This is the "Fountain of Youth " - I love Avila Hot Springs! I went 3 times while on vacation…read morestaying in Pismo Beach. It warmed my bones and muscles to the core... and then take a dip in the refreshing Olympic-sized pool....the experience was incredible!

Cons: Having been coming for years. Super disappointed this time. We visited in September just…read moreafter the summer crowds...or so we thought. Avila Hot Springs seems run down now. Lots of people, with large extended families, living on site now. Gross. Just gross. The hot springs tub area was really dirty. Lots of full time residents living there using the facilities. Water was nice and hot just murky with hair, skin and who knows what floating around. Couldn't wait to shower off. I looked everywhere for the women's showers after my soak- no luck. The only showers I found were "For Disabled Only" so I kept looking and eventually asked at the front desk. They gave me a key to use the "For Disabled Only" ADA showers cause that's all they had for women. We camped overnight in our van $60. Camp toilets were porta potties. We didn't go back in the hot springs next day because they were soooo gross & dirty. Bummer, cause the place used to be better. Never fancy, but it was clean and a great place to soak in authentic hot sulfur-stinky spring water. Now it's just gross & very dirty. It's a heck no. Hard pass for me!!! Pros: Location of Avila Hot Springs is close to Avila Beach, Shell Beach, Pismo, San Luis Bay etc. Great Central Coast location. Girl at front desk was nice.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. so beautiful. i don't even know if they have lap swimming there…read more it's a brand new 33 meter outdoor facility. 33 meters by 25 yards. turned out perfect. 8 line colorado timing systems scoreboard for water polo and swimming scoring. 30 meters of all deep water for water polo. wide, wide deck. great temporary lights for night time events. AND the ultimate piece---ta dah! a tiki hut scoring table/stand! the covered unit has flourescent lighting for night games/events, it's got wire boxes for the shot clocks and colorado 6 timing console, and it's totally done with bamboo fencing everywhere! there's a metal roof---sealed for rain, and even a plexiglass window on the side. classy, classy. i've never seen a tiki-hut scoring stand---ever. it's awesome!

Local Eval: Cute little neighborhood SLO County Park right in the middle of "nowhere". I visited a…read morefew weeks ago, added this "new" entry to Yelp without any "credit" [was prompted for an immediate review & pics], and was Tardy with my Hardie review. Hardie Park is rather cute and has both a summer use adult pool, along with a tot pool. The fees are reasonable [one day= $2 a kid/ $5 an adult & season passes are a bargain] and the schedule is on the SLO County Park website...where you can also find the plethora of other SLO County Parks, Pools, Golf Courses, Lakes, Hikes, etc... The two Tennis courts are free, at least according to the people who were playing there. In front of the pool is a interesting sculpture dedicated to two local Indian tribes [see pics]. On the other side of the street, is a large well groomed grassy area, where there are ample playgrounds for tots. The county wisely used what appears to be ground-up tires/rubber for safety. There is a large covered picnic table area with a huge BBQ for groups. In the overhead structure, there are controls for lights & even an AC outlet. One likely needs to reserve and pay for use on the SLO County website. Just behind this is a lazy serene creek, which is pleasant. The banks are deceptively muddy and slippery, which I found out the hard way! I wanted a water/mud sample to test under my home microscope system. As my wife yelled at me not to go down that way, that was the way I went...only to regret it, as one sneaker got wet, as I slipped. It took me a bit to extract myself, as I ran nowhere fast. My wife joked that I looked like a mouse running on one of those wheels in their cage! Somehow, I did not fall. Later I had my wife grab me a water sample. Since the creek looked to be only about 6 inches deep, it would typically only be messy for an adult...unless you twisted an ankle or worse! Apparently, since I did not learn my lesson about creek banks, I repeated this stupidity, the very next day with AG Creek, where I also slipped & grabbed a huge Stinging Nettle branch with both hands. MUCHO-Ouch! In any case, if an old fool like me can mess up with creeks, you can imagine what a mess kids can get into. My New Balance sneakers were soaked with tons of mud, while I had a pair of waterproof boots in the trunk. I can be quite a moron! In any case, this is a rather pleasant "unknown" county park in SLO County, that also happens to be right next to a public library. You then can grab some eats from town, a book to read, and then watch your kid[s] use up some of their boundless energy, swimming. The surrounding town is quiet, has humble accommodations, and marginal eats...but it is a good base of operations for points north, south, or east. Both charming Cambria and Morro Bay/Baywood/Los Osos are just a few miles away, and are filled with lots to explore. Since a number of the SLO County Parks do have summer daily use pools, it is a great feature for kids. In our area, only a few health clubs have decent pools, and only an expensive one has a nice outdoor Olympic sized pool [e.g. Avila Club]. So if you have visiting relatives with kids, who are pestering you to swim, and you know that they can get hypothermia from the Ocean, then these parks may be a god send for some. While the SLO County Pools are spread out, it may give you a great excuse to sight see, as you check out the area. If you need a relatively safe sheltered beach, there are parts of Avila Beach that have little wave action, lots of sand for a stroll, but the water is still icy cold. Avila is the most kid friendly beach. Ironically, even though I made the first "business" addition to Yelp, someone else apparently beat me to the first review [a non-local brief review seemingly targeted to "beat me" to the obviously "coveted" "First-to-review" title]. It was rather annoying, after I took considerably more time to research, explore, & take many pictures of this cute park...but no matter... as a local with tons of time on my hands, one of my new hobbies is to check out the plethora of the many County or local Parks, Attractions, Farmers Markets, in SLO county & beyond. My additional beef with the multitudes of non-local "tourist" brief reviews, is that many either over-glorify, or overly-trash places, that they may visit once, and typically lack a comparative/historical local context. You cannot expect this rural area to compete with urban areas. While it is a relatively "wealthy" area, with pricey housing, most things have to be trucked in, from the ports of Long Beach, or from the SF Bay area. There are no major ports in this area, since the demise of this area's big oil rigs & refineries eons ago. Avila Pier had a railroad that once brought oil out to the port from SLO [Tank Farm] & was a polluting eyesore. The entire town of Avila was dug up to remove many feet of oil soaked sand decades ago!

Sweet little park. Play structure, covered picnic area, restrooms, large grass area, and access to…read morea creek. Within walking distance of downtown Cayucos and the beach. Clean and quiet.

Great place to take the kids for an afternoon swim. The water in the smaller pools is nice and warm…read morefor the little ones. Would highly recommend for the entire family!

I am wondering if the city of SLO is aware exactly how loud the music is that's played at this…read morepool. As I write this I'm in my home (I live across the creek on the opposite side of Southwood Drive) with all windows shut and very clearly hear it, from a distance of 300 ft. I mentioned the distance because the city's own noise ordinance states, in pertinent part: "Between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., it is a violation to make or allow noise that can be heard 50 feet from your property line." My residence is five times the distance spelled out in the ordinance. However, I walked back through my complex to see how far the noise was audible. I stood at the basketball court fence adjacent to my property - a distance of 500 ft, 10 times the distance in the city's ordinance - and the music is still audible. Now, I'm familiar with the concept of due diligence when looking for a new place to stay, and I did research this neighborhood before moving here. I was aware I would next to two parks, a school, and a baseball stadium. I have no problem with the noise from the ball games, school etc. as it's unavoidable but the pool music is not. Further, I couldn't have conceived of a scenario where I would regularly be subjected to loud music from a city ran facility, in violation of their own noise ordinance. Again, I'm giving the city the benefit of the doubt, in good faith, and assuming they're unaware of this. I feel a lot of it has to do with the placement of whatever speaker(s) the music is played over. Thus, a possible solution would be to arrange the speakers so they face away from the complexes on the other side of the street. They could still face the pool, and the hill/elementary chool on the other side of the pool would largely blunt the music from traveling to the residences on Augusta. I'm really hoping to hear back from someone with the city in regards to this.

I loved it. It was great such a little quaint country town. I can't tell you great things about how…read morerelaxing and peaceful it is here.

Santa Ynez Valley has a great swim club! Practices are held at the Santa Ynez High School pool and…read morecoach Dwayne Douglas is a former competitive swimmer, who cares. My son joined the swim team almost two years ago and loves it. The competitive nature and discipline of the club has helped him to create new goals and work hard to achieve them. He looks forward to going to practice, competing in the meets and having fun with friends. Parents and club members are all very supportive, it is a wonderful enviroment for young swimmers to grow and excel in. I am proud to say my son is excited to part of the Santa Ynez Valley Swim Club.

I visit SB regularly, and this is where I choose to spend an hour every day I'm here. Great staff,…read moreaffordable public lap swim, and of course the location can't be beat.

Amazing pool, with it being outdoor it was the perfect pastime for our 2-month stay in Santa…read moreBarbara this year. Hubby swam nearly every day. Locker room and showers were nice and clean. Bike parking out front...he opted to not pay and just bike there. Swim time availability was reasonable, with slow lanes up to fast lanes.

This is my favorite pool ever, and I have a swam in a lot of them over my decades of life…read more One of the things I love is that I always get my own lane, so I have no idea what the person meant about having the share lanes'. And 5+ years I have only ever had to share a lane twice! The staff is friendly, and the pool is partly treated by O-Zone so my swimsuits last longer and I don't smell like chlorine when I leave. The water is always super clean and just the right temperature and I just love it there.

Love swimming here, just, I have a hard time getting out of the pool but the step ladder helps!read more