Germantown Outdoor Pool

The facility is not new. The Pool water is nice, clean and clear. The water slides all seem very fine. It isn’t as crowded as the Bethesda outdoor pool is normally and there is much more access to public parking in Germantown, currently. The bathroom is pretty gross though.

On occasion I bring my boys (twin 4 year olds) to this pool for some water play. It is a public pool, not a country club and with that comes some issues, bathrooms/​locker rooms aren’t the best — that is to be expected but they could do a little better. On the upside, I found the staff very accommodating, and their ability to crowd control was second to none. When 10 year olds would overrun the baby pool area during rest period the staff was on top of separating the «age-​cohorts», which was much appreciated by all the ever fatigued parents of «little ones». The water slides and other assorted «water play» options are great and my boys as they get older will enjoy more and more of the pool and it’s facilities. Thanks and keep up the good work, I’ll be back.

This pool is the worst. It’s impossible to relax and enjoy the water when you’ve got a bunch of teenage lifeguards telling you where you can and cannot stand in the water, while overlooking the loud and boisterous kids that are roughhousing nearby.
I’m still trying to rationalize why I pay so much in taxes to the county and still have to pay for things like the public pools (Pools in DC, however, are free).
When we first arrived, we decided to hop into the lap lanes and join the few other (grown) people floundering around there.
(Pool Etiquette Note: As someone who used to be fiercely protective of lap lanes when swimming was my primary source of exercise, I made sure that there were no lap swimmers in there before we got in).
There were a bunch of kids in the shallow area and we weren’t interested in being repeatedly splashed by kids doing cannonballs. No one was swimming laps so we thought it was fine to just tread water and chat. The pool manager comes up and tells us that he’s supposed to keep the lap lanes clear for lap swimmers, but that while we don’t have to leave, he’s needs us to «move a little more».
HUH?
So, we relocated to the deep end to resume our treading, but we were hardly in the water for 2 minutes before one of the lifeguards told us that we «can’t swim in deep end.»
HUH?!?
So we move the 18 inches or so to the other side of the rope to the shallow end of the pool, full of kids doing cannonballs.
*sigh*
Just when we started to make ourselves comfortable, they blew the whistle and ordered everyone out of the pool. When I was growing up, that used to mean 15 minutes of adult swim, where everyone over 18 could hang out in the pool for a precious few minutes without having to worry about screaming, squirming, splashing kids.
Not here.
At this pool, it meant EVERYONE getting out and sitting for 20 minutes in 90+ degree heat, staring at a perfectly good pool and wondering when in the hell they were gonna let people back in. My boyfriend went to ask one of the lifeguards (super-​skinny Asian chick with an attitude) when they were going to let people back in. I’m not sure what her reply was, but I did not like the attitude that this little girl displayed when an adult asked her a question.
The sad part is that this facility is really nice. The pool was clean and the deck was spacious (although they could have used an extra kid or 2 on staff to clean up the sunflower seed shells and snack wrappers during the 20+ minutes that we were sitting around waiting for them to let us back in the pool). In addition to the pool, there is also a splash park here, complete with two water slides. The locker rooms don’t smell like they are leaking sewage, and I didn’t see any evidence of those freakishly huge pool roaches. Cleanest pool locker room I’ve ever seen. Overall, the facility is really nice, especially for a neighborhood pool, but with the «pool gestapo» on deck, it’s really hard to have a good time.

Nice Outdoor Pool, for people like me who don’t have a pool and still enjoy the water! Nice staff members! Thx

Our first swimming lesson session was excellent with Eliyah. She was thorough, caring and attentive to my nervous child. However, we had Kara for the second session. She completely ignored my child, could not remember which skills she had touched upon, wrote an incomplete review and never discussed my child’s progress with me, despite me being there every day. She also ended classes consistently early when they were only 30 minutes to begin with. I am surprised at her complete apathy. This will be our last summer at Germantown Outdoor Pool for fear of another instructor like Kara.

Nice pool but perhaps the bottom could use a good cleaning.
No one stresses keeping individuals out of the lap lane (s). My sister got kicked in the mouth by a kid while she was trying to swim laps. Every once in a while a manager or someone like that will come out and tell people to stay out of the lap lanes. Then the manager leaves and it’s back to business as usual – people jumping in, hanging around in, floating around the lap lanes. The lifeguards do nothing.
I said something to someone in the front and she said, «Yeah, well, we’re really busy today.» Well do you haves lap lanes or NOT? If you do, enforce the rules.
For this reason alone I am considering not renewing my yearly membership.

The pool is nice and it’s fun. The biggest biggest issue I have is the dirty filthy bathroom! Every time I walk thru the bathroom I wanna throw up. It looks feels and smells dirty. Can’t take showers there. Idk how they allow a community place and have a filthy bathroom.
The pools it’s self is nice and it’s clean. They just need to work on the bathrooms.

Usually I dont reviews swimming pools but this really needs to be addressed. I dont know how because usually when people complain to such places nothing happens. Yes, they will here you out, nod, smile and feel your pain but thats it. After you leave, they probably will talk about you and call you all sorts of names.
This pool use to be the mecca of all pools. It used to shine and be so tidy and now it looks like a pool from a 3^rd world country.
Lifeguards: All young teenie boppers who are dressed in long sleeves and shorts. What happens if a kid drowns? I hate it when lifeguards are dressed as if they are ready to go to bed. Lifeguards should be dressed in their swimsuits ready for anything. Do you see any lifeguards dressed like that at the beach? No!
Who knows if they are fully alert behind their shades.
The big pool: Dirty dirty dirty! Look at the tiles on the pool?!! Yuck yuck! All has black film and grime! The bottom of the pool is filthy!!! Sand and all types of debris at the bottom. Bugs and all types of stuff swimming in the pool. The slides do not look safe at all. The leap frog area has caution tape since the begining of the summer. It used to be cool and kids use to have fun. The entire pool looks dead and its showing its age. I cant believe it. Its sad to see a nice pool go to into shambles. The grassy area. Looks pathectic. It hasnt been mowed or treated. Weeds and all types of stuff growing and sad that kids who are in camps have to lay there.
Im very surprised that no one wrote a review yet, but this really needs to be addressed. Its a county pool, which means part of my tax dollars go here. I use to work at a pool and there is no way our pool manager would ever allow a pool to get like this. I much rather take the kids to the indoor pool or Bohrer Park.