Reviews of Oak Bay Recreation Centre (Translator)

crystal magic

racist staff. I stepped up to pay 5 dollars for my gym pass. I was greeted with a smug look after I said hi. after I said thank you after the end of the transaction and she contiued to stare at me not saying anything. mind you I had braids in. my friend who is visably lighter stepped up to make her payment. she greeted her smiled and acted very nice. after my friend finished even she was shocked, we both saw what she was thinking. this was an older women she had purple tips in her hair. a racist Karen what new oak bay. beware to my colour folks don't come here if u want to feel targeted. my family has said the same thing.

Christopher Chan

Midnight swim is very affordable, I wish they opened the slides though :(

jeff saji

Fun place

Jim Brannigan

A well used recreation center in the heart of the community.

T Fin

Very good aquafit class tonight! Unfortunately, due to new vaccination requirements the pool will no longer be possible. This control the government is imposing is infringing our rights. Everyone has a choice. Being forced to do something with one's body is not right.

David Krismer

Can't speak for the gym and the other services offered here. However, the pool is pretty well made. Lots of fun lazy river and swirl pool type stuff for kids, and lanes for those coming to work out or just swim a little.

Mahsa Mahtab

I do like the late night swimming

Josh Hunter

Great staff and nice gym!

Katie McGoff

Great steam room

Anahita Ranjbar

Well equipped gym but a bit busy.

GoldLeader

Hreat

B Will

Nice big hot tub, and the best waterslides in town. The indoor turf field is a very nice feature and a great venue wintertime sports. The very best thing about Oak Bay rec though, is the hours. They are often open quite late for swimming, much later than any other pool in town.

Ryan Chan

Tennis and other sports!

Tallis Stevenson

Great place to exercise, swim, relax, skate, so many things! Great staff too!

Jorden Etienne Rocheleau

Open later than most other recreation centers which is beneficial for busy individuals

Cameron Neal

Wonderful place to go to meet people, relax, swim and play games! The gym is pretty alright, but could use a little more diverse equipment.

Terry Hebert

Just had the rudest experience from the front staff. My partner lost her access pass to all rec centers, actually it was stolen along with her purse. So we drove to Oak Bay rec (20 min) as coomonwealth was closed. The lady said 6.75 before we even had a chance to explain the situation. She proceded by rudely looking up my partners card(which she could not find seeing as it is not our home gym). After which she said "there's nothing we can do about it." The lack of empathy and caring shown by this woman was unacceptable. Rude service, unfriendly staff!

Sarah-Anne Lake

Great place to go swimming, and to access other types of activities.

Erik M

Pool and sauna is open late until 12:30am!

David E. Fowler

Gorgeous pool, ice grink and indoor soccer.

Mattia Secolo

Good place to go ice skating

Bart Verruyt

Great experience

Aaron Smart

Large workout area, helpful and positive staff

xAaronActionx

My favorite rec center!

Noah Vejvoda

Public skating was great here, however their hours were super wack (ended by 2pm) and the rink was insanely busy. Great time though, 4/5. Fell on my arse.

Tina Fischer

An excellent recreation centre for all ages! Many computer general interest courses available. In the same complex as the Oak Bay Public Library. A friendly place to visit and spend an afternoon!

Shakil Mahbub Hussain

We used the indoors turf to play soccer, it was great!!

3 1 5 7 3

I don't mind swimming at the Oak Bay Rec. I don't love it! My daughter held her birthday party here once = so so experience.

Paul Shen

Excellent recreation center. Includes a hockey area, a swimming pool with slide hot tube and sauna, a gym, an indoor baseball field, an indoor tennis court. Lots of courses! Friendly service. There are several parking lots. The nearest parking lot to the gate is often not available.

Ron Hammond

I only use the gym and its been nice. I only wish we were allowed 45 minutes on the treadmills so I can complete a 30 minute run with a warm up and cool down.

Goldie Carlow

Tired and old facility. And apparently they have 3 locations for the centre and they expect people to know that when they are on their site. They should have a banner or something at the top to indicate that people should note which location. Because obviously if you are looking at an Oak Bay Rec centre and are not familiar with it, you would expect it to be AT Oak Bay Rec. and the parking lot doesn’t have arrows beyond the first inch of their parking lot indicating it’s a one way. Not an easy place to navigate for new people AND it’s dingy and old.

Shawn DeWolfe

This has been my go-to rec centre for most of my adult life. Great facilities.

Julie Im

Liked the pool. No change came out of vending machine.

Jessica Robson

Fun place to bring the family. The pool can be busy at times.

Bethea Arielle

Great recreation center with many facilities. Highlights include the pool with activities and water slides, a sauna, hottub, warm children's pool, amazing summer camps, indoor soccer field, gym, skating rink, and a bar/cafe/restaurant overlooking the pool and the ice rink. Staff are always friendly and facilities are clean.

Damien Ferreira

Great place to relax and enjoy the sauna

Fawaz Halloum

This one of the most friendly recreation center I've been to. It's a great gym offered at a great price. The swimming pool and sauna and top notch. Decorations and ambiance like nowhere else. Not too many juice heads and I feel safe for myself, wife and our stuff overall at this place. Old Young and everything in between. Seems like a no judgement zone. However, it would be nice for the management to take action against those annoying dead lifters who slam hundreds of pounds almost in a look at me fashion and it literally quakes the whole place. That would be the only take away. And yeah, for J's sake bring on another bench press, that'd be nice

Kat Palmateer

Ice skating, swimming, and a gym. I love that the gym is seperate of the pool so you aren't inhaling chlorine while working out.

Tyler Kennedy

Oak Bay rec is my local Rec centre. It has a gym, a pool and an arena. Rates are fairly inexpensive, the gym often has many people in it. The public skates are lovely and not too crowded, the pool has lanes and the hot tub is a great temperature.

Hank Kao

Great place for kids and family exercise. Oak Bay Recreation Center have different type course for your child. Look into their website. It will show you what you need.

Mikhail Pozin

Clean and well lit facilities with a lot of variety in amenities

Mustapha Rachidi

Not cheap and not expensive, good price, good for kids and families, a place where you can take your kids to spend their day, lots of games

Cathie Dunklee-Donnell

A bit crowded and older equipment. But close by and reasonably priced.

Giuseppe Tkachuk

My favourite Gym/pool to go to always clean not super busy in the night or late evening overall good place

Christina

Pretty decent

Nathan Lapointe

New facility. Lots of different activities available. Great parking lot. Close to bus service.

Adrian Uddhava

Clean, modern, streamlined rec centre. Great sauna, hot tub, and steam room. Pool lane schedule has average to poor lane availability for swimmers (lots of open/family hours). Fitness centre can be quite busy and lacks ample free weight space.

Phil Way

Great staff

CANNABEARD GAMING

Late night swims are chill

Maia Pine

I got a gym pass here cause I moved into the area... All I can say is don't bother. It is literally always crawling with people, the weight room and the cardio machines are always full. I think it's great that so many people want to exercise but this facility is obviously not large enough for the community demand, and unless you want to be constantly interrupted/waiting/cramped... Go somewhere else.

Jeffrey Zhang

great facility

Elizabeth McCarthy

Like a county club

Ian Robertson

Great community recreation facility.

Jenny Bates

Very nice gym but usually very busy and it is not a terribly large space. Get ready to fight for equipment.

Arthur James

The gym can be crowded, but this centre is open very late, you have lots of time to enjoy yourself. The price is great ($6.75). Facility is clean. Only complaint is that they advertised the sale of items, but when I inquired, the ladies didn't know what I was talking about.

Theresa Bassett-Price

The showers are less than thrilling!

Nick T Banks

One of the better pools in greater Vic! Check the site for current schedules and booking as right now its all by appointment or booking

Grant S

Great place!! All Victoria area recreation centers are a great value.

Josh Swade

Nice pool, great steam room / sauna combo. Gym area was smaller than expected but still had most of the equipment I was looking for.

Sean Bennett

Great facility!

Clare Mason

Played tennis here years ago but moved away. Recently came back to Vic for the holidays and decided to rent to the ball machine to get some practice in. Very disappointed in the apparent lack of up-keep on the courts since I've moved away. There was water pooling around the edge of the bubble, the lights are dim and need replacing, the ball machine is ancient and no longer has a remote (also wouldn't move side to side as you can't program it other than speed and frequency), and nearly all the balls were flat. Sad to see this formerly great facility in rough shape.

B. Joel Cran

It's a great place for kids and is open really late for adults that like a bit more quiet. The facility itself is getting on in years, but it adds to the character of the whole place. Love it there.

Mike Sharpe

Nice and clean

Emily Barner

Absolutely fantastic centre. Oak Bay Rec is pretty much open all the time, even on stat holidays, and the fact that they have such long hours makes working out super convenient. (The fitness studio is open until midnight on weekdays, and eleven on weekends!) They're constantly upgrading their equipment and their fitness studio is very well-stocked. The staff are extremely friendly and very helpful and I've never had a bad experience with them. Of course it can get a little crowded at peak times, but generally the number of people using the facilities is pretty good for their size. If they ever get a full juice bar it'll be absolutely perfect!

Harry Li

Open till late

Saul Gabriel

Nice facility

Graham Smith

Great hours.

Ian Campbell

Options galore for physical activity and family fun.

Lone Peep

Love the late night hot tub!

Gamer Puppy

Open until 12:30, nice clean facilities, hot tub, steam/sauna, kids and length pools

Toni Sikkema

Great facility, but its a little annoying that there are finicky signs EVERYWHERE- be prepared to read about all the common sense things you need to do!

Oliver Conn

Love it

Greg Hamilton

Classic rink.

Ryan Petersen

Great ice for hockey

Kathleen Meadows

Love this facility! Helpful staff, lovely pool, great instructors...what's not to love?

Josh Berry

The hockey ice is in good shape and great staff????

Becky Schmidt

Good gym. Great sauna.. best when not busy

Roger Langevin

Nice pool. 25m

Kevin Telmer

Good for skating, mediocre pool.

Ainsley DeSouza

Waterslides. If you need to know anymore than this then the joy that once resided inside you is gone. Get it back by joining and using their waterslides repeatedly until the feeling of childhood abandon coats your insides like a milkshake made of happiness.

Krista Ryn

$3 evening swims! Chill crowd, nice music, dimmed lights, pool, kiddie pool, hot tub, steam room and sauna.

Mingyang Wang (mmliar)

Nice swimming pool. Be aware that the parking lot is quite small.

Nice Guy

Good pool, excellent family swim

Mark Baker

The late night pool and gym drop-in for $3 is great. Often a lively crowd, a chill space.

Zesty Dirt

Too much exercise would not go again

Sandy Caster

Not a great atmosphere at this pool.

Bryce Maynard Winter

Lovely active community center with variety of activities and services

Jaime Tiampo

Everything you want in a local rec centre.

Colin O'Fee

Really nice place to go skate! Good for large groups.

PARK JUNO

I've been there 9 yr as family pass holder but not this because of covid. Very clean and nice spot for family recreation. Friendly staff and coaches

J. Anthony Bulk

Great family friendly rec center.

William Freeman

good people, good patrons, CLEAN and SAFE

Neil Bettger

Good pool nice staff

Radi T (Radi)

Went skating for the first time and I loved it

Caley A Watson

Great pool

George Ghanem

Great service. Facilities are a little dated but still serviceable. Indoor Tennis courts need help with better lighting and water leaks.

Nelson Black

Not to pleased

Larry Earnhart

I've been going to OBR for 16 years since I moved to Victoria. The staff is friendly and helpful and the amenities are top-notch. It can get a bit noisy and crowded in the workout area but plug in your headphones and sign up for the equipment and you should be OK..

Lane arndt

Well equipped, great pool, hockey rink. Close to home!!

whitnee pe

Clean and well kept facilities. Gym equipment is new and organized well.

J PL

This place opens at 5:30 AM and closes at midnight!

Jess Shirk

This gym sucks. You have to sign up to use machines. Pay for a locker when you have your own lock. Like sorry I'm visiting and won't ever be back when I come back to Victoria.

Super Balbs

Extended hours of service is top notch.

Eric Wood Zhelka

Best waterslide in the CRD (when not in covid times).

Devin Fennerty

Friendly staff and good facilities

Katrina Barrie

Clean pool, friendly staff

Nattan Telmer

Very nice slides and activities at the pool

John de Jong

Love the water slides

B K

Late night swim is well worth the cost! Wish it started a little earlier.

Isaac Verwey

I had a fun time playing with my friends

Cuong Le

Good facilities. Generally not too crowded.

raina newman

The pool is a bit smaller than what I would expect but still does the trick for if you want exercise or a fun swim with friends, skating is awesome as well, and cheap and working out! Great mix

Ruzz Craze

Nice facilities. At the all ages stick and puck there are easily 40+ people on the ice And kids that skate in front of you when you are about to shoot. Be aware.

Kate Ledger

Good facility with friendly staff

Ronald Schouten

Friendly staff. Great local Rec Centre!

Josh Teng

Fantastic recreation centre my favorite in victoria, has a gym, a pool with sauna, steam room, hot tub, kiddie pool and a waterslide among other things.

GLOC 2018

Nice!

Mel B

Go swimming here all the time very nice pool and hot tub and steam room and sauna

Juliana Amauchi

Awesome place and fun for everyone!

Matthew Jack

Nice place

Brian Koval

Great waterslides

Dylan Benson

In my 37 years, I hadn’t seen a person with a disability requiring the use of the assistant equipment at a swimming pool. Tonight I saw one of the lifeguards help a man out of the water and into his wheel chair. The lifeguard was so patient and professional and did an superb job. Watching the caring and cooperation in action was great to see. Kudos to the lifeguard team at Oak Bay Rec.

Scott MacDougall

Good indoor tennis courts; lighting & surface. Would be nice if they were able to get the ambient temperature sorted. The big bubble's a bit too warm, and the small bubble's too cold...

Fred Martin

Great place for swim and skate lessons !

Ian Lloyd

Modern and clean. Lounge upstairs plays sports, local musicians and serves beer. Good egg salad sandwich

Daniel Phoenix

Best pool in Victoria

Štěpán Kráčmar

Went skating here. Rented skates were quality, ice was well prepared for public skating, friendly staff and great accessibility

Rachel Capon

The receptionists are wonderful and helpful. The pool is never overly busy. I love how much natural light there is.

Rifat Islam

Great pool and great fitness centre

Alicia A

Lots of activities to do , has a place to sit down and eat at

Mitchell Sartori

Smells like your weird uncle but honestly nice facility!

A S

Oak Bay Rec has a staff that's friendly and welcoming to the entire community. The facilities are up to date, clean and well kept. My swim instructor is also a fantastic teacher!

Samuel Lee

Friendly staff! I go there to lift, its not the best gym for lifting weights, but I like it. Theres 2 squat racks, plus one with a rail. One flat bench for bench press, and 2 cable pull machines. Plenty of benches with free weights.

Random Name

People were nice but could be cleaner

Gerard Murphy

Very good facilities. Lots of weights, as well as cardio. Pool( not Olympic size), hot tub, sauna, skating rink and indoor soccer pitch. Even tennis! My only complaint would be its membership prices.

Claire Middleton

Indeed I love the hot tub and steam room

deadKrow

I love this pool it's not usually crowded which is a huge plus!! The only downside is there is this one overweight unhappy and quite bitchy service desk lady. Watch out :/

Andrew Argyle Garbutt

Great facility, only things lacking is atmasphere background music in the fitness area. This forces every one to bring there phone to the gym which of course then turns into texting and wearing headphones making it antisocial and unsafe. The amount of people on there phones and lack of gym edicate is brutal. When asked about music I was given many conflicting answers. Works everywhere else in the world, might be time for fresh staff for some fresh energy at the top.

Will B

Great place with good staff. Clean facilities.

Derek Stannard

Pool, hot tub sauna, skating rink, workout gyms, small cafe and other facilities.

Eric Faust

Great overall facility.

Fahad Shaikh

A wonderful place for sports and recreational activities. Love the tennis courts in the bubble. Humble staff.

Guat G

Pool was busy with family & kids having fun. I was also attending a kids birthday party at the indoor sports field having a blast playing an hour of laser tag.

Josh Potton

This place is great, but the pool is usually really busy.

Peng Fei Qu

Friendly staff at the skating rink.

Ryan D Williams

I love going there for the steam room, hot tub and pool.

Diana “Dee” Enns

Used to be a really good place to go with one amazing jet in the pool but when people complained and wanted more they got rid of the jet for 2 months. They got more complaints after that so now the strong jet is back. At least the listened, sort of. However, I still think they should add more. some people are still selfish and stay on the strong jet for 30 or more minutes. I have raised my star to 3 instead if one but they still need to add more strong jets. Also , don't trust their website schedule. call before you go. I went there because the schedule stated hot pool was open but when I got there the pool was closed to the public and it was only open for children's swimming lessons :(

Matthew Weymar

A great resource. Check it out.

Dylan Jones

Hours are great and sauna is good.. Mostly go for sauna so can't speak for quality of fitness area though.Not as up to date as some other facilities but a great place to to nonetheless.

Monir Moussa

It's big has lots of amenities including a steam and sauna room. However, every time I have gone its packed. Which is not great if you want to go in the hot tub or sauna.

John Brum

Lots to chose from at this recreation center. Ice rink for hockey or public skating. Swimming pool with large hot tub,slide, Baby pool. Tennis courts in the bubble as well as a large weight room.indoor practice center which gets used for baseball and soccer. Eating area upstairs which had a nice selection and serves beer if you feel the need

Philip Wright

Clean, but small.

A D

Great service!!

David Mills

Great gym, good pool.

Fred Blue

Family friendly for sure

Tyler Campbell

Awesome rec center. The staff are very helpful.

George Sranko

excellent range of facilities for all ages. top notch and highly recommended.

Salim Masai

Has everything you need for a good basic strenght training session.

Michael Shannon

Excellent community recreation centre. Helpful staff, great variety of programming and short to no waits for gym exercise equipment. Annual pass fee is very attractive

Ricci O'Reilly

Oak Bay Recreation Centre is always an exciting Treat! Their 2 Saunas, Hot Tub, Whirlpools and lengthy Pool are always available with little Restrictions. Enjoy!

Paolo Raposo

Pool is still not open for drop in been closed for over a year????

Laura Underwood

Great pool and weight room.

Nicklas Ohman

Need better soccer field

Beckett Chung

They have indoor tennis here. That's all I care about. 7 courts.

Superkitty

Nice sk8ing place

OBAX

This place is great because there is lots of activities including skating witch is 3.50 for rentals and 3.50 admission and there's also swimming that is really fun because they have a giant pool that is always clean with lots of life guards and the fitness room is good to they also have a field in the back for soccer and one inside

Ashley Hengen

Unfortunately they have recently changed their policies on unvaccinated individuals and I can no longer visit the pool - one of the few leisure activities that brought some normalcy to my life through covid. If you asked me in the beginning of December, I would have told you swimming at Oak Bay Rec was my favorite way to socialize and stay active, alas - no more. I am disappointed that Oak Bay Rec has begun enforcing segregation based on medical status as myself and many other well meaning, rational individuals are unable to receive the vaccine. It's sad to see what used to be a fun, safe space turn in to a breeding ground for ignorance and discrimination. Clown world ????

Harmony fry

Nice pool and gym! friendly staff!

Rory Perron

This is a great well run facility. Always professional and courteous service. Always clean. Great job staff!

Melanie Hibi

Great gym.

LUZANGELA MOLINEROS

Getting better

Jeremy White

Pretty chill pool most nights. Bigger sauna than Crystal Pool.

brayand rodriguez mora

Awesome pool

Tony Kroeker

Fun, Friendly, Good Hours. :)

Zaid Laith

pretty mlg

Mikey Peltz

Amazing clean awesome rec center and gym pool skating rink etc. Friendly helpful staff. Good parking, membership rates.

Roger Paltiel

Rude service from Ali and RYAN the fitness programmer I was told my beverage cup was not acceptable because the lid was a pop top and according to RYAN the cup must have a screw top lid he stated this is a rule ? (BS) and that I must leave my beverage by the cubicals and not bring to my workout station Really I have been bringing my cup in this fashion to gyms for over 30 years and they are the first to state this I was a member of the Y for nine years and having a regional pass for many years I attended all local recreation centres RYAN and Ali get a life you have made Oak bay first in bad customer service (

Rory L Keewatin R (Rory)

The universal change room need updating and lighting fixes

Yvonne Sundby

Awesome place to work out! Great community programs! Something for every age group. Some evenings, the bar & grill has live bands.

April Gilliland

All in all this Recreation Center is very good. It has a fine pool, a workout facility that is quite up to date, and other areas like the skating rink. There are a couple of areas for improvement including the family changing room for the pool which is small, crowded, and uncomfortable to use due to lack of things like benches or an extra change table for babies as there is only one. The workout area suffers from problems due to some of the people who use it and refuse to follow rules or act aggressively towards people who do follow the rules. Overall it is a great place to bring children for swim lessons, to go for a swim, to work out, and to engage in many different healthy activities. There is free parking, but it fills up fast at busy times. There is also some free street parking around the area.

Chris Gaudet

This place is very clean very friendly staff. Has a decent gym!

Denys Yaremenko

The facilities are great, though often very busy.

Chura Montgomery

Excellent

Karl West

Nice pool for wee ones.

Joseph Stafford-Veale

My boy big c met Chelsea up at the gym ! They got married

Steven Ball

great rec for people of all ages...lots of different things to do

Gerald L

Good ice rink, wide variety of skate sizes to choose from when renting, no variation in width of skates which is bad news for us wide footers. Had an ice clean in the middle of a public skate, which was a little odd but didn't impact the experience negatively. All in all a pleasurable experience.

Xiaoyong Zhang

(Translated) Many items, convenient parking (Original) 项目多，停车方便

Garry Groth

Worst stick and puck on the island. 3/4 ice way way way to crowded and foam pucks ? ???? I will definitely not be back at that skating rink for skating.

John Mcgoff

Great local rec center for everyone.....there's a bit of an entitled attitude from the staff from time to time - but that's not unusual with municipal workers. Excellent gym, sauna, steam, pool, etc. I really enjoy being a member here!

Mateo McIsaac

nice pool but they need a diving board

Nouri Wersheffani

Great a place for workout and relax in the pool downstairs. Lots of parking????????

Mark Kantypowicz

Very nice facility. Can get crowded at times. Grumpy front desk staff you expect from a government run facility - with the exception of a few.

William

Amazing pool and really friendly, helpful staff. I haven't used the other facilities, though.

Bill Tolson

First time there but good staff and wide range of activities

Leo Bartels

Surprisingly cheap. Good resonably big hot tub. Nice sauna Nice steam room. It was very relaxing even though we went when there where lots of kids. Decent change room. Nice staff. Water slides. Decent sized pools. Looks fun for family use. Didn't go in the gym but it looks pretty good.

Lynne Armstrong

Favorite aquafit program

WEGA PAUL

Friendly staff and always clean

Mr. Cee

Great hours but the cleanest family change rooms. Overall cleanliness should be better. Especially with extended hours. The pool deck area isn't at all to the standard of other facilities and we often opt out and go else where for this same reason

Maria Jose Sandi

Very nice place. Great for swimming, specially for toddlers and kids.

Thiago Hinkel

Good location. Varied programs. Sometimes too hard to secure a spot.

Nelson Currie

Pretty nice

Bradley Scott King

Absolutely love the double jacuzzi and stellar suana and Steam Room! And the best...open late!

Heather Hulett

Well maintained equipment and facilities. Friendly & helpful staff

Kai Johnson

Does not have wifi strong enough for you tube or the Internet or anything that needs wifi

Stephen Shore

Tennis bubble is damp and leaks. Has been a problem for nearly 20 years?

Izaak Koolman

Pretty good weight room for a public gym, and the drop-in fee isn't horrible, 6.25 to use the pool and the weight room. Haven't tried the pool yet.

Ian Stowards

Great staff and well maintained recreation centre. Welcoming regulars.

Murray Leslie

Just found out I qualified for Seniors rates! (60+) What's not to like? 25M pool, sauna, steam room, fitness centre, ice rink. Oak Bay Rec!

Mary Freeman

Good rec centre, but dress up very warmly if watching hockey. One of the coldest rinks around. Fortunately, it does have glass viewing areas a bit away from the action.

Sheri Disney

Great fitness center. Skating, swimming, gym, all excellent

Brian Bates

Fantastic place for a swim or a skate. Been a mainstay since childhood.

Hailay Teklemariam

Good place for swimming taking sauna bath cheap and nice place

Jeff “Humanaut” Welch

I've been going for over 40 years. Lots of great water activities for the youth and a nice big hot tub and sauna for the older crowd. I very highly recommend this family oriented facilities. It would be nice to see the old roller skating rink activity make a comeback.

Wisdom Philips

Probably my favorite

Tech Tips

Lifeguards can be quite a pain and picky, pool is a little small but the waterslide is awesome!

Alfredo Mendes

Has all you need with helpful staff. Love going there

wcresponder

Found a course online being offered at this group signed up and on the date of the course the facility changed the course provider. No communication to participants. I guess one is as good as another in their eyes. The equipment was in horrible shape (old, damaged and ratty). When contacted about my concerns they just issued a refund, they were not interested in constructive feedback. I did not want a refund and expressed that, but they did it anyway. This is why the star count is not lower

Hew Padmore

Helpful staff and close to our house

John Doep

Intimate lighting and being open until 12 at night make this place a treat for people looking for a good soak and swim. The dry sauna and wet sauna are both weak but functional.

Matthew Russell

Nice facility.

Sandra Paradis

Fabulous facility!!!!

mitch bierd

Great facilities with happy staff and later hours. Everything is clean and nice

Amie Mouneimne

Modern and clean. Has everything! Helpful and very friendly staff!

Lauren Hanna

Fitness studio is pretty well stocked, although a couple machines were out of service and no staff in sight. Very expensive

Blaze S

Very nice recreational facility. I take tennis course here

Barry Astrope

.crapppy old Arena

donna mayer

Great gym equipment and hours. The staff are extremely helpful. Since new windows were installed a few years ago (that do not open) the odour in the gym is usually overpowering :(

Gustavo Leal

Great ice skating!

Alexander Cheung

I get nose allergies at this pool so I can only stay for >1 hour

Tim Chu

Large community centre with a fun swimming pool, weight room, and ice hockey ring. The water in the pool is warm and enjoyable. Changing room is very clean and spacious. 50c (two quarters) for lockers in changing rooms.

Eric Thompson

Great staff and gym. The pool will be awesome again when it reopens.

Aaron McCulloch

Great facilities, all the equipment is new and well maintained and the staff is great. only complaint is that it's a victim of ours own success and is often kind of full.

Ben Fyfe

A great place to learn and have fun!

Daniel Tremblay

nice and very pleasant.

Kye Lyle

I swim laps at various pools in Victoria - I used to like Oak Bay, but had a really unpleasant experience recently. During a leisure and laps swim, I was doing laps in a designated lane, surfaced by the waterslide and noticed the waterslide lane rope had been set up. The waterslide came on and people started coming down into the lane I'd just left, and were exciting out of the pool in the other open lane, preventing me from swimming in either. Lifeguard tersely told me he thought I was swimming in the other lane...?

Cam Campbell

Wicked cool facility

Scott Freeburn

Drop in hockey is a ton of fun!

Ruth Rogers

Great to have this facility up and running again. Their website has lots of information about their new schedules and Covid-19 precautions.

Ingenium Hunter

I love Oak Bay rec - its everything you need in a community centre and has great hours. I play hockey there, swim, and use the gym. I like how the gym has nice architecture - makes it a pleasant space to be in.

zafar book

The staff is very nice

David Anderson

I enjoy Oak Bay Rec. .. They have yearly passes and single day tickets.. On the tickets you can go swimming and the fitness area on one ticket.. Very nice and helpful staff

Greg Webber

Gym is ok but has a terrible layout. Free weights are to far from benches.. Benches are to close together. Hard to stand anywhere without being in someones way..cleaning stations and watering stations could be better marked or have a couple more of each added. Best points...lots of windows and cardio machines.

F Y

Go to place for playing indoor tennis

G T

great spot for unwinding from steam,to skating

ryan moen

Nice facilities, grumpy front desk

TheSaboan

Have you ever been to a pool that tries to meet everyone's needs all at once...... and just how successful was that ? These folks figured it out. Adult lengths is for adults and kids fun swim is for kids so there's no conflict here. Generous long wide lanes eliminate the need for territorial moves and ensure a smooth workout. Fellow swimmers are polite and lifeguards and staff are always friendly and helpful.The vibe is chill as well as the music.

Ben K

Awesome rec center

Wade

Great hours! A day pass should be a day pass! In most facilities in the country if you pay for the day you are given a wrist band to have access to the facility for the day. At Oak Bay Rec the pass is only valid for the duration you are in the building. That’s a scam. Also needs better membership options. There is no monthly recurring membership option like most other Canadian cities. You are forced to purchase a new annual membership every year without the ability to pause your membership.

david foote

Great facilities

Linda Adams

First class gym with lots of machines and equipment. You can even tune your FM headphones to match one of five different TV screens while riding an exercise bike. Really nice pool as well with sauna, steam room, hot tub, waterslides, and kiddie pool. The main pool is not very big though, so if you want to do lots of lengths try Commonwealth Place or Crystal Pool. Also has skating rink, indoor playing field, lounge overlooking the pool with good food and drinks (including beer), etc. Note re: the review just before this one - I think the reviewer was taking about Monterey Recreation Centre, a nice center primarily for seniors. It's in Oak Bay as well, but not near Oak Bay Rec.

Kyle Cameron

My daughter and I go here for "duck" (1y-2y) swimming lessons on Sunday mornings and it's great! Luke is a new teacher and he is just great at thinking up fun things for the kids to do in the pool.

Dave

Staff are the most competent, knowledgeable and helpful. (And no, I don't know any of them.)

raico liu

Wonderful place. I enjoyed the Victoria Magic Circle show tonight.

Anahita Kasiri

Best recreation centre

Agustin Falco

Amazing, as always. Lots of games for the kids and easy to see them

Danz Life

lovely place and nice amenities

Stephen J Clarke

Great gym - equipment is excellent, clean changing rooms and great sauna and steam room.

Chelsea Grace

I love the facilities however the reception staff are extremely unpleasant. It is clear that Recreation Oak Bay does not care about providing their community with a good customer service experience and this has been evident for years. Do not anticipate that you will be greeted by a happy, friendly staff person as this is not something that they expect of their staff.

larry charpentier

Great hot tub????

sandra martinez aguilar

I've been to pretty much all the Recreation Centers with a pool in Victoria, Esquimalt, Saanich, Juan De Fuca. You maybe saw my review on the Crystal pool: old but the staff does what it can white what they have. Anyway, my daughter, (8) wants somewhere different for swimming. So we chose the Oak Bay Pool. Change rooms are big and roomy which was a nice change. I decided to use the bathroom before putting on my bathing suit. Sadly, in this case, my eight year old went ahead of me in to the pool- as I enter on to the bathroom stall my bladder decided that I REALLY needed to pee! I know TMI but it needs to be said. Anyway I lost a lot of my dignity that afternoon as I tried turning around to close the stall door... I realized I was stuck! Well thankfully a lady saw my struggle so she offered to close it for me... not happening! The wheelchair stuck out too much! She offered to hold it closed, (about a foot from closing) I said thank you but she had two small children who were eager to get in the pool. So she reluctantly left. The door was partially open while I finished up as children went by asking parents "what is she doing, why is the door open" and so on. Now, because of my medical issues with my little body I've been in the hospital more time than I care to count and have had even more operations than even that. We all know how we lose a lot of dignity when we become patients. So I didn't feel I had much dignity left to lose. I called the front desk and told them I was stuck in the stall and on the toilet as it was very low and my wheelchair was right up against it. I didn't tell them that last part as I wanted to keep that one hair of dignity. :) I tugged and tugged and managed to get up off the toilet. A girl from the front came and took a look at me, rolled her eyes and shoved the door open more so it got scraped off the back off my chair and let me out. As she walked out she said, "sorry about that, but this place is pretty told." Talk about customer about customer service. For a person with mobility issues I don't recommend it as the stairs for all the pools are too steep and there is no ramp or anything to help get you in or out! The majority of the life guards look bored and not very attentive where the swimmers are concerned. We've done skating lessons there and it was quite disappointing the people running it were less than helpful. The people teaching looked like they would prefer to be anywhere but there. The fellow in charge was great but of course he wasn't the one teaching. I discovered almost at the end that I didn't have to pay to use their skates if my daughter was in a class. It was just not organized at all. Perhaps because it's Oak Bay I expected a lot better. But I've been all around and I have to say that next to the Y it's been my worst experience as far as a Recreation Centers.

Euphoria Rose

Bonnie the public pool receptionist at Oak Bay - - First time at the pool - Will not return - Terrible experience My partner and I had a horrendous experience. I would like to highlight the lack of customer service, and incredibly rude receptionist named, "Bonnie". My recommendation for Bonnie is to enroll in an educational course that pertains to providing exceptional customer service. As you represent the brand of Oak Bay Recreation Centre, a place for the community to come to. Your superiors, and the general public will benefit from your decision to educate yourself. Do your due diligence Oak Bay Rec, as this receptionist is in direct contact with the public, and thus the community to which generates revenue for your business. Perhaps providing educational seminars or a customer service handbook to Bonnie would be appreciated by future customers that come into contact with this person.

Tony G

Swim lessons are great for the kids, staff are well trained and always positive!

depik bhangu

Gym is in good condition pool needs to be upgraded

Xavier Falco

Best slides on the swimming pool

Justin Hembree

Two dollar drop in!

Louise Gobert

Great facility

Carly Lindenberger

Very rude staff at the admissions desk, who quickly give you the impression that they hate there job and the people that go there!! The locker rooms are not great, and only have coin operated lockers:( The gym epuipment is okay, staff seems to wipe things down etc. Weird cardio signup board... One good thing about the fitness studio is no bad/loud workout music. Pool change rooms need more showers and the pool is not that great.

Erica Selzler

Went for family drop in skate. All the staff were very friendly. One gave us pointers to help teach our little one to skate. Not too busy.

M G

Midnight skating! So much fun, people working there were so friendly and helpful. Bring change for vending machine hot chocolate.

Cielo

Skating class. Staffs are so friendly!

beth sunderland

Swim there every Sat

Sandra Wadden

Fully equipped including gym, swimming pool and ice rink

Erica Davis

Very not trans friendly. Continuously rude to me, misgendering me, and refusing to apologize for it. Probably great for cisgendered people but trans folk beware.

Black Label

Im only rating the gym facility. The drop in fee is cheap. The gym has a good variety of equipment. The weights area is too crowded making it slightly awkward for patrons. The change room/showers could use better maintenance. They advertised the sale of merchandise, when I asked to buy a t-shirt the two ladies didnt know what I was talking about. Its too bad becuase that money helps these facilities.

mary webb

Daily work out. Good machines and staff

Peter

Used to love this place but their new booking website is unusable.

nate propane

Great staff.

jaime sanchez

Superb service with the entire staff members!! Especially Margaret and Christine!! Exquisite sauna!! Kudos Oak Bay Rec.

christ alain mizero

best indoor turf

Lisa Drover

Wonderful staff. Decent facilities.

Andrew Davison

Great pool, sauna and steam room. The drive in is gard on the suspension though due to the comically large speed bumps and one of the waterslides end in the shallow end which is rather dangerous. Overall it is a great place and I highly recommend it

Haley Freigang

Great facilities, good prices available parking and friendly staff good place !

john Harris

Nice facility

Leo Prosalendis

Good facilities.

Matt Reimer

Best place to play drop in afternoon hockey!

Kyle O'Toole

Great work out

Randy Kuhne

Drop in ice hockey was amazing! Really great group of players. Will be back weekly!

Steven Clouston

Helped my friend set up for a lighting show was a awesome fun experience. They put on a amazing end of year figure skating show .

Faye Smith

Great zumba classes

shayne Cheetham

Great rec center has everything you need

Erik Kinnear

Saunas and hottub are great.. late hours, Covid Safe

Tony Scott

Top notch facilities and friendly staff.

Andrew Cameron

Swimming good. Fire bad.

derrick thompson

Lively atmosphere for recreation

Jean Campbell

Great facility with a pool, fitness center, tennis courts and a skating rink. Great programs and classes for kids and families.

Darcy Doman

Regular touristy attraction with a comparable price tag

David Welch

Good rec centre, busy, lots of activities for kids. Harder to find recreational swimming tomes for adults though. The hot tub is always full...they should put in another one...

Manami Watson

I like OBR and have been taking tennis lessons for awhile. The tennis bubble needs some patches as it leaks when it rains hard. I wish there was bathrooms and water station available in the bubble like Cedarhill. Tennis lessons are so popular and classes are full by 6:10am (registration starts at 6pm) and hope they’ll add more classes. It’s bit disappointing that I have to pay to use shower or a hot tub after tennis and I feel it should be included because if you sign up for a fitness class, you get an access to shower and pool (they might suppose to pay but no one catches it).

Brent W

This facility is great! Great staff and we'll run. Thanks!

Cara Webb

Friendly, super clean, pool is great for laps, lifeguards all attentive. Great Covid precautions

Brian Madam

Fun for the kids

Evan Harley

It is a nice facility. Clean, and well run.

Erin H

Fun water activities for kids (and adults). Poolside climbing wall, monkey bars and a bullet waterslide. Wild!

Dillon Crawford

Always a nice place to go for a swim

Mikel Damke

Best pool in the city..... Perfect for swimming laps or doing cardio upstairs

Adam Pakvis

Love OBR, great staff too

Josh Williams

Great physicality but parking is an issue

Max Corman

Great, modern facilities. Only downside is a small area for free weights.

agent toasty

I saw the devil make love Cool watersildes though

Ruth McLaughlin

Public recreation facilities as well as rental facilities. Say Hi to Kathy @ the front desk!

Brandon Gabert

Great pool, friendly staff

Craig Jordan

Ever since the vaccine passport rolled out they are unable to add your vaccination status to your profile. Thus every time you visit, you need to have a government issued id, your vaccination passport and the gym card. And wait to be verified (which is a joke btw cuz this specific person that always giving me a hard time never checked if the passport is legit or not) People could come in with passport of other peoples or fake ones. Their IT guy either don’t exist or incompetent for an easy job. I also offered them to do the coding so everyone that enters the gym could feel safe that only vaccinated people are attending but I was cynically refused. Another hypocrite act on their behalf is they have these signs everywhere that you have to wear your mask at all times, well 99% of the time people are without masks. Don’t get me wrong other receptionist are super nice and helpful but there is a karen…

S Chadha

Really friendly staff and a very clean and well run facility. Fantastic prices too. Well done !

Infinite Consciousness

Great facility