It is a university gym - so do not expect luxury gym. But they have everything one needs, for work…read moreand an especially great olympic sized pool. I love it - but then I hate luxury gyms and their overpriced offerings. Tons of classes as well and probably one of the best value for money gyms in the area!

I have been to MIT Recreational few times this year for competitive USA Swim meets. I am a fan in…read morethe stands. I can share it's a long walk to the parking lot. Lack of on street parking plus construction across the street currently doesn't help. The elevator is sometimes working. It's always clean and a lot of spectator seating but if they are running both pools during the competition you don't get a great vantage point of the rear pool. Very spacious.

I received training from Alex for a few months before I moved out of my place a bit far from the Y…read more He tracked my progress, kept me pushing at a pace I could keep up with, and adapted exercises to my needs. I noticeably improved my strength at a steady pace, and I enjoyed my time there. I left with some sadness at missing a pal to talk with about movies and random stuff. Couldn't recommend him more!

This gym continues to improve---they've just recently upgraded all their Life Fitness cardio…read moremachines (treadmills, ellipticals, & stationary bikes) to the latest "Club Series+ SE4" version which come with beautiful 24" touchscreen monitors. These monitors feature something like two dozen different "virtual terrain" selections where you can choose different places in the world where someone runs or bikes while wearing a GoPro camera, providing you with their POV experience of moving through scenic urban areas (Paris, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, etc) as well as stunning natural landscapes (tropical island jungles, desert trails, volcanic beaches, etc). This pretty much takes care of the #1 problem with cardio machines: soul-crushing BOREDOM from being stuck indoors huffing and puffing while going nowhere...in this case, a somewhat claustrophobic-feeling, fluorescent-lit basement gym. But with New England weather being what it is, especially those long dark winters when the sun sets at 4pm on icy/slushy sidewalks, what are you gonna do? Coupled with 5 separate free weight areas, a boxing gym with lots of free hanging bags including two Thai bags, and the highest-temperature sauna I've ever set foot in, this remains the best Y in the greater Boston area. Yeah it's in an old old non-pristine building (the Celtics used to practice in the upstairs basketball court during the 1960s, I've been told) that could use some massive sprucing up, but to be honest I'd rather they just invest in the actual fitness gear like they just did with these $11K treadmills! 4 and 1/2 stars (Deducting 1/2 star only because they continue to refuse to restore their pre-pandemic hours, when they closed at 10pm weeknights and 6pm on weekends.) Wish list of further upgrades: matched pairs of 20/24/28kg kettlebells, a Perform Better Glute-Bridge-Roller, and NON-eco showerheads so we don't waste so much TIME waiting for the soap to wash off.

My daughter spent quite a long time in this program and had little progress. The instructors were…read moreconstantly changed (frequently with little notice) so there was almost no consistency. In the group lessons the kids played and didn't pay attention and there seemed to be no order. In the private lessons, the instructors were often late, cutting the lesson short (sometimes up to a third the length of the lesson). Rescheduling lessons was a nightmare and simple questions like what the class schedule was was convoluted and shrouded in mystery as I could often not get any clear answers. I highly recommend against this program.

Amazing program. My kids are now terrific swimmers after starting as newbies. Program focuses on…read morewater safety and stroke technique. They break down the achievements into granular parts. Kids receive a sticker for each thing they achieve. It is very motivating and leads to mastery. I highly recommend.

Its only open for 3 hours I can't see it ro midnight what is up with that so if u work though hour…read moreu can't enjoy a pool in ur hometown it's closed at lunch time are u serious and they want all this money to go their you guys must have rocks in your heads who ever came up with this time

i'm very upset. the medford tufts pool changed a rule making it more difficult for people to come…read morein. the staff on the inside were not clear on what to do, and i can't seem to understand why. tufts used to be a open friendly area for people to swim, and now it's just terrible. please fix this system because it is crappy.

This is an awesome community pool for city folk to cool off at. It's a pretty long drive to the…read morebeach from this corner of Somerville, so it's great to have somewhere closer to pop in on a hot summer day. Entry is $2 for adults, or you can pay $40 for a season pass. The parking lot is small, but there's additional parking at Dilboy stadium a short walk away. No food or drink allowed (besides water of course) which is a bummer, but makes sense for health and cleanliness issues. A few other reviewers thought the pool was dirty, but I haven't found that to be true. The locker rooms/bathrooms are a little rough, but it's an old community pool, what do you expect? It's pretty packed with kids so this is not the place to come for peace and quiet. Regardless, this will be a regular haunt of mine this summer for sure!

I've lived so close to this pool for so many years and didn't find out about it until this summer…read more Oh the sweet relief of cool refreshing water that I've been missing all my Somervillian life! Dilboy pool is a really great way to beat the summer heat while having a cheap day out in the sun close to home. You can get their via public transportation by taking the 80, 87, or 88 bus, or drive to the pool and park in the lot in the back. The nice thing about this pool is that it is really big and not to full either. Mostly families visit, and they have a shallow wading pool for the tiny kiddies if you have any in tow. With 5 life guards on duty, and the deep end reaching 4 ft. 8 inches, you can feel safe in just about any inch of the pool. They also have a male and female dressing room equipped with toilets, showers, and dressing cubicles, so you can change on site if you prefer. A few changes to keep in mind that we heard from some of the regulars and confirmed with a lifeguard: 1) Chairs are no longer allowed at the pool, so bring a towel and be prepared to plop yourself down on the concrete. 2) They are now charging a $2 entrance fee if you go to the pool between 11 am and 1 pm. After this peak time it is free. 3) This isn't really a change, but something to be aware of if you are visiting for the first time with lots of people. The entrance to the pool is through the dressing rooms, which means your party will be briefly separated until you are on the pool side. Happy Swimming!

This is a great gym located on the Boston University campus (off the B-line). It pretty much has…read moreany type of equipment that a top-notch gym would have and is laid out to help accommodate spacing when it is super busy. Lots of cardio machines, strength machines, free weights, bands, and all that jazz. They have courts for squash and basketball, an indoor track, an indoor pool, and have fitness classes. Like any gym it gets busy at peak times, especially since it is a campus gym so lots of students. There are different membership options depending on if you're a student, faculty, or alumni. There are also guest passes and options for a day pass or seasonal pass (like winter break or summer). The membership is a bit pricey, but it is a quality gym and not that extreme compared to boutique gym prices (yikes!).

I enrolled my child (12+) in the Swim Club Senior Group at Boston University's Fitness and…read moreRecreation Center on 08/20/2024. The program was scheduled to run from 09/09/2024 to 12/12/2024, four times a week for two hours each session. However, the experience has been incredibly frustrating. Nowhere on their website or in the receipt was it mentioned that parents are required to stay during the whole program (two hour each day, four days/week). We only found out after the program had already started through an email, and my son was even denied entry to his class until I managed to arrive by taxi! It turns out this requirement is buried in a 33-page handbook that wasn't given to us during checkout or mentioned clearly beforehand. To make matters worse, I teach in the evenings and simply can't meet this last-minute obligation. I reached out to the business to ask for either a solution or a refund for the remainder of the program, but I've received zero response. While my child enjoys the actual swimming program, I am extremely disappointed with how this business is handling things. A little transparency and better communication would go a long way.

It has all the basic equipment I could need, staff is friendly, and it's never busy! The only con…read moreis it's pretty ancient but it looks like they've slowly been replacing equipment with newer stuff and they have chalk which I appreciate when it gets hot in there. The basic plan is $35 a month which is probably fitting for the area and you get access to other YMCAs so can't really complain.

After nearly five years away, went back today due to having a medical appointment just five minutes…read morefrom here. Very glad to see all the improvements that they've done: 1. Cardio room: replaced crappy old stationary bikes with two almost-new Keiser spin bikes---these are free of silly frills/gimmicks unlike the big hulking Life Fitness, Precor, or Cybex bikes but provide unmatched ergonomics and authentic bike-feel, which is why they are used in spin classes everywhere. Forgot how nice and strong the AC is...sigh, if only the weight room had the same! 2. Weight room: instead of a random hodgepodge of ancient dumbbells, they finally got a full matched set of Perform Better (also the best in the business) rubber coated dumbbells, two excellent Matrix multi-position adjustable benches, a full Valor Fitness squat cage with deadlift platform & arms, a Smith machine with deadlift arms, and a smattering of kettlebells including 25# and 40# pairs, topping out with 55# and 70# singles...80-100# would have been better, but a 70# max KB isn't bad. Some new weightroom accessories I've never seen anywhere else: a Titan multi-grip Olympic barbell, a fat barbell and fat lat-pulldown straight bar, a pair of 6" wooden blocks with handles, and a number of other unusual but useful training tools if you're willing to dig a little and use your improvisatory imagination. Of course they've kept some of the old stuff, like about 4-5 pairs of truly old-school York dumbbells and a gazillion of old rusty all metal weight plates (most gyms now use rubber coated plates with built in hand openings for easy carrying), but hey, better to have an over-abundance of old weights than not enough of the new weights (as sometimes happens in the newer gyms). 3. Elkay filtered water fountains in cardio room and by basketball court...this is a life-saver, literally! You don't want folks getting dehydrated just because they don't like the taste of a crappy old water fountain or tap water through 100 year old rusty pipes. 4. The small indoor track above the basketball court is about the same, but I noticed they've made the best of it by adding a Concept 2 rower in one corner (next to a Wing Chun dummy, which I have NEVER seen in a gym before, wow), a Stairmaster next to the 80lb hanging bag (vinyl Everlast, not bad) in the opposite corner, and a carefully stabilized "Power Tower" in the 3rd available corner. Now that they have kettlebells, the track is perfect for doing weighted carries (Suitcase C, Farmer's C, Cross-body C, etc) which is an incredibly useful full-body and core-intensive exercise most people overlook. All in all, I'd say that this Y while small and still burdened with the ravages of age (the locker rooms and showers are just as decrepit as ever), it does have about 90% of everything essential you really need. The Fitness Director, or whoever manages the workout rooms, has clearly put a lot of attention and care to make the best of their clearly shoestring budget...and does know what they're doing, and does it well. Their opening hours are relatively decent compared to the Cambridge Y or especially the Charlestown Y. Unlike those two places they offer free parking...big plus in this area! I do wish they would get rid of the silly "Health Center" extra membership tier that allows access to their mediocre saunas and just get two really good saunas built into a small increase in membership fees. Their membership fees remain a good 25% or so lower than that of other local Ys, but considering how old and small the place is, that makes perfect sense. If I lived 2-3 blocks away like I used to, I would still come here if I didn't have a car, or whenever I didn't feel like driving 15-30 minutes to better/bigger Ys nearby.

Terrible experience and extremely disappointing. This place has so much potential and could be such…read morea great resource for the community, but the way it is being run and the way the staff treats people completely ruins the experience. The female lifeguards were rude in general to the public. They kept staring at us and pointing at us, which made us extremely uncomfortable. The pool checks were also poorly communicated, and nobody clearly explained what the actual purpose of them was. The head lifeguard was just as rude and unprofessional. What made the experience even worse was that after we left because we were uncomfortable, we were literally stopped and pulled aside by the staff and accused of lying about having a child with us just to get into the pool. We did NOT lie. We have been at the pool. We had our belongings inside and everything was already set up. Two of us left because a lifeguard told a mother in the water near us that she could not be in the pool with the floaties she had. Since it was extremely hot out and we wanted her child to actually be able to enjoy the pool, we went all the way back home to grab a life jacket we had so mind you the third person with us was still there at the pool with all our stuff waiting for us to return with said life jacket for the baby. We were rushing back specifically so she could get back in and enjoy the pool. So to then be stopped, accused of lying and treated like we were doing something wrong was completely ridiculous. We only needed about an hour at the pool, and somehow that short visit turned into an uncomfortable and frustrating experience. The staff's attitude, the staring, pointing, lack of communication and then accusing us of lying was enough to make it very clear that we will not be returning. It is honestly a shame because this place has so much potential and could be something really great for the community if it were run by people who actually knew how to treat families with basic respect and kindness. One visit was more than enough.

What a great place to spend a day! Plus it's free thanks to DCR! The facilities are clean - shower,…read morechanging rooms and bathrooms. The pool is huge. Lifeguards are present and they test the pool quality every hour or so. The kiddie area is blocked off so perfect for families who want to dunk their kids and not to be disturbed by other swimmers. Don't want to swim? There is a splash pad when you leave the pool area. There is also a playground with picnic tables within 2 min walk. I saw four swings for babies/toddlers and swings for older kids are behind the slides. Street parking.

The good: the coaches The bad: not following up with skill…read moreevaluations, not having make up class compensation as a lot of classes get closed due to bad weather.. The infrastructure to not be able to have a good dry after a swim. Especially for small kids who are vulnerable to cold and cough if not had a good dry . The make shift tents make you feel like they are doing charity . But you are paying 150 for 4 classes wow. Thanks but no thanks. Switching to lifetime for a more personalized and warmer swim lessons. Lifetime charges 110 per month if we already have a family membership . It was a no brainer already!

The school was great until new ownership took over. Was a loyal customer until they made empty…read morepromises to the swim team kids to keep their team around through summer. They even sold off equipment the kids fundraised and pocketed the money saying they are going to keep the pool. Pool has been given to another team already all lies. I'm not even sure the same instructors that were good still work for them. From what I know a bunch left.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Manyu. His knowledge and enthusiasm was just what I needed to get…read moreme started with my photography!

From the owner: Photography classesread more