El Cerrito Swim Center — Restaurant in El Cerrito

I’ve swam in enough pools in my life, but ECSC is by far THE best one! This is truly a community pool, meaning the programming and pool schedule are multidimensional. They have a completely separate shallow pool for small toddlers and kids; a large 3ft-deep pool for children’s swim class; and finally, a mammoth 8-10 lane pool for fitness and lap swimming. This pool also hosts the local high school water polo team, so suffice it to say you need to read the schedule and be cognizant of the various programming transitions that happen throughput the day and week! That being said, this is hands down the most immaculately maintained pool in which I’ve EVER swam, in my entire life. The pools are absolutely pristine(!) and the water in the main fitness/lap pool is a combination of chlorine and salt which make it not only feel amazing but also make it a breeze to swim in. Lastly, this pool is open year round and outdoors; however, the temp is PERFECT every time — not hot, but not cold — JUST PERFECT! The only downside is that it is expensive for a local pool (day passes are $10, monthly passes $96), but then again I try not to get upset about it, because they totally deliver on...

The pool is nice and heated. But it’s run by teenagers who seem to have no oversight. We take our son to the open swim. It only happens twice a week after school. I think that huge pool sits empty the other days which is sad. They barely use the other half for swim lessons. If you ask them to move the divider because it’s packed with free swim people they say they can’t because they sometimes use that space. We were there for 1.5 hours and the lesson swimmers only used a small portion of their space. I just had to run my husbands wallet to him because no one warned us we were on our last entry last time and they don’t take Apple Pay. Not a huge deal, but it just shows these teenagers are barely paying attention would have been nice to know for next time as we don’t bring our wallets...

My 2-year-old daughter is taking swim lessons here. I like it, but she has an issue with impromptu clapping and yelling "yay" because it freaks her out. Instructor Fiona was quite understanding and said it shouldn't be a problem to tone that part down, but when I asked her co-instructor, Anne, if she could maybe not do that so my daughter can actively participate without melting down after each song, she refused. Instead she suggested that there may be something wrong with my daughter, which I felt was rude and dismissive. And, even if there was something wrong with her, why wouldn't you try to accommodate a child with an issue? Anne's insensitivity to a child freaking out in her class and the fact that it's an outdoor pool and freezing on cold days is the reason for the...