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Swimmers, rejoice: The city’s dozens of free outdoor pools will open for the summer season on Saturday, with some of the most popular programs also set to return.
There are dozens of pools across the city, from Olympic-sized pools dating back to the 1930s to kiddie pools and the nearly brand-new Gottesman Pool in Central Park.
Year-round, swimmers can take classes and swim laps at indoor pools operated by the Parks Department, including at the newly-opened Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center in East Flatbush. The recreation center at Roy Wilkins Park in Queens, which includes a pool, also recently reopened after a renovation.
More than 1 million people visited the city’s pools last summer, with more expected this year. One of the city’s largest pools in Red Hook was closed for most of the summer due to a decades-old pipe crumbling, but it’ll be back online this year.
What else is there to know about taking advantage of the city’s (mostly free) pools this summer? Here’s our guide for the 2026 season:
(Almost) all of the public outdoor pools will open
In the Bronx, Haffen Pool, which is undergoing a $13.4 million reconstruction project that started in April, will be closed this summer. In Manhattan, Tony Dapolito is also undergoing a renovation of its entire center, including the outdoor pool, and will not be available for swimming this season.
But the rest of the outdoor pools are set to open, barring daily maintenance or staffing issues. Check the Parks Department website or sign up for alerts through NotifyNYC to stay on top of intermittent closures.
Get your pool to-go bag ready.
The Parks Department is strict about what you should — and shouldn’t — bring to its outdoor pools. You can’t have food, glass bottles, your phone or newspapers near the pool. If you bring them, they’ll have to be kept in a locker, so remember to bring the appropriate combination lock for security.
Everyone needs a swimsuit to enter the pool area, and men’s shorts will need a lining. If you want extra cover, bring a white T-shirt; colored shirts are not allowed. Kids also can’t use any flotation devices, and babies and toddlers need swim diapers.
Adults and children enjoyed opening day at Astoria Pool, June 27, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
What about pool programs?
Registration for the popular Learn to Swim program, which offers free swim lessons, began June 12 and goes through June 26.
Sign-ups run now through the end of July for the second and third sessions, and advanced child learn-to-swim sign-ups end in August.
A Parks Department spokesperson confirmed lap swimming will also return this summer, with more details to come soon. This popular program had been canceled due to lifeguard shortages after the COVID pandemic, but returned last summer on a limited basis.
Details on which pools will offer the early-morning swims will be released Saturday, once they officially open, a spokesperson said.
A swim instructor gives lessons at Astoria Pool during the first swim of the summer, June 27, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
I want to swim indoors!
The Parks Department also offers indoor pools, but they require a paid membership. Many of those pools are open now (and all year), excluding St. Mary’s Pool in The Bronx, Brownsville and Metropolitan pools in Brooklyn, and the indoor portion of Tony Dapolito and Hansborough pools in Manhattan.
Keep in mind that due to lifeguard staffing, most indoor pools change their hours in the summer so those guards can be dispatched to outdoor pools.
I’d like a more private pool experience.
There are thousands of private pools across the city, on luxury building rooftops and in backyards. In 2023, Curbed used StreetEasy listings and ArcGIS data in an attempt to map them all, counting 15,000 — although most are concentrated in wealthier neighborhoods.
The app Swimply is billed as an AirBNB for pools, offering up people’s backyards and pools at an hourly rate.
There are also beach and pool clubs in some parts of the city, offering season and day passes, as well as fancy hotel pools.
At the tip of Breezy Point in Queens is the Surf Club that costs $50 for adults and $40 for seniors and kids to use their facilities for the day. Closer to the Gil Hodges-Marine Parkway Bridge along the coast is the Silver Gull Beach Club, although they don’t have day passes offered yet for the summer. (A fire late last year destroyed some of their cabanas.)
The Sea Gate Beach Club in Brooklyn also offers season and day passes for their pool and beachfront, although they also don’t have any availability listed online.
The Dream Downtown hotel in Manhattan bills itself as one of the only hotels that doesn’t require a room reservation to access its glass-bottom pool. Pool access, not including a chaise lounge reservation, is $30. It’s around $110 per person for a chair, and it’s 21+ to enter.
The pool at the TWA Hotel lets you watch planes take off from John F. Kennedy Airport starting at $50 for adults and $10 for kids, with all kids 5 and under free. Pool admission comes with towels and the chance to eat at The Pool Bar.
The Williamsburg spa Bathhouse says it’s the largest rooftop pool in the city, and a day pass — which gives access to its thermal pools, saunas and steam rooms — starts at $39.
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The post Public Pools Are Opening! Your Guide to Swimming in NYC for Summer 2026 appeared first on The City Reporter.
