Portobello Swim Centre

Fantastic experience: Pool Life guard training course. Just completed the RLSS Pool Life Guard training at Portobello facility and highly recommend the Swim Center for other prospective would be life Guards. Being 52 years old I am not your typical teenage, early 20s life Guard, Louise and her team ensured our small group were completely competent going into our final exam and we all passed with flying colours. Sinead our trainer was energetic highly motivated and patiently ensured I had gained all the necessary skills required to become a qualified Life guard. Portobello swim center is a gorgeous building it felt a privilege to spend a week training in the historic building. Really enjoyed the course many thanks

Negative experience: Impossible to visit and use their booking system. RED TAPE GALORE.

Negative experience: Was dirty and Bad smell

Positive experience: Great location and view of the sea. Bit dated but functional. Could be cleaner and smell nicer.

Positive experience: Turkish baths are great but the unisex changing rooms throw me off a bit, should be separate changing rooms I'd say but other than that it is a brilliant experience.

Positive experience: You can shower for about £2.75. Showers are shared but very warm and there is a hair dryer

Negative experience: I do not recommend this place. Encouraged by the reviews, I went there with a friend to the Turkish Baths. Unfortunately, it was dirty, smelled like sewage, and the place made me feel anxious rather than relaxed. We left early and will not be returning.

Negative experience: DISGUSTING, avoid!! It looks and feels like a morgue. The staff walk around in sneakers, despite it being a no-outside-shoes area. The steam room smelled like plumbing, and everything was filthy. The changing rooms were terrible—dirty, with suspicious stains in the shower area. I left more stressed than when I arrived and had to disinfect my entire body after the experience

Fantastic experience: Less public visit place .....so clean and pleasant one

Positive experience: We swim and gym here multiple times a week. I love the gym and the actual pool but the swimming changing rooms need regular cleaning. The floor is always filthy .. we use a family changing room and always rinse down with the hose next to it and squeegee the floor. Even when using flip flops it’s still v unpleasant. All It needs is regular clean ups by staff and especially agree busy classes.

Negative experience: Changing rooms are very small, there is no privacy as there men and woman in the same area plus who ever else in just standing about. The floor is covered with clumps of hair sticking to my feet (BOKE). I will not be back

Negative experience: Was excited to try this place after recommendations. However the changing rooms were horrible - they smelt of urine, there was hair everywhere from the showers to the changing room, the drains were filthy and the changing rooms felt generally unclean and you could not step anywhere without getting something on your feet. The plunge pool was small, and the seating area was unclean and not hot. The steam room was filthy, and constantly overcrowded and felt more like breathing everyone’s air. Was horrible, lasted about 20 minutes feeling more on edge than ever and ran home to have a scrub down. Would not recommend

Negative experience: Watch out for thiefs operate in the changing rooms, they will stole my swimming trunks!!! Never got my swimming trunks back!

Fantastic experience: Great place for swimming and exercise

Fantastic experience: Not too bad at least car parking around isn’t charge so.

Positive experience: Nice beach but finding a parking space is a nightmare

Negative experience: Charging full price for the Turkish baths even although the area is a construction site and the cold plunge is completely out of order also not forewarning customers of this and still charging full price for the experience. There was no mention or wanting if this from reception staff or online when I booked the evening before. Upon entering the the Turkish bath area I was presented with exposed ceilings panels in the shower area and with many exposed wires just dangling down. I was not offered any form of compensation or at least a pass to return once the construction had been cleared and work finsihed. For a community sports centre to charge someone nearly £10 for that with no compensation is terrible, i travelled an hour and a half from my home there and back also just to spend 10mins in that abysmal place. Robbie I managed to get a hold off via email, Robbie fronts himself as someone in charge, someone who is meant to have a good idea of customer value and service. However the complaint of my experience just falls on the ears of another pencil pusher, just fobbed off with a thank you for bringing this to our attention. It’s another pathetic excuse in customer service from Edinburgh leisure. No surprise from Edinburgh leisure they’re well known for being unclean, broken and unsafe environments coupled with incompetent staff

Negative experience: Toilet!!!!! Shame on you Edinburgh Council!!! Toilets round the corner closed (not open at all today) Been told this city facilities- customers only!!

Fantastic experience: Great place for family fun.

Fantastic experience: I was at the beach not the swimming pool

Negative experience: The Turkish baths are absolutely disgusting. The plunge pool is an empty hole in the ground with crash barriers round it. There is also a tepid and filthy seating area and an overheated and dirty steam room. And that's it. We left immediately and asked for a refund which the manager was happy to give - in fairness he said he totally understood why we were not happy. Which begs the question: why not just close it and refurbish it? It was clearly once a beautiful place and could be again. All very sad...

Positive experience: Decent wee gym. Steam room is a bit grotty tho and there are no private showers

Positive experience: I use this pool and steam room every day. Staff are friendly and helpful and for a small venue there is a good choice of activities. 6/10 for cleanliness and shower areas are poorly layed out very little room and no privacy. It would have got 4 stars but there are several areas needing maintenance that had been neglected for months and plunge pool has been out of use for months.

Negative experience: The Turkish baths are so bad, do not waste your precious time and money

Positive experience: Lovely pool and studio let down by the lack of parking for blue badge holders

Negative experience: Worst Edinburgh Leisure facility I've visited the Turkish Baths stank of urine were filthy and absolutely not worth almost £10. The changing rooms were filthy as well. Save your money and go to other Edinburgh Leisure sites and avoid the Turkish Baths. Pool and gym looked fine but wanted to leave the site immediately after the foul baths.

Negative experience: This is the worst Edinburgh leisure facility I've visited. The Turkish Baths were incredibly underwhelming, it's just three rooms which don't feel any warmer or more humid than regular rooms -- the plunge pool was also closed but I knew about this prior to my visit so cannot really complain. The steam room and swimming pool were okay -- the pool was a good temperature. The changing rooms and showers were pretty foul. Strong smell of urine, hair everywhere, generally just quite filthy and in need of updating. Lots of rust, dust and mouldy bits around the whole facility. I'd strongly recommend visiting Glenogle, Dalry or Warrender over Portobello Swim Centre.

Fantastic experience: Hugely popular centre in the community. Nurseries, schools etc all use this place. Great selection of classes - I love the aquafit and Hydro yoga, my daughter swims in Porty club and uses the gym. Great facility and so well used. Staff are excellent.

Positive experience: Nice authentic building. Felt a bit dirty though and could do with some renovations. Staff weren’t the friendliest as I seemed to annoy them when asked questions about the Edinburgh leisure subscription or other questions like where to go or where to get changed. Better pools in Edinburgh.

Positive experience: Enjoyable swim and lovely staff I really do recommend!!

Fantastic experience: I was there yesterday the girl at the counter was so helpful and friendly Ellen. It was so quick to join the membership. I will definitely use portobello gym. There should be more friendly listening staff like Ellen. Big Thanks .

Positive experience: Lovely walk along the promenade

Negative experience: Paid a tenner for the Turkish baths and it was pretty underwhelming. It’s pretty much a steam room with 3 other cold rooms and a cold pool.

Negative experience: The "turkish baths" are a freaking scam. If I wanted to freeze in a bikini, I would just have gone to portobello beach instead. Left after 10 mins feeling more tense than ever

Fantastic experience: Staff very pleasant, smiley, helpful and professional.

Positive experience: Never overnight here before just daytrip all good no issues sofar

Fantastic experience: This is a beautiful site and set right on the beach.

Positive experience: Changing rooms need to be cleaned more often and more baby changing areas would be a bonus!

Fantastic experience: Amazing pool steam room can't recommend this place enough need to keep it in use or risk it closing

Negative experience: The hot rooms in the Turkish Baths are not in fact hot, which somewhat defeats the point. Chewing gum on the floor in the changing rooms. Soap missing from dispensers. Generally a bit dingy compared to other Edinburgh Leisure venues.

Fantastic experience: My son did a course through Edinburgh Leisure. We will be coming back for the Turkish Baths

Negative experience: I bought a 4-day swimming course between 7-10 August 2023. On the last day, I canceled my work and went to the swimming center. At the door, the coach told me that the lesson was canceled and I should come tomorrow. One of the kids pooped in the pool so it will be cleaned. I went the other day and saw the trainer at the door again. He said the class was cancelled. I was never informed before and I canceled my busy work again and went to the pool. To talk about the general condition of the pool; The inside of the pool and the shower was very dirty. There was hair and foam on the floor. Therefore, I had to enter in my shoes. All the staff were already in shoes. The staff said I had to enter barefoot but I could never have done that. My shoes were cleaner than the floor. The other day I took my slippers with me and wore them. Let me state in general that I did not learn to swim in 3 days. But my swimming instructor Louise was great. If I had studied with him for 10 days, I could have learned. The pool was very bad. I don't recommend it to anyone. Waste of time.

Fantastic experience: Pool excellent. Staff good. Changing area clean.

Negative experience: Went to this place for first time the gyms great, HOWEVER I used the turkey baths and left with a fungal infection! The Turkish baths and ESPECIALLY the steam room needs cleaned through the day. Member of staff should be in there a couple times a day to wipe the place down and remove everyone’s sweat your sitting g in absolutely disgusting

Negative experience: I couldn't find anywhere on website what the water temperature was for the pool so I risked it and took my little ones there. Water way too cold for small babies, hairs everywhere, showers mixed and very different to change babies when changing roo.s are filthy. Won't go back.

Fantastic experience: Turkish bath and steam rooms are great well with a visit

Fantastic experience: Small but excellent

Fantastic experience: Share details of your own experience at this placeA great place to walk or just relax in the sunshine

Fantastic experience: Lovely Turkish baths and a good gym and a wide range of fitness classes. Staff are very helpful.

Positive experience: Great steam room but aways check opening hours because you cut really just turn up and get in

Positive experience: Nice beach with quite a bit of activity. It was quite chilly this time of the year with the breeze blowing in. Quite a relaxing spot.

Fantastic experience: Victorian historical baths, dated but lovely swimming pools - one standard and other smaller, but with warmer water. The changing inclusive area is a bit cramped, but clean. Right on the promenade and on a sunny day the swimming pool is lit with sunshine coming through the glass rooftop

Fantastic experience: Great pool and facilities.

Positive experience: Lovely Victorian pool, just the temperature of the changing room is a little bit low

Fantastic experience: Great setting. Love the glass roof over the pool. Lovely old fashioned interior but modern amenities inside. ❤️

Negative experience: Bit of a let down. Turkish bath rooms are all cold except the steam room, and one was closed. Couldn't use the pool as the main one was full and the little one was closed. Everywhere looking a bit grubby. Underwhelming especially for the price.

Positive experience: There needs to be morning swim sessions for adults during the weekdays. If Gracemount and the Commie can provide this service, it seems feasible Portobello can too.

Fantastic experience: Great swim pool and original Turkish baths and plunge pool very rare nowadays

Fantastic experience: The best swim since ever. Nice Staff very welcoming and family friendly Want to come back

Negative experience: I feel like the Turkish Bath House could be really nice, but I felt it was a bit unclean and lacking attention. Similarly, the changing rooms are functional, but a bit grubby and unpleasant. Showers only sayed on for a few seconds at a time, and only one soap dispenser had any soap in it. I didn't use the pool as it was closed for swim lessons.

Negative experience: Some new members of staff here have really bad manners. Not one of them had the decency to say hello or goodbye. To busy chatting amongst themselves or looking into a mirror. An unfortunate change since previous staff have moved onto Meadowbank or elsewhere. Plus , you’ll need to sort out the state of the place and Turkish baths. Otherwise I’ll be cancelling my membership. You’ve already put the prices up this month - yet I’m unable to use the facilities.

Fantastic experience: Want to visit again and again Such a clean and kid friendly beach

Positive experience: Good quality swim centre. Coaches seem good for kids' lessons. I haven't tried the Turkish Bath yet, but I've heard that it is good too.

Positive experience: there are no swimming lessons available in Musselburgh, so we came to Portobello Swim center & was very surprised how great was their service. such a helpful staff. the lady, her name was Lesley if u am correct tried to help me & showed how the website links work. and then she showed me the center and was so polite, professional and nice. big difference if comparing to Musselburgh one missing one star only because we still couldn’t join swimming lessons. other than that, really liked it.

Fantastic experience: Great staff who are very well informed and always happy to help. A great community resource.

Negative experience: The toilets are filthy and smelly. Mixed showers but with no doors. Beautiful venue but absolutely not hygienic.

Positive experience: lets be honest, a bit outdated, but still good none the less. Would bring flip flops if I were you, there seems to be mould forming in some places on the floors.

Fantastic experience: Loved it. Fantastic place to walk the dog. The beach is huge and plenty of cafes and restaurants along the huge promenade.

Positive experience: Nice staff members, very complete facilities (gym, fitness rooms, pools and Turkish baths), they could do with a bit of a better maintenance and with cutting some cold drafts at the pool. The environment is beautiful and prices are fair, would recommend!

Fantastic experience: It's a lovely clean pool and when I went, it was quiet. Just what I needed for a first swim in years! Staff were lovely too.

Fantastic experience: Thank you very much. appreciated

Negative experience: Called in to ask if I may use the toiler and was told “we don’t have toilets here” Earlier in the day I had been swimming at Glenogal Pool the staff were so helpful !!!!

Negative experience: The staff were friendly and helpful, but the facilities were unsanitary. Before going to the Turkish Baths, just be aware that they consist of one cold pool and 3 heated rooms. The rooms were very dirty and smelled like a bathroom. The changing rooms were the real issue, however - the floors were filthy and covered with hair, dirt, and even a couple of unknown colored liquids. It really seemed as though it hadn’t been cleaned in days, if not longer.

Positive experience: I came only for the Turkish bath and I enjoyed the experience because it was exactly how I expected and worth the price (8,50£). There s a hot steam room and other colder rooms and a very cold plung pool that is so enjoyable after you spent ten mins in the steam part. If you are a fan of hammam I suggest the experience especially in a cold Scottish Afternoon. The reason why I give three stars are the changing rooms that are unisex. I have never seen something like this in my life and it was a Pretty akward experience, not exactly what you imagine when you go to a "VICTORIAN Turkish bath". Apart from that it was also filthy, floor and showers filled with hair.

Negative experience: The Turkish baths were awful £8.50 for basically a steam room, the place was filthy brown water all over the floor, the changing areas in need of a good scrub as look completely grotty, £5.50 to go the pool again not great, I live in Glasgow so only visiting but would never recommend this place - completely substandard stayed for maximum 40 mins £14 paid not value for money.

Positive experience: Visited the Turkish Baths here last week. It wasn't completely what I expected, but that's partially my fault for not looking into it enough. I don't think I would ever use pay-as-you-go for it as it was just access to the steam room and plunge pool as other attendees reserved specific beds in the three rotational heated rooms. Still a very nice pool with fascinating history and the Turkish Baths are worth a visit to look at that if nothing else.

Fantastic experience: Super as usual and very friendly attendees. Always there to help. So come along and see for yourself. Cheers

Fantastic experience: On holiday and popped in whilst the family were playing on the beach. I took advantage of the Turkish baths which was really enjoyable. Two things to note the changing room are unisex which isn't clear when you enter and best to avoid swimming classes as it's very busy and there are very few spaces to get changed without 40 pairs of eyes watching! Still worth a visit for £8.75

Fantastic experience: Been a member here for decades,staff are lovely and friendly as are the "tutors" good selection of classes

Fantastic experience: A lovely swimming pool right beside the beach. Helpful staff. I go early in the morning, so I don't know how busy it gets, but I never experience any difficulty. The other swimmers are friendly too, with good lane etiquette, which makes it a pleasure to get a good swim set done. They even have waterproof cards with swim sets for you to follow: you can leave them at the edge of the pool so you can remind yourself what's next.

Negative experience: Really looked forward to swimming here but sadly disappointed - only allowed to swim for 45 minutes despite paying £5.70 and several times I was made to swim in the small pool that is 17m, with dirty water (lots of hair etc) - changing rooms aren’t clean either. 25m pool is also unorganised. Staff are quite rude. And lockers need coins… all other lockers I’ve used recently use a code, so are cash free. Wouldn’t recommend.

Positive experience: Visited here after running past it during the Edinburgh marathon. The day after, I needed some much needed recovery and chill time which was met perfectly by their Turkish baths set up. Steam room was great and the three levels surrounding the plunge pool were simple yet enjoyable for the experience. For the space and facilities, I think they’ve done a really good job and the staff were polite, patient and went above and beyond to accommodate us.

Fantastic experience: Turkish Barhs are a great way to spend a couple of hours. Came out feeling calm, regenerated and skin solky soft

Fantastic experience: Portobello very busy today all the food places were busy. Beach was busy. Boat rids barbecue volleyball. People in and out the sea. Lots of People with their dogs. Kids playing area busy.

Positive experience: Nice victorian pool, friendly and helpful staff. All much like Dalry. Unlike Dalry, the changing area is minging. Really lets it down.

Positive experience: Turkish baths are beautiful, the gym has everything you need despite its smaller size.

Negative experience: Very disappointing for the price, paid for Turkish bath, basically £8.50 to use a steam room all the other facilities where closed nice off them to tell us! I was then was told I had to pay another £5.50 to use the pool, pure rip off, couldn’t even give me change for my locker as well had to walk to shop to get a pound. Avoid this place

Positive experience: Wonderfully preserved interiors in the steam rooms. Three stars because I caught Covid here. There was a clique of stout regulars who made us feel unwanted there. Perhaps it was a busy time

Positive experience: It's a very nice swimming pool but the only thing is that on shallow water pool you have corners to be in but overall it's a great place to have a dealy swim... I'm going today to the deep water lane swimming session I think I will enjoy it

Positive experience: A man was coughing and coughed all over my water bottle it was rude and disgusting. Staff weren't keeping an eye on how many people per room for covid restrictions. Overall .. I'll go back to the commonwealth.

Negative experience: I dislike how you can't book Turkish bath together with swim online. I booked Turkish bath thinking, at least there's the plunge pool. Without any warning, once inside I see that plunge pool is closed and I'm not allowed into normal pool without paying extra. It was the first time I was upset with the service there, but I'm considering trying different one closer to home as commonwealth pool also has Turkish bath now.

Fantastic experience: Good swimming place to combine with a day on the beach. Water sometimes cold. Parking not easy to find.

Positive experience: Very small Gym for the price they charged where the swimming pool or classes are not included. They lack of a lot machines, very orientated to local housewives or old people who want to swim but if you are looking for a good Gym then forget about it.

Positive experience: I like the historic building of Portobello swim centre and the pool itself is like any pool except they have two plus a Turkish bath which may or may not be operating just now. I hate the changing rooms though. Very cramped and hard to find your way around!

Fantastic experience: Very clean beach. Beautiful people

Fantastic experience: the water is really blue! a fun place to visit

Negative experience: I actually love this leisure centre, but I was dealt with by someone who seemed to think they were in the gestapo or something. I had two passes, under the same name, as part of the 7 pounds for 7 days scheme. I was given these by a much friendlier member of staff at the Commonwealth pool, who suggested I bring a friend to a leisure centre. But at Portobello, that was a big no no, I couldn't get two people booked with the two passes. After I went to attend the gym session at the right time, the staff member, whose name I don't remember, took one of the passes off me as a 'breach of service'. Seems like some people in some leisure centres are more friendly, flexible, and welcoming than others, where they treat you with a great deal of suspicion by total jobsworths.

Fantastic experience: Great place to enjoy the sunny day or evening

Fantastic experience: Cool place but very old but great gym

Positive experience: Not the best shore in Scotland, or even Edinburgh, but not too bad either if you want to smell the perfume of the ocean and have a nice walk.