Swell Athletic Club

"We have been coming here for about 10 years. I love it! We bring our kids to swim in the pool, and we go in the hot tub. We often get food at the Cafe. I've done the spinning classes while my kids go to the mini muscles class. We play pickleball and we also work out. There is so much to do and we often see friends or neighbors. It's been a great family activity, we plan to continue coming!"

"We enjoyed being guests for a family pool birthday. The place is clean, well maintained. Loved the fact the pools have salt instead of overwhelming chlorine. Now, it's very pricy to join, specially family plan is very steep. The website has no price range. That's annoying. Most of attendees where respectful to each others in the pool and outside. However, some adults randomly swim in the kids pool. Maybe a sign to educate them to stay in the adult area. Something was broken or down and we were informed that only members can order food. That was annoying. Had to leave eat and come back."

"Have been members three different times. :) Decided to rejoin because it gives our family at least a place to go and exercise and leave the house. Staff is still extremely friendly and the amenities for the price are very fair. Cafe is also set to open and sitting in the sun, next to a pool with an ice tea is not a bad way to end the day...bonus, I don't have to do maintenance on a pool at home this way. :)"

"My family, and I personally, have been members of the club for over 20 years. First the bad, it is not.a world class facility. Only one squat rack and the lap pool is smaller than regulation size. Also, you have to pay extra for a locker, unlike Lifetime and other gyms. Pretty mediocre place for athletes, but if you really are an athlete you will be so focused it won't really matter. The cafe is mediocre to excellent. The management is generally nice but one of them is very strict and good at keeping everything in order. There is also a $15 dollar fee for when you want to bring in a guest like a friend or a visiting family member. They could use another power rack in the parisi. Most of the desk workers are very polite and friendly."

"You take the good with the bad. First is the good: It's an excellent place for a family with kids, especially if you live in the area. There are two pools which are both outside, this allows for the pool that the kids use to be nearly always available. That works really well for me, as I can bring my boys and there are almost always kids from the neighborhoods that they know and can play with. For me when I go alone I can swim laps without worrying if it's the right time of day. The rest of the facility is decent, although in a larger metro you can get equivalent club memberships for half as much or less. But this is Santa Barbara and the competition is the YMCA which is, sadly, so poorly run (especially for families, ironically). The issues I have have more to do with the management. Calls into the club about billing questions or facility reservations have gone unreturned. It seems like every week or two I get an email about part of the facility being offline for repairs or other functions. Mind you, I appreciate the facility being kept in repair, but there seems to be no strategy on this at all. Often the repairs are scheduled in prime use windows instead of non-peak. They also don't seem to be well co-ordinated, where the pool might be closed for a period then the adjacent lockers, then their laundry is broken (where they don't opt to use a service in the mean time) and so on. Finally it's pretty traditional. Tennis and fitness and swimming. They've updated some of the fitness but there are no rock climbing or other fun activities outside of the pool that some more modern clubs have. In any case it's still my gym, which given the high cost is saying that I consider it the best option for my family. Still, there is much room for improvement and I'm not sure I will renew after the contract period."