she did it as the woman was white and felt the need to flex her power. However, it really wasn't called for as it put my children in a defensive mood as we approached to sign in. I didn't get her name, but she had on an awful wig and thick lashes, and she was tall and skinny.

My kids and I swam for about 2 hours and left. The pool itself is pretty clean. It was loose hair floating and a few dead bugs in the water, which I feel should be cleaned during the break but 🤷🏽‍♀️. The kids had fun!

Pool is not fun. Lifeguards are out of control with authority. Avoid this place. Awful if you have kids.

Hearst is the Worst.

It's got a lot of space to swim and many tables and chairs to lay your things down
The only annoying thing is they allow kids to tet swim all day, which means you have to be constantly moving away from one whole side while someone is testing. They should have isolated hours for kids to come and get tested.

It’s fantastic that there is another public pool in DC. Facilities are good and clean, and there are two swimming lanes. I think one lane would be plenty when the pool is crowded (see picture). Also, there is no shadow whatsoever, just 4 ombrelloni.

Horrible experience, all around. I was so excited to spend my day-cation here, but I was beyond disappointed. They didn’t comply with any of their amenities(I.e private fridge, dedicated server, etc.) Our reservation was from 8am-2pm but the bar opened over an hour late so we didn’t get to start our tab until past 12pm. We were kicked out promptly at 2. Each of our food orders took WELL over an hour. The best part of the experience was Jane, who was extremely polite and kind, but clearly a new bartender and thrown to the wolves by an inexperienced and vindictive management. I was accused TWICE of not paying for my cabana (I paid three months in advance), which I found extremely disrespectful, unorganized, and embarrassing for the company. Their menu didn’t reflect what they’re actually serving (I.e. Frose, and frozen lemonade). I was sent to the downstairs bar THREE TIMES where I was either not served or refused service since I was a pool guest. Do NOT come here for a relaxing time; my experience was nothing but a hassle. If not for Jane, I would have been absolutely livid at my experience, especially considering how much I paid. Breaks my heart to leave such a bad review, considering I’m also a bartender, but this was one of the worst customer service experiences I’ve ever had in my life. I can’t stress enough how much of a rip off this was.

Do not book a Cabana at the Yotel Pool/ Awful

I will never go here again. I booked this because some of my girls were in town and thought it would be fun. Based on price I actually thought it would be a nice upscale experience. Not only was the staff rude, they were out of everything we tried to order, but had the nerve to still try to hold us to their $500 minimum for a half-day cabana rental. On top of that, they kept getting what we did order wrong, and the waitress had enough nerve to get an attitude about it. She even once nastily grabbed the order we pointed out to her that was wrong and stormed off.

It became quite clear after only being there for a short time why all the other cabanas were empty. People seem to know what is up with this place and are steering clear of it.

What a colossal waste of money.

A lovely public outdoor pool in DC that can get very crowded on hot summer days. The pool is not heated, so the water can be quite chilly.

The pool is separated into a deep end that goes from 10 feet to 5 feet, along with a shallower wading area. The deep end is where one can do lap swimming, but it's only about 25 yds long and there's a lot of people around and no designated lane lines.

What is great about this pool is that they have reserved "adult only" swim times where children aren't allowed.

The pool has lifeguards, clean and spacious changing rooms with curtained showers, although the water is scalding hot and one needs to pull a lever for water to flow, and plenty of lawn chairs for sunbathing. After 3 PM, the nearby building does overshadow the deep end

This place is filled with rats. I see them every time I drive through the garage. Also we paid for parking in advance and they charged us anyways. When we tried to sort it out they took our parking ticket and then told us we lost the parking ticket and charged us $50 just to exit the garage. We only were there 3 hours and had to pay $50. That didn’t even get us 24 hours, we had to pay another $28 to park there 12 hours when we returned. If they try to take your parking ticket don’t let them! It might as well be called a scam.

Paige who was working at the bar was an abs gem. Really made the experience great.

Great location. Wish it stayed open later and wish the drinks weren’t so expensive. Otherwise loved it.

I ended up here after my local Rosedale Pool had an insufficient number of staff to fully open the pool. Friendly front desk staff here at Randall and a wide pool deck with plenty of chairs. It's pretty quiet here late in the day in mid-August. Something to keep in mind is that the pool gets covered by shadow as a nearby building blocks the sun later in the day.

Clean sunny, ample chairs and an adult swim every 60 min. Deep end of pool never had more than 5 ppl in it. Perfect day

This brand new pool is a wonderful addition to the neighborhood in a lovely setting; the baby pool is the entry point to the main pool, which makes it easier to stay with small children while watching older children as they swim. The facilities are currently in great shape, and I hope they are cared for well enough to stay that way. Our family enjoyed our visit here and will come back frequently.

Stopped by while staying in the hotel, apparently they've just reopened for the season - perfect timing! Bartender (Ken?) was awesome and the space itself is huge. Will definitely be back when I'm in DC again!

I’ve only been to this pool a handful of times but I’ve had a great experience every time. The pool has a slanted entrance at one end of the pool, like you’re entering into the ocean, which is great for little kids to play in. The surface area surrounding the pool is huge so you can spread out nicely. There is a huge covered area for those who want shade. The water has always been clean and cool when I’ve gone. The bathroom area is big and clean. Lots of showers and changing rooms. I think they usually have three lifeguards there. Every 45 minutes or hour (I think) there is a 15 break where everyone has to get out of the pool. What I don’t like is that there is a building going up right next to the pool that will block a lot of sun that the area currently gets. That of course isn’t any thing that parks and rec can help, just an unfortunate change that is coming. I have been to Francis Pool in NW and I like this pool way better. Cleaner bathrooms, chairs that aren’t broke and are clean. I was surprised how poorly kept up Francis Pool facilities are compared to this one. Would definitely recommend Randall Pool!

Great pool day at Deck 11 on the rooftop of Yotel. Great food and very attentive service from the bartender and waitstaff. Shout-out to Queenie in management who moved our passes from a cloudy day to a different day on a moment's notice and with no fuss.

Very pretty, clean*, and well manicured...but oh so very tiny for such a large complex. I hope I don't sound like a mean curmudgeon--I like kids--but it is absolutely overrun by children. There is no adult swim. Sometimes the lifeguards let people spread to the lap lanes to read or chat, as people do, so we aren't stuck being splashed and crowded out by kids and their parents. But when they don't, you have nowhere to swim or just exist in the pool. *One time I saw a dad in the pool tug his baby daughter's swim suit to the side to let her pee while he laughed about it. It's shallow--5 ft. at its deepest point--but kids (and sometimes adults) jump and cannonball in; there's no rule against that. Positives: The bathroom/shower area is pretty clean. (But there's no bin for feminine hygiene products in the stall I used so... I guess they want us to flush everything?) There's a picnic area which is nice because you can bring in outside food. But I'm getting frustrated with them entirely catering to kids, minus the safety part. Good luck if you're not either a child, a parent, or somebody who swims laps for like 10 minutes.

I did the floors they look great

Mc lean garden pool it a nice pool to walk to and to swim in

Just for residents of McLean Gardens and their guests. Nice sized pool. A couple lines for lap swimming and a nice large area for leisure swimming. They also have pool noodles and some squirt guns for the kids to play with.