Barry Leisure Centre

Fantastic experience: I am incredibly grateful for my personal trainer, Sisi, who has been a huge support in my journey to recovery. I struggled with lower back pain and sciatica, but thanks to her guidance, my pain has significantly improved, and I am gaining muscle strength. She has been extremely supportive, ensuring that I do every exercise correctly and safely. Her knowledge and encouragement have made such a difference in my progress. I would highly recommend her to anyone in need of personal training, especially those dealing with back pain or similar issues. I am truly happy with her training and the results I am seeing!

Negative experience: Poor not explained properly bout times or the fact that you have to book to use gym

Fantastic experience: Love my classes at Barry leisure centre girls are super friendly especially Tracey Carter classes

Negative experience: If I could pick a different gym, I would. I have been a member of Barry Leisure Centre for around 3 years or little over. When I joined, I think I paid around GBP33/mo, and now it is GBP38. Prices are going up every year, and I don't think I get my money's worth. It is true - the gym on the first floor was refurbished, but the rest stayed in the 80s. The toilets and changing rooms look old and uninviting. The equipment is old and some of it, in my opinion, is not safe - but I will come to that later. During different classes, the audio equipment was breaking several times; sometimes, there was not enough equipment for everybody. Steps that we use during classes, were mismatched, sometimes broken. A few weeks ago, we learned that NEW equipment and steps will be provided. That was in connection to NEW classes being introduced - Les Mills Power Pump (don't get me wrong, I am happy for you but these classes were in the gyms all over Europe 15-20 years ago). I went to the first Power Pump classes and I was shocked.... I took some pictures of the NEW steps that were waiting for us. Used, dirty, covered in cobweb and not safe. all the pieces could easily slide one from another. the new weights were also, probably fourth hand used, rusty bars, no thank you. I was so dissapointed. Everybody is paying so much money every month and yet, this is what you get in return. I heard other LC across Valey are in much better condition - why Barry is abandoned? No slide, no sauna, no steam room. It requires massive renewal. One might ask, if I don't like it why I didn't change the gym? As of now, I do not have much choices. I don't have a car. other places are much more expensive and I do not want to waste time commuting. I do not want to be a hater, so on the positive site - a massive shout out to instructors - Hannah, Emma, Stacey and Fran and the gym staff (at least those I recognize). You ladies keep this place going. You are very good at what you do and I absolutely enjoy every classes with you. That is why I give 2 stars, not one. Something needs to change, this place needs to be modernised now.

Fantastic experience: Friendly. Professional staff who can't do enough to assist you. Without a doubt, it is one of the best leisure centres I have visited.

Fantastic experience: Granddaughters birthday party. Two bouncy castles. All kids happy. Brilliant.

Fantastic experience: My daughter today had the best treatment from the staff after suffering an accident involving her toenail and a door. They couldn't have been more brilliant. Gave her a plaster straight away, talked about her Elsa and Ana onesie to distract her and, to top it all off, gave her a toy to take away! This place gets a lot of complaints, but they couldn't have given us better treatment today. Special thanks to Amy for being an absolute star. You made our daughter really happy after what could have been a horrible experience.

Negative experience: I’ve rung the centre on numerous occasions trying to ask for information and nobody ever answers the phone. The dryside changing room toilets were disgusting. I had to clean the toilet myself in order to use it. I used the Hammer Strength gym downstairs. I have never seen a gym in this state before. Totally unacceptable. There was kit everywhere. A complete mess. Every single machine or barbell had weight plates on them meaning no one is putting anything back after they use it. I wasted so much time during my workout trying to find kit because it’s strewn all over the place. Maybe if someone put more signs up in the gym asking people to put kit back after they use it or actually walked around the gym and cleared up every so often instead of sitting at the reception area with their thumb up their ass it might encourage people to clear up after themselves. Something needs to drastically change in this place in order to improve its poor reputation.

Positive experience: Great pool

Positive experience: Not a bad leisure centre. It has what you'd expect like a gum and swimming pool. There are some classes available too. But apart from simple vending machines there doesn't seem to be any kind of cafe or anything decent to eat and drink

Negative experience: Poor management, strongly recommend people to avoid the centre

Fantastic experience: Brilliant customer service.

Fantastic experience: Great gym and pool

Negative experience: To many members for such a small facility

Positive experience: Been with Barry Leisure centre for a year and it's basically a meat and potatoes community centre so it does what it says on the tin. However, a recent "incident" has made me question the Management team who without sending a generic email to members which is easy enough as they send them out from time to time have decided to put on themselves to break all padlocks on ALL lockers for the stated reason that it's against policy to leave things overnight although no one has mentioned it before and it's never been a real issue either. The next excuse was "ah but too many lockers were vacantly locked". There. See probably 20 lockers in the male shower room of which 5-6 maximum were locked often so I would suspect probably 1-2 were vacant. There are more temporary pay as u go lockers in the main changing room, more in the female room and a long bloody row of them unused upstairs on a landing so there was never a lack of them. And looking in the collection room where they had moved the stuff for collection it was clear there were only 4-5 lockers worth of stuff. I'm genuinely disappointed with how this was handled. It exhibited contempt for customers and would have been well handled by a generic email going out stating can people who have been using the lockers overnight please collect their things within 24 hours. That would have been the correct and appropriate way to handle things. Yeah. Really sub par behaviour. As a result I had most of my stuff back but was missing a pair of trainers so basically if they broke open the lockers and moved stuff to a separate room whoever did that must have seen and taken a pair of trainers.

Fantastic experience: Lovely place, excellent gym facilities, friendly staff, friendly people

Fantastic experience: Played Badminton.....just training getting back in shape after op !

Fantastic experience: The place is always clean, busy and has excellent equipment but it suffers from the usual problem.Deaf patrons. I wear music ear plugs but the management accept the situation and have the music turned well up. Nice that the management are so considetate. Update update. At last the management have realised that it is a gym and not a disco. There is still music but at an acceptable level and has been for a while now. It is nice to have the gym to oneself. Half term you would have thought lots of children being shipped off to get fit. Oh no lovely and quiet.

Negative experience: Visited for a family kids party today, was booked for 1pm, when we arrived they said another party had ran over so we have to wait 20 minutes stood around, didn’t get that 20 minutes back. Had to tidy up the party’s mess upon our arrival. During the party the entire bouncy castle completely deflated within seconds, whilst there were young children trapped. They could have suffocated and there were no staff any where in sight to fix it. The party hosts even extra paid for an extra room in the squash courts that was not given. Then had to leave earlier as the next party arrived. We received just over half the time that was paid for this party. Venue was messy, unsafe and completely unorganised! When raising a complaint to management they shrugged it off! AVOID !!!!

Negative experience: After 3 days of not getting through on the phone. Longest I have let it ring 1 hour

Negative experience: Avoid all leisure centres in the vale of Glamorgan. Or just avoid any centre operated by this company (legacy leisure) I have a disability and had a GP referral but they ignored that and tried to charge me over the odds, I gave them a chance but still nothing will never use them again I use better in Cardiff who have treated me far better.

Negative experience: Ringing the leisure centre for 30min no answer so went there in person reception was empty but for the receptionist I informed them I had been ringing they said phone hasn't wrang . Other staff member asked if I wrung barry I said of course. After all that there wa no pool spaces left for tomorrow Sunday

Negative experience: A while ago I brought my Grandson 12 and a friend 12 to swim with the inflatables . I was asked if they could swim I said “yes” . I also had my Granddaughter who could not swim . They were told to swim two lengths of the pool. Which is quite a lot as even with falling off any part of of it, the most that would be needed would be a width. On doing the two lengths I was told they were okay , A little time after ( when I had gone to smaller pool). My grandson was told he was not go on there . When I asked they said “he was struggling later”. He has severe asthma and I was proud of him doing the two lengths. Again when I said this I was told “it was not a recognised stroke and more like a doggy paddle” WELL it us RECOGNISED then . Tell a dog that. I am all for safety but it does not matter if it is recognised or not to save you life !!

Fantastic experience: Had my sons 5th birthday party here this week. Great location, plenty of parking and the place is clean. Kids loved every minute. Staff were great and went the extra mile. I think there should be a microwave installed behind the reception though. That's the only thing missing. Thanks again guys and girls for the welcome and hall rental.

Negative experience: I'm giving 1 star as yet again, I'm walking around the facility trying to find a men's toilet that works The one upstairs has been broken for months. The one in the men's changing room seems to be out of order every other week. Absolutely ridiculous situation

Fantastic experience: Attended for a birthday party, nice bouncy castles, children enjoyed

Fantastic experience: Nice place.

Positive experience: Only one working hairdryer.

Positive experience: Ok

Positive experience: Lovely place. Place has been refreshed since i was a child. Much better quality with a variety of activies and classes you can take part of. Lots of parking

Fantastic experience: Everyone at the gym is really helpful, can't praise Dale enough! Gave lots of advise and went through every machine with lots of detail and explained what would work best for me :)

Fantastic experience: This is an excellent Leisure Centre. Great variety of classes, good gym and swimming pool. Friendly, helpful staff. Easy to book and great atmosphere.

Negative experience: Today I saw a fully grown man conducting a weight training session whilst wearing ankle socks and flip-flops. Welcome to 2022 everyone.

Negative experience: Disappointing. Car park, almost impossible to get some space. Changing facilities poor, often dirty, wet floor and share it with lots of other people. GYM facilities quite good but can be dirty. Lastly gym is really expensive for a leisure centre.

Positive experience: Basic swimming pool, good changing rooms with a little pool for kids which is lovely and warm. (Showers are cold though!)

Fantastic experience: New, clean facilities, swimming lane numbers well balanced, fast medium and slow to choose from. Bring a £1 coin for the lockers.

Fantastic experience: Great staff full of fun and friendly without losing their focus on training people and keeping them safe

Negative experience: Idk

Fantastic experience: excellent staff Georgina a sweet

Fantastic experience: Very clean also reminders to wear face masks and lots of sanitising stations. On the floor it shows the one way system.

Positive experience: Clean and good swimming lane options in the pool. Slow, Medium and Fast lanes were available and you had to book a time slot to swim. Much prefer this option as sometimes it did get a little busy in the pool

Positive experience: I do believe the slides have not been used for some time now, and it's pretty disappointing. Yes, don't get me wrong, it has a pool like it should, but the slide have been broken for so long. Other than that the facility's and staff are okay. There is room for improvements in many ways.

Fantastic experience: We attend swimming lessons here and they have always been well run. The instructors are very patient with the young children and the overall experience is lovely. It's always clean and tidy.

Positive experience: Big gym very quiet. Some of the machines are very old, the Smith machine is wonky and rattles when used but the rest of the machines seem OK. People walk around with no masks inside the gym area where you would expect them to only take it off at a work station. Other than that the gym is OK

Negative experience: Unable to get through on phone

Fantastic experience: Fair play to the team at Barry Leisure Centre, they have exceeded my expectations when it comes to their COVID-19 Management Plan. I feel safer at the gym than in many other public spaces. There's plenty of room between kit, marked areas for free weights, wipes and sanitiser spray for everyone to use before moving to the next piece of kit, always staffed, one-way system, bookings only...I could go on. Well done guys.

Fantastic experience: Excellent staff explained everything really well put my mind at ease when I joined the gym would highly recommend.

Fantastic experience: Great workout ,2hrs today ,really well sorted out ,plenty of space ,lot of hard work has been put into it ,well done all .

Positive experience: Great place, really made the effort to make it a safe place to return to after covid

Negative experience: Took my kids...the pool was freezing! Coldest pool I have ever been to, we only stayed about 20mins! There were a load of swimming lessons going on and hardly any space for general swimming. Changing rooms were busy but clean but also very cold, couldnt get to the showers as there were so many swimming lesson kids and thier families.

Fantastic experience: Hadnt been here for many years and it has changed a lot since I was last here as the health suite has gone and the cafe which used to be upstairs has moved downstairs and I was impressed with it. I would return here when I am in the area again.

Fantastic experience: Great place.

Fantastic experience: I go to aquarobics twice a week and love the new changing rooms the staff are very friendly the reception staff are always friendly and happy to help you and Megan in the cafe is always happy to make whats ever you want and is always very friendly

Fantastic experience: Let's go champ

Positive experience: At best, it's ok. The entire building is showing its age, combined with little maintenance over the years, basically neglected. At time of writing this review there were revamping all the changing rooms - probably 10 years overdue!

Fantastic experience: Dont go here enough...me that is..typical

Positive experience: Good selection of equipment in the gym to work up a sweat. But could do with some more duplicate machines.

Positive experience: Admission to the pool is expensive and hoping the renovation of the changing rooms will inject some new life into the place.

Positive experience: Changing room deparcule is shocking

Negative experience: Very friendly and helpful

Fantastic experience: Liked..............

Positive experience: The only option near by or I wouldn't go there. Really is very tired and grubby

Negative experience: Joined a group which was cancelled on a regular basis. The changing rooms are horrendous. Up grading is taking forever.......

Positive experience: A lot better since they have invested in upgrading the changing rooms etc. Overall the facilities are quite good with a good gym and classes.

Positive experience: Good place, gym is great but maintenance in the centre could be worked on.

Positive experience: Nice pool

Negative experience: Incredibly abrubt receptionist named Andrea. (Pink sweatshirt with name on). No hand washing facilities in dirty filthy ladies changing room / toilets. In gym concerns as a huge file containing people's personal details left unattended on desk.. in a type of open plastic basket able for anyone to help themself. Dirty tables in cafeteria area in front of main reception desk. ** will not be coming to use these facilities at Barry again. ** may use Cogan instead but will see how it is ***

Negative experience: worse place in the area for kid to learn to swim outside swimming lesson's. Can't go in morning before school or in half term as always adults only even though the adults don't even take up half the pool (but you can in Cardiff, Fontygary, etc) then after school is all taken over by swimming lessons and in half term as my girl is 9 she is not allowed in swimming lanes even though she can do 100m easy so has to stay in the open part which in the two times we have gone has kids as young as 7 in group with no supervision from adults just throwing stuff around, bombing in as my daughter swimming up only just missing her and no one at the center say's anything even when you say to them. So it's okay to do that but your not allowed to go practice to swim. Then as well it is the only pool as well even if you could get swimming lanes that doesn't allow flippers and other aids to help work on certain parts on your stroke but yet you can in Cardiff, Fontygary, etc. On top of that there no changing rooms. Real shame that I have to live close to the worse center in the vale and have to drive to Cardiff every time just so my daughter can practice.

Positive experience: Pool is lacking

Fantastic experience: Great place

Positive experience: Very good facility, just such a shame the changing rooms are so dirty and they said they probably won't fix the water slide.

Positive experience: Great birthday facilities

Positive experience: It's OK staff can be helpful if they feel like it.

Positive experience: Hard work that was ‍♂️

Fantastic experience: Free Parking and good facilities

Fantastic experience: Staff were friendly and helpful

Negative experience: Gym facilities upstairs and the new hammer strength gym are great. Same old problems remain with broken lockers or lockers with no keys, so nowhere to safely store bags. Changing rooms in general are shocking, broken tiles, dirty, showers that either freeze you to death or melt your skin off, the swimming pool too seems that classes take way more space than they need. I am a member and am forced to go to Cogan to take my son swimming given how bad and even more worrying, unsafe the facilities have become in the changing rooms. The sooner the place gets refitted the better, Barry is the largest town in Wales and we have to put up with such shocking leisure centre facilities. Such a shame. In short gym very good, changing rooms SHOCKING, pool often over crowded or made too small by classes. If you want to swim safely and comfortably, go to Penarth or down the Bay

Fantastic experience: Staff are always kind and friendly They are always there to help if there’s any problems or questions you need to ask

Negative experience: Everywhere is filthy dirty! Most lockers in male changing room don't work! Shambles!

Negative experience: Third day now where I've paid to go swimming only to find out there's a class going on that wasn't listed on the timetable. It's even taking up half the pool without even needing that much space, with the other half completely overcrowded by people standing around chatting. Waste of time, waste of money.

Fantastic experience: Very good gym and really nice staff always willing to help

Negative experience: Seating /cafe area always dirty . Seats and tables always covered in crumbs skirting boards dusty and floor is filthy. (And that's first thing in the morning. ) very disappointing. . The place opens at 8 am but the cafe doesn't open until 9 ?

Positive experience: Good for excersise classes. Swimming changing rooms are not very clean and the place could do with a refurb.

Positive experience: Swimming shut early staff sick but wasn't charged for 45 minute swim

Fantastic experience: Gym is top and friendly

Negative experience: Very run down and dated . Locker facilities very poor but they do put on a variety of classes for all ages.

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff

Negative experience: Took my son swimming and was disgusted with the state of the changing rooms and pools. The lockers were all out of order due to "impending renovation" but that does not excuse the poor standards of cleaning. The floors were saturated with grime and dirt in the family changing room and the toilet floor was covered with urine and toilet roll. I didnt use the toilet and waited until i got home instead. Being 7 months pregnant that was very uncomftorble. It seems as though hygiene and cleaning standards continue to get worse instead of better as this is not the first time i have seen the facilities in this state. I will not be using the pool at barry leisure centre anymore.

Fantastic experience: Lovely place to visit. Staff are extremely polite and helpful.

Positive experience: True that the changing rooms need updating.. but in all honesty I wouldn't say that their situation is THAT bad.. Pool is really clean & looked after .. Gym staff are more helpful and encouraging to new members than I expected.. The equipment is clean & theres no nonsense or judgement when you train .. Very well done guys - keep it up

Positive experience: Needs a bit of a refurb

Positive experience: The changing rooms are soon to be modernised, pool fine

Positive experience: The place itself is not bad, the changing rooms need improving.

Positive experience: Staff were lovely and helpful but very dirty changing rooms

Positive experience: Good venue for parties

Negative experience: Place has gone poor. Needs a whole refurb. It's actually disgusting.

Fantastic experience: Has got great gyms,pools and other activities

Negative experience: Really bad. Had a baby. No lockers. Had to dry and change baby in the loo. Really run down very in happy

Negative experience: Changing rooms scruffy , lockers hanging off if you can get one cos people taking keys off site

Fantastic experience: Swimming pool is extremely poor and so are the changing rooms. Gym is ok.