Harrison Hot Springs Public Mineral Pool
Harrison Hot Springs Public Mineral Pool
Harrison Hot Springs Public Mineral Pool
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
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3.5
203 reviews
Excellent
42
Very good
61
Average
54
Poor
33
Terrible
13
Robbo
Ralston, Canada2 contributions
Aug 2021 • Family
Still not open! Appear to have been closed for an awfully long time. Looks dated and in need of a refresh. A shame as this is the only place you can experience the 'hot springs' in the area outside of the Resort and Spa, which now seems to have the monopoly on them.
Written August 8, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kim N
British Columbia, Canada9 contributions
Aug 2024 • Friends
Visited the public mineral pool on August 24 & 25. This facility is very old, however, that was not the issue. It was filthy. Change room floors were filthy and obviously not cleaned from one day to the next. You have to walk through hair and debris to get from the change room to the pool. The washrooms were filthy as well. My husband said the urinal in the men's change room was absolutely disgusting and had not been cleaned for a long time. The floors around the pool area were also covered in hair and debris. I would not go back.
Written August 26, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dr V
7 contributions
Feb 2020 • Family
Amazing experience.. comfortable temperature for both adults and kids..staff was supportive two. Could be a little cheaper but it's still that costly. Free parking is very limited though. You can park on other spots and pay for it.
Written February 15, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
CFZ
Mount Vernon, WA2 contributions
Jan 2020 • Family
Was closed the weekend we came up for maintenance with nothing on website but about that. ☹️ This was the main reason we stayed where we did. But, town is cute, though small. Loved walking along the lake. We'll come back.
Written February 3, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
John A
Harrison Hot Springs, Canada12 contributions
Mar 2014 • Solo
I'm a long-time Harrison resident and former( four -term) Village mayor. . The " public" hot pool is not really public. It is not owned or operated by the Village of Harrison. It is owned and operated by a private company, the Harrison Hot Springs Hotel, at the West end of the Esplanade. So it is really a privately-owned facility which is open to the general public. Back in the 1960's, the public was allowed to go into the big hotel and use the hot springs pools. This was because the Hotel's water licence required them to provide public access to the hot pools as a condition of their water licence on the hot springs. When Seagram's head, Sam Bronfman, was redeveloping the hotel with architect Reno Negrin, they wanted to make it more exclusive and didn't really want the general public wandering around inside the hotel. Their solution was to build a new public-access pool a block away and pipe the hot water to it. It is still a good bathing experience but nothing like the Hotel's pools which try to replicate an outdoor, natural hot pool. The "public" pool is now shallower because insurance and liability concerns required too many lifeguards for a swimming /diving pool. So it was converted to a shallower " wading" pool. It seems hottest and quietest first thing in the morning. The atmosphere is a bit clinical ( ie, absent). An excellent way to dissolve stress, aches and pains, hangovers and insomnia. Remember to stay hydrated, though, if staying in for a long time. It's also very social with lots of chatty, interesting people. Being nearly naked ( bathing suits mandatory!) seems to create a more relaxed way to meet strangers. It reminds me of the communal baths in Roman and Greek cities in that it's a bit of a social hub, preceding Starbucks in this role. Guest at my RV resort nearby ( Harrison Country Club) enjoy it, too, as it's only a two minute walk from our gate. Architecturally, it seems to pay homage to Frank Lloyd Wright but could use a lot of natural surfaces, such as field stone, to make it look finished. jja
Written May 3, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
travelnotebook
Canada99 contributions
Jul 2016 • Friends
Ok, I get it. It is my understanding the Harrison Hot Springs Resort Hotel owns this public pool. The resort's blatant effort to redirect potential guests to check into that resort to get the hot springs experience, instead of going to the public pool, is painfully, and distastefully, obvious. We have been to most of the magnificent hot springs in Alberta and other areas of BC where the experience is consistently outstanding. The Harrison Public Hot Springs Pool is a shocking disappointment in comparison. So sad: The location, and even the building itself, offer so much potential. This public hot springs should be the crown jewel in the BC crown of visitor experiences. The giant picture windows at the pool face the stunningly beautiful lake, but these windows are so dirty you can hardly see the magnificent view. There are only a few cheap, old, plastic deck chairs. The pool is not hot enough with barely warm water. The locker rooms are badly in need of renovation. There is no food service, just one lonely vendor machine.
We did check into the pricey Harrison Hot Springs resort to experience the four pristine hot spring pools inside the hotel. Unfortunately, visitors are forced to check into this resort to get the real Canadian Hot Springs experience in this area of BC. There is no other option. Visitors to BC should not have to endure such an unpleasant business practice, especially in an area offering so much scenic splendor that is a natural birthright of all Canadians.
We did check into the pricey Harrison Hot Springs resort to experience the four pristine hot spring pools inside the hotel. Unfortunately, visitors are forced to check into this resort to get the real Canadian Hot Springs experience in this area of BC. There is no other option. Visitors to BC should not have to endure such an unpleasant business practice, especially in an area offering so much scenic splendor that is a natural birthright of all Canadians.
Written October 15, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
geemeljones
North Vancouver, Canada18 contributions
Dec 2017 • Family
We had very realistic expectations (we felt) on the day we visited the public pool. Warm water, and a bit of swimming. We had read all the reviews, we knew it was a public indoor facility and not the fancy private pools attached to the hotel in town, and there was also a crazy snowstorm meaning that there was literally nothing else for us to do that day. In spite of all this, the experience was weird and underwhelming.
To be clear, the water was warm.
Now to the bad. First of all, there was the entry price. $10 for an adult and $8 for a child is quite a lot (again, I had read about it in advance so it was not a shock) so I suppose I had some expectations regarding the facilities. I've been to a lot of public pools in my time and this one was basic, lacking anything at all that resembled a frill. The changerooms were very old-fashioned, with tiny cubicles and too-hot showers that shut off almost as soon as they turned on. I did not discover until after I had got changed that the ($1!) lockers required a key (from the front desk, which was not mentioned when we paid our entry fee, at, um, the front desk) to even open them so I could not leave any belongings in the change room without going back outside in my bathing suit and then being buzzed back in to the changeroom. Note that this is the only time I have ever seen a security entry door to a pool changeroom, but that just added to the general prison/institution vibe. Regardless, I opted to take my bag out on the pool deck.
The scene in the pool itself was something else entirely. It's hard to describe, but it felt a little like high school with judgy cliques dotted around and a whole lot of hostile staring. There was a group of seniors in the shallow end, who didn't move the whole time we were there (in defiance of the sign declaring how dangerous it is to spend more than 10 minutes in the water), and a couple in the deep(ish) end (4 ft - no diving!), whom everyone avoided due to the extreme display of affection taking place. Even my 10 year old kid noticed them and was clear that we should give whatever was going on a wide berth.
In the middle of the pool were a couple of smaller groups but everyone was just, well, sitting there. The pool is shaped like an actual swimming pool, which might fool you into thinking you could swim in it, but anything that created slight ripples or worse was met with heavy, albeit tacit, waves of disapproval from the assembled patrons.
We remained for half an hour, swimming widths with flutter boards in contravention of the unwritten "no aquatic pursuits" rule, but having exhausted the leisure options (marinading, staring, marinading some more) we were ready to leave. What finally sealed the deal of our departure was the arrival of unarguably the oddest patron of all, who circled the deck three times on foot before settling in to the water with his two bottles of mineral water and LAPTOP, which he set up poolside. What was he watching? Or was he filming us all? Who knew, and I wasn't hanging around to find out.
The final insults - no hairdryer in the women's changeroom (because, of course), and one of the shallow-end-dwellers finally left the pool to visit the men's changeroom and burp ostentatiously near my son, which totally freaked him out.
We hustled out of there into the welcome embrace of the snowstorm, icicles forming on my soaking wet hair, and wished we had just gone to the lovely pool in our hotel instead...
All joking aside - this is a big missed opportunity for the town. It should be a real hit and instead it was a bewildering miss. Even something as simple as dedicated areas for soaking/relaxing and for gentle swimming would go a long way to making people feel more welcome/less awkward. As a parent, I would fully support adult-only bathing times as well as kid-friendly times - this would help visitors know what to expect in terms of being welcome or not. Also, why not replace some of the plastic lawn furniture with loungers so that people can bring books/magazines to read and can comfortably spend time out of the water as well as in it.
And please ban all laptops/other electronics poolside. Obviously...
To be clear, the water was warm.
Now to the bad. First of all, there was the entry price. $10 for an adult and $8 for a child is quite a lot (again, I had read about it in advance so it was not a shock) so I suppose I had some expectations regarding the facilities. I've been to a lot of public pools in my time and this one was basic, lacking anything at all that resembled a frill. The changerooms were very old-fashioned, with tiny cubicles and too-hot showers that shut off almost as soon as they turned on. I did not discover until after I had got changed that the ($1!) lockers required a key (from the front desk, which was not mentioned when we paid our entry fee, at, um, the front desk) to even open them so I could not leave any belongings in the change room without going back outside in my bathing suit and then being buzzed back in to the changeroom. Note that this is the only time I have ever seen a security entry door to a pool changeroom, but that just added to the general prison/institution vibe. Regardless, I opted to take my bag out on the pool deck.
The scene in the pool itself was something else entirely. It's hard to describe, but it felt a little like high school with judgy cliques dotted around and a whole lot of hostile staring. There was a group of seniors in the shallow end, who didn't move the whole time we were there (in defiance of the sign declaring how dangerous it is to spend more than 10 minutes in the water), and a couple in the deep(ish) end (4 ft - no diving!), whom everyone avoided due to the extreme display of affection taking place. Even my 10 year old kid noticed them and was clear that we should give whatever was going on a wide berth.
In the middle of the pool were a couple of smaller groups but everyone was just, well, sitting there. The pool is shaped like an actual swimming pool, which might fool you into thinking you could swim in it, but anything that created slight ripples or worse was met with heavy, albeit tacit, waves of disapproval from the assembled patrons.
We remained for half an hour, swimming widths with flutter boards in contravention of the unwritten "no aquatic pursuits" rule, but having exhausted the leisure options (marinading, staring, marinading some more) we were ready to leave. What finally sealed the deal of our departure was the arrival of unarguably the oddest patron of all, who circled the deck three times on foot before settling in to the water with his two bottles of mineral water and LAPTOP, which he set up poolside. What was he watching? Or was he filming us all? Who knew, and I wasn't hanging around to find out.
The final insults - no hairdryer in the women's changeroom (because, of course), and one of the shallow-end-dwellers finally left the pool to visit the men's changeroom and burp ostentatiously near my son, which totally freaked him out.
We hustled out of there into the welcome embrace of the snowstorm, icicles forming on my soaking wet hair, and wished we had just gone to the lovely pool in our hotel instead...
All joking aside - this is a big missed opportunity for the town. It should be a real hit and instead it was a bewildering miss. Even something as simple as dedicated areas for soaking/relaxing and for gentle swimming would go a long way to making people feel more welcome/less awkward. As a parent, I would fully support adult-only bathing times as well as kid-friendly times - this would help visitors know what to expect in terms of being welcome or not. Also, why not replace some of the plastic lawn furniture with loungers so that people can bring books/magazines to read and can comfortably spend time out of the water as well as in it.
And please ban all laptops/other electronics poolside. Obviously...
Written January 1, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
JoanneEnnaoJ
Vancouver, Canada177 contributions
Mar 2014 • Couples
The first thing I want to say is that this public pool is NOT inside the Harrison Hot Springs Resort and Spa. It is in a separate building a couple of blocks away, and also along the waterfront. I made the error of paid parking at the hotel and was in the wrong place. The Public Pool has free parking.
The female change room was quite nice. I was impressed that there were private changing cubicles with a curtain.
The hot pool temperature is 100 degrees fahrenheit (38 degrees celsius). At first you may think this is not hot enough, but after only about 10 minutes it starts feeling too hot in the pool and you want to get out for a bit.
Most people at this pool just sit. There is lots of seating along the entry stairs, and there is benched seating along the insides of the pool that will keep you sitting in the water up to your shoulders. There are also a few jets here and there that come out at your calves.
There were about a dozen plastic lounge chairs. The complex and chairs are all indoors.
There is a tall window where you can see the lake and mountains a few feet away outside.
It is a public pool and not a spa, so don't set too high expectations. It is reasonable for the $9 adult swim. They rent towels and bathing suits too.
There is a vending machine, and a convenience store across the street. No food or drink allowed in pool.
My romantic partner and I live in Vancouver and we wanted an afternoon outing. So, we took scenic Highway 7 to Harrison Hot Springs, had a fab lunch at Muddy Waters Cafe along the waterfront, walked along the lake, then went for a hot pool swim for an hour. What a great afternoon jaunt near our home in Coquitlam (a 90 minutes drive).
http://www.harrisonresort.com/Harrison_Public_Pool_info_sheet_Dec_2012.pdf
Find online at: http://www.harrisonresort.com/activities_pools.aspx
The female change room was quite nice. I was impressed that there were private changing cubicles with a curtain.
The hot pool temperature is 100 degrees fahrenheit (38 degrees celsius). At first you may think this is not hot enough, but after only about 10 minutes it starts feeling too hot in the pool and you want to get out for a bit.
Most people at this pool just sit. There is lots of seating along the entry stairs, and there is benched seating along the insides of the pool that will keep you sitting in the water up to your shoulders. There are also a few jets here and there that come out at your calves.
There were about a dozen plastic lounge chairs. The complex and chairs are all indoors.
There is a tall window where you can see the lake and mountains a few feet away outside.
It is a public pool and not a spa, so don't set too high expectations. It is reasonable for the $9 adult swim. They rent towels and bathing suits too.
There is a vending machine, and a convenience store across the street. No food or drink allowed in pool.
My romantic partner and I live in Vancouver and we wanted an afternoon outing. So, we took scenic Highway 7 to Harrison Hot Springs, had a fab lunch at Muddy Waters Cafe along the waterfront, walked along the lake, then went for a hot pool swim for an hour. What a great afternoon jaunt near our home in Coquitlam (a 90 minutes drive).
http://www.harrisonresort.com/Harrison_Public_Pool_info_sheet_Dec_2012.pdf
Find online at: http://www.harrisonresort.com/activities_pools.aspx
Written March 30, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Robert K
Harrison Hot Springs, Canada1 contribution
Sept 2015 • Couples
the hotel owns the public pool and the reason..it is not renovated or looked after is because the hotel wants you to stay in the hotel . I live in Harrison and the pool has never been upgraded for years .I guess we are lucky it is even open as the hotel would like it closed .They own the mineral rights to the hot springs & the village can do nothing about this public pool .
Written September 25, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
MLSOBG
Madison, WI98 contributions
Nov 2014 • Family
The Harrison Hot Springs Public Pool is just that; a pleasant but somewhat dated and "no frills" indoor public pool with the same hot springs water available at the much plusher Hot Springs Resort that is 2 blocks away. The big Resort does not offer "day passes" as most indoor/outdoor water destinations do in other places, but would rent a "day room" for $125 for the day if they were not close to capacity in their room bookings. We could only stop by for part of the day and didn't want to spend this for the few hours we were visiting, so off to the Public Pool. Fine, nice warm water with nice seats around the pool. Can sort of see out the windows to the surrounding mountains, but feels like an old high school swimming pool otherwise. For $9 plus a towel rental, was okay, but seems it would be reasonable for the posh resort to offer day passes for those only able to visit for the day; could make them more than $9 but less than $125---wide range to play with, Harrison Hot Springs Resort!! Otherwise, lovely scenery in the town, nice drive from Vancouver and some cute restaurants in Harrison Hot Springs.
Written November 5, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Is the public pool open now and are there holiday hours?
Written December 22, 2020
I've changed my mind about going to Harrison Hotsprings. The public pools have very bad reviews and I can't afford the high priced resort.
Written April 10, 2017
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