Are you a David Lloyd member? Swimming pools

I'm a member and our club has a 20m indoor pool and an outdoor hydro pool - small but so lovely and relaxing. There is adults only swimming every morning 6-10am, lunchtimes roughly 12-2 (sometimes aqua aerobics in the middle) and evenings roughly 6-?9 or 10pm.

I find it's quiet if I go at 9am or lunchtimes - sometimes I'm the only one in the pool. Weekends adults only is before 9 or 10am and after 6 or 7pm. There is always at least one lane open during family swim times but it can be a bit noisy so I tend to avoid those.

I love swimming there and I enjoy the pilates classes - mat and reformer - and sometimes yoga too

We use 2 and both have at least 2 lanes for swimming at all times, in both pools, except i have noticed they do mid morning water aerobics and use the lanes for that.

One has 3 lands and during swimming lessons one-off those lanes becomes kids lessons lane.

Your schedule sounds fine - I would be shocked if you have any problems. Even in summer, the pools tend to be quieter in the morning. Ds and I used to go early in summer holidays and no one was there. But by about lunch time its heaving.

I think the new ones are mostly.tier 1 and above though - so v pricey.

At my DL the furthest part of the pool gets blocked off for lessons or aqua aerobics.

I’ve not encountered any problems with availability myself…

You'll be fine on a week day morning, even if it’s not adults only. In term-time you’ll get a few people swimming with babies/ toddlers but not loads. In the holidays it doesn’t get busy until after 10 at our gym.

In my newly opened DL has indoor and outdoor pools. And a small toddler indoor pool.
The indoor pool has 3 lanes for swiiming slow ,medium and fast and a general area.
The general.area is sometimes used for aqua aerobics and the slow lane for swimmimg lessons.
The outdoor pool has 4 wide lanes ( not sure uf it will change in summer)
Both are nice and warm.
Outdoor pool is quiet all the time atm but will clearly get busy when nice weather arrives.
The indoor pool is really busy during the day on weekends with families but is quiet in the evenings if theres not aqua going on.I joined on an early bird offer for £150 per month but i think current price is £189 per month. DL is a bit smoke and mirrors.
Beware that DL do change things without notice we were a tier 2 club when it opened 3 months ago but are now tier 3 so members can no longer access the other clubs they thought they would be able to.
Also free monthly guest passes still have not been issued to members , we werent told there would be a delay when signing up , then were told it would be march but now not til April -4 months after opening. And guest passes do not include spa. This also wasnt made clear when joining, if you want your guest to visit the spa its an extra £40.
Spa can be a bit like a wetherspoons on a friday night if you go at the wrong time, especially on weekday evenings , so not always the tranquil experience i hoped for! Maybe thats why weve been downgraded to tier 3!!!
Anyway take screen shots , download any details of facilities advertised before opening so if they change it after signing up youve got evidence!
Having said that I am really enjoying the facilities .

I’m a member. There are always lanes blocked off. It’s busy with children between 4-6 after school and on a Saturday and Sunday morning. The rest of the times it isn’t too bad. I take my son swimming at about 6pm on a Sunday and we’re often the only people in the main bit of the pool.

It’s adult only in the morning and after 8pm week days and 7pm weekends. Apart from summer the outdoor pool is adult only.

My images are under review!

Tuesday
Adult Only - 6am - 10am
Family - 10am - 1pm
Adult Only - 2pm - 4pm
Family - 4pm - 7.30pm
Adult - 7.30pm - 9.45pm

Outdoor is Adult Only all day (other than summer)

Saturday
Adult Only - 7am - 9am
Family- 9am - 4pm
Adult Only- 4pm - 8.45pm

As above for outdoor pool

Here's an example of swimming times - one weekday and one weekend

I’m a member of a town centre DL with 20m indoor pool. There are supposed to be adults only sessions eg after 2pm at weekends but these don’t seem to be enforced and there are often parents with kids at adult times. Also often dominated by teenagers and young adults in groups horseplaying in pool which makes it difficult to do slow lengths (2 lanes available but faster swimmers). Often on phones too which is a concern in pool area… whole gym dominated by teenagers from local schools (including superselective grammar popular on MN which is just round the corner). Club room resembles school common room and they’ve installed table tennis table in reception area which also contributes to youth club/common room vibes. I’ve nothing against teenagers (have one of my own) but they completely dominate and get prioritised here. Rant over!

Fins and snorkels are not allowed in our DL. We don't have an outdoor pool but we have two indoor ones, a big one and a smaller one. Both close regularly for lessons. We also have the Thursday Aquafit classes...

We cancelled too, it was more frustrating trying to swim there than at the leisure centre. Same issues, but a lot more expensive!

I joined ours locally to use the pools (not into gyms). The outdoor one was only really usable from April onwards to September and was OK apart from in school holidays/after school times. The indoor one was better, but I then found that if you went in from 5pm onwards it was full of students who would alternate from the hot tubs to the pool just standing around the edges. They usually had 2 lanes and then half the pool free. Thankfully I took a monthly membership out and let it lapse after 3 months as swimming proved a bit harder than it should have been.

ours usually goes down to one lane between 3-7 for swimming lessons and often the main bit of the pool is only open for aqua aerobics. I am a member and I enjoy it but mainly use it for gym classes. That said it is extortionate, classes are over subscribed and hard to get onto. You have to sent an alarm from 6.30 at ours to get booked on as by 6.40 it’s full. Parking is also crap at ours as there are too many members.

We’re members at our local club. There are two swimming pools, 25m indoor and 20m outdoor. There is also a jacuzzi (adults only) and a small children’s pool, which is very shallow and used by families with very young children.

There is always at least one lane available in the indoor pool; this increases to a maximum of three lanes with signs at the end indicating which one is for fast, medium speed and slow swimmers. There are three additional lanes marked out by the tiles on the pool floor but not roped off, as this larger space is always available for open swimming. This space does get very busy on weekend mornings and during school holidays. When children’s swimming lessons are running (afternoons from about 4:00pm until 6:00pm, and Saturday and Sunday mornings), at least one lane is used for the lessons. There are also other sessions which take a lane out at other times, for example adults’ swim training and Rookie Lifeguard for older children. Aqua aerobics is scheduled regularly throughout the week, and I always avoid the indoor pool when that class is taking place, as the majority of the pool space is used owing to the popularity of the class.

The outdoor pool is similar to what others have described, open all year (closed very occasionally during very severe weather, or if the area around the pool is very icy) and rarely busy but also rarely empty - there’s almost always one or two people swimming lengths out there. It’s also used by people training for triathlons or Ironman competitions. When the weather is hot, it’s heaving with all loungers taken and people spreading towels out on the grass banking below the tennis courts. There are no swimming lessons in the outdoor pool, with the exception of a couple of weeks a few years ago when the indoor pool was closed to be re-tiled. They moved back indoors when the work had been completed.

The outdoor pool is an adults only pool during most of the year; children are not allowed to swim in either pool unless a lifeguard is on duty, and there are no lifeguards supervising the outdoor pool outside of the May-September period. The indoor pool is adults only until 10:00am during the week (9:30am at weekends) and I think between 12:30pm and 1:30pm as well as after 8:30pm. The sauna and jacuzzi are adults only at all times.

DD11 has swimming lessons (will probably stop once she goes to secondary school in September as she’s a great swimmer now), and also does Rookie Lifeguard which she loves. We pay extra for both, neither is included within the membership. Add in her tennis lessons and snacks/drinks in the club room for all of us, and DL receive significant money from us every month. However, it’s definitely worth it for us; DH and I use the gym regularly, and we all like the fact that there’s something for all of us.

Download the DL app, choose a club and you'll be able to see the wide variety in opening & adult only times for the outdoor pools!

At my club the outdoor pool is adult only before 10am & after 6pm in school holidays, adult only 100% of the time outside of that

I was a member but gave up my membership. This (along with getting rid of all outdoor tennis courts for padel/parking) was a huge reason why.
The outdoor pool becomes almost unusable in school holidays. Child free times become minimal and I found that as soon as there was a nice day, they would extend the children’s time or get rid of the child-free time altogether on the basis that ‘it was too good to waste’. The trouble is they know their money comes from families spending on lessons, food, etc and therefore prioritise keeping kids happy over people going there to swim/exercise.

Thanks for the thread as there is a DL opening near DHs office later this year and we were talking about whether the swimming would be worth it for me as our local pool drives me nuts with such restricted lane swimming - the lido in season is way better for that (and a glorious 50m) but the parking is terrible and takes twice the time to get to

Ours has 25m indoor and 20m outdoor. I never use the outdoor, so can't comment on that.

I go twice a week to swim (now for 50 minutes); the indoor pool is split in half, with one half further split into a fast and a slow lane. Between 1pm-2pm is adult-only swimming. I try to time my swim around lunchtime - so from 12.30 up till 2pm, as it seems to be quieter then. I'm an off-peak member, so can't go before 11.

The lanes are always present in the indoor pool.

I've seen one person use fins, but only once - no-one seemed to be stopping them though.

In general, I usually manage to get a lane to myself. I'm not especially keen on sharing a lane, so if both lanes are occupied I'll sometimes swim in the other half of the pool, depending on who else is in there.

If you do decide to join, check out the DL app, where you'll find timetables for each day. On certain days/at certain times there will be swimming lessons going on, which potentially could make the pool busier. At ours, on Thursday, there's an aqua class, which takes up the non-lane half of the pool. I've found that if I time my swim for when the class is on, sometimes it makes the lanes quiet. However, you do need to be careful to make sure you leave the pool before or after they finish, so that there is a shower available to use!

I looked at joining our council gym/pool before I decided on DL, but didn't like the fact that a) the pool was often very busy, and was used for local schools' swimming lessons at all times of the day, and b) you have to book the time of your swim. I like the flexibiilty of going when I want to.

We were members of our local club - DH was only interested in the pool and we gave up our membership because it was a nightmare. Often only one lane open when aquarobics and other classes on (the kids classes etc), who make the water so turbulent you feel like you are swimming in the North Sea during a storm. Then there are the nights the triathlon team have 2/3 of the pool and you are forced to swim with the pairs of old ladies doing breast stroke who tut and complain if you need to get past them. He was a county swimmer in his teens and is a strong, fast and proficient swimmer. He just wanted to get in, do a hard 20mins before or after work and then head out. The pool looked lovely but any pretence at protected, always-available, dedicated fast lanes, was precisely that - a pretence.

Here it’s 25m outside, 20m inside. The outside pool is bliss for 3/4 of the year and then it gets busy with people hanging out and kids. Last summer you could feel and smell the sun screen, and taste it. The outside pool didn’t get cleaned frequently enough - airborne leaves and hair clumps. Flying ant day was an experience I don’t want to repeat. I gave up swimming at weekends during the summer unless it was 7-8am or after 7pm due to the children everywhere.

We cancelled our membership as it wasn’t worth the money. I loved the pools and the regular swimming but due to my own schedule it was as very difficult to go at times when it would be most pleasant.

Just to warn you if the larger pool is outside then it is likely to busier than the DLs where the outdoor pool is 20m as most people wanting to do serious lengths will go for 25m. The outdoor pool is adults only through the winter, but it's opened up to families through the summer holidays, although not all day, and as you would expect it's full of kids on the warmer days, especially at weekends.

The pool in my DL does get busy at the times you would expect it to, but there is always lane swimming available indoor and out, even when there are lessons on.

I've seen people using equipment but I generally swim at the quieter times of day, they may restrict if it's busy. The lifeguards at mine are very hot on applying the rules - as they should be of course.

That’s about what it costs for a single person membership at my local one! Why I’m no longer a member

Mine is 20m outside and 25 inside. Inside has aquarobics and children's swimming lessons multiple times a week, plus a serious swim training session called "triathlon swim" a couple of times a week. They still have one lane roped off for lengths even at those times, generally.

Worth asking about e.g. fins. Floats and the thing you grip between your legs (name escaping me currently) are definitely fine but I feel like there was a fuss on the Facebook group maybe a year ago about not being allowed to use either fins or snorkels, can't remember which.

The outdoor pool at mine never has anything roped off for lengths but is reasonably quiet in the winter and anyone in there is generally doing lengths or cooling off along one side after using the sauna (no plunge pool at ours but the newer ones usually have one so avoid that). In the summer it is definitely busy all day every day through the summer holidays but you could probably get some lengths in after 4pm. It is also busy any warm day at the weekends probably from May to the end of September, but again doable after 4ish for us. Probably worth checking if they'll rope a lane off in the summer - I haven't ever asked at ours and just avoid peak times if I want to swim, or swim inside when the weather is good. May be worth checking out/asking to visit early morning if you're an early swimmer as ours is busier then as well, but still doable for sure.

It's vastly more flexible than the council pool, and that's the same reason I joined.

I really enjoy the fact the outdoor pool is heated but cold enough you don't overheat if you're powering along. Swimming in the dark on winter's evening is also wonderful.