Dallas maintains a variety of water activities designed to serve residents across diverse neighborhoods.
The system, operated through the Dallas Park and Recreation Department’s aquatics division, includes public pools, large-scale aquatic centers and spraygrounds.
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The water activities are designed to be financially accessible. Community pools typically charge minimal admission fees, with discounts for children and family passes available. A Dallas resident rate is available with a valid ID showing the city of Dallas address.
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Types of Facilities
Dallas’ water features can be grouped into several categories, each tailored to different community needs:
Community pools are smaller, neighborhood-based pools that provide affordable access for open swim, swim lessons and youth programming. These facilities are typically open during the summer and offer straightforward amenities such as lap lanes, shallow areas and shaded seating. All of these pools are more than 50 years old, and the city plans to decommission them over the next three years.
These are the nine community pools:
- Bonnie View
- Everglade
- Glendale
- Grauwyler
- Jaycee Zaragoza
- Martin Weiss
- Pleasant Oaks
- Tommie Allen
- Walnut Hill
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The Cove Aquatic Centers are large, regional facilities that combine recreational and fitness features. These centers often include lap pools, diving boards, slides, climbing walls, toddler play areas, lazy rivers or current channels, shaded cabanas and concession stands.
These are the four Cove Aquatic Centers:
- Bachman
- Crawford
- Fretz Park
- Samuell Grand
Community Aquatic Centers are mid-sized facilities that feature a six-lane lap pool with a diving board, climbing wall, basketball goal, open and closed flume slides, a toddler pool with an interactive play structure, shade structures, a group pavilion, picnic tables and lounge chairs, a bath house with family changing rooms, lockers and a concession stand.
These are the two community aquatic centers:
- Kidd Springs Community Aquatic Center
- Lake Highlands North Community Aquatic Center
Neighborhood Aquatic Centers are smaller versions of community centers, serving localized populations. They feature a lane lap pool with a climbing wall and basketball goal, a slide, a toddler pool with an interactive play structure, a group pavilion, picnic tables and lounge chairs, a bath house with a family changing room, lockers and a concession stand.
These are the three Neighborhood Aquatic Centers:
Spraygrounds are available in several city parks, providing free, zero-depth water play for children and expanding access to water recreation in neighborhoods without nearby pools.
Dallas also offers special facilities such as the Bahama Beach Waterpark, an outdoor family water park, and a partnership facility with Dallas ISD at Pleasant Grove, which expands access to indoor swimming and water fitness programming.
Programs and services
Beyond open swim, Dallas Aquatics offers a variety of structured programs.
Learn to swim is based on the American Red Cross curriculum; the city’s swim instruction program begins with infant parent-and-child classes and extends through advanced youth and adult courses focused on stroke technique and endurance.
Swim team is a recreational summer program that introduces young swimmers to competitive skills across standard strokes such as freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. The program emphasizes participation and improvement rather than competition alone.
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Water fitness programs at selected sites host aquatic activities, including lap swimming, low-impact aerobics and therapeutic exercise classes.
The city hires hundreds of lifeguards, swim instructors and facility managers each summer. Training is provided for lifeguarding, CPR and water safety instruction certification, offering seasonal job opportunities to local youth and college students.
For more information, visit the city’s aquatic department website.