Bakar Fitness & Recreation Center

The gym lockers are really not well cleaned, management is really stingy, and the outdoor pool is constantly closed with short notice.
The people working the desks, however, are great — so friendly and helpful!

I’ve been a member for seven years. Great outdoor pool, clean facilities, impressive massage therapists. Membership fee is accurate for the quality.

I have been a member for over four years, and my overall gym experience has been steadily declining. Some of the cardio classes such as cardio kick and body combat have been cancelled. The sign up for group classes is super frustrating. The yoga instructor, Patricia, is mean as hell. It might be time to look for a different gym.

We joined this gym back when they first opened in 2005 because we live in the neighborhood and they billed themselves as family friendly and state of the art. In the beginning we were blown away: 2 huge swimming pools! An outdoor climbing Wall! Racquetball and squash courts! Tons of classes including spinning, zumba, yoga and more! A huge gymnasium! A rec room with ping pong tables and foosball! Best of all: inexpensive childcare and summer camp were offered…
Well, much has changed in 10 years. The fantastic summer camp is now gone. They no longer have kids’ club (childcare) available. The rec room is now a dedicated pilates studio. Swimming classes for kids are available, but we have found them to be uneven in quality. They still offer a few other classes for youth/​kids including tae kwon do (excellent), climbing and squash. For adults, the personal training, group classes and outdoor rec activities including kayaking and stand up paddling have been mostly very good.
The locker rooms and facilities are pretty nice, but have undergone extensive repairs and closures in the past few years. The women’s locker room has a decent suana.
So, in summary, I feel this gym is a mixed bag. For families, there are still a few decent offerings but not enough anymore to really attract families with young kids. I think perhaps the problem is that they try to do too much and have spread themselves a bit thin. If you are single and love pilates, perhaps this gym is your place. Personally, I wish they’d return to their previous model of being a real community/​family center.

If I didn’t see their 10 for $ 100 deals on Unilocal,I probably wouldn’t have given them a try. I liked my experience overall. I only used the pools, so this review is for the pools and the locker rooms.
The pools are beautiful. The indoor pool is way too warm for workout, though. I think it’s around 88 °F on weekends, and around 83 °F on weekdays. I like the outdoor pool much better — it’s perfect for swimming laps, and not too chlorinated. However, being in San Francisco, sometimes it does get too cold outside, so I constantly feel my arms or my head, whichever sticks out of the water, feeling very chilly from the wind or the fog. Their outdoors shower was a rescue — I often run out of the pool, straight to the shower, just to warm myself up before drying up with a towel.
I like that their outdoors pool has good hours, pretty much open all day from 8AM to 8PM. My triathlon training program required a lot of swimming, so it was good that I wasn’t kicked out after an hour, and I could take my time between sets of laps and enjoy a brief water break. The indoor pool, on the other hand, has terrible hours. It’s usually only available from 2−3PM which is very inconvenient. And it’s too warm for laps anyway. It felt more like a hot tub, which provides a good soak after my workout.
Their locker room and showers are quite nice from a university gym standard. But it is nothing luxurious compared to most spa/​gym. They do have a sauna, which is quite nice to sit in after a super cold outdoors swim.
The 10 passes is only good for 3 months. However, their staff told me that I could ask for an «extension» for a month after it’s due. So it’s 10 passes for 4 months. At $ 10 per swim, I think it’s quite a deal for something in the city. But since the deal is gone, I think their regular $ 20/​swim is a bit steep and I’ll probably go back to the SF public pools.

This gym is an embarrassment and in no way represents the high quality of the (my) University it gets its name from. This is a SCHOOL GYM, and not a real FITNESS CENTER for the rest of us.
If you’re between the ages of 15 – 24 years old, and simply need a place to work out or play IM sports, Bakar will meet your needs. If you’re outside of this demographic, you should really save yourself some time and headache and look elsewhere. If you’re a student and can get a free or discounted membership, then this place is for you. Basically it’s like riding MUNI. If you have to use it or it’s a cheap alternative, then go for it — but for me, I’m cancelling my membership and upgrading.
I’m 50, married, and have 2 infants — my review is for the aquatics department, locker rooms, and staff in general.
— The pools have potential. but sadly fall short. Pool staff seem to be in their late teens. I’m sorry, I guess I’m too old to have to deal with a mouthy teenager with an attitude problem and a whistle. (BTW, that pretty much sums up the entire staff at Bakar). Management falls SHORT here.
La Petite Baleen gets the rest of our business from now on as far as swimming lessons go. God forbid there is ever a problem or a medical emergency in the pool — the teens who are in charge give me no confidence — verbal interaction with most staff at Bakar is like talking to the high schooler manning the post at Burger King — I just can’t deal with them anymore.
Swim lessons are lacking — this seems like a jobs program for the youth of SF — I was a lifeguard in college and taught swim lessons… so perhaps my standards and expectations are higher than others… but I can tell you that Bakar, and you, the consumer, can do much much better.
After paying for a full membership, and for swimming lessons, Bakar will still charge a 36 month old infant $ 10 to come to Family Swim Time to practice in the pool /​even though the Pool Staff, LifeGuards, Teachers etc., encourage students and parents to come back for FREE family swim time. It’s just not worth it.
No distinction is made between charging a 3 year old who wants to use the pool as part of his SWIM LESSONS that are already being paid for, and a FULL DAY PASS — — ridiculous.
— Locker Rooms are fine, again, if you’re a younger person used to your HS or College locker room. I did have my lock cut from my locker once and all my things were stolen — — I can’t say that it is unsafe, but it’s not very well supervised. Again, you can find much nicer facilities for the price.
That’s it.
It was a good run, Bakar — but I’m trading you in.

Regarding kid swim classes: the pool is nice and we have done 3 classes with 2 different instructors. All have been fine. But it’s true that the pre-​reg process is ridiculously slow and manual and the woman who handles it is kind of bitchy.
Apparently the Angelfish level has a notoriously low pass rate, so I don’t see why they don’t split it into 2 separate levels.

Gym is nice and clean. There are always machines and weights available for use. Classes are fairly okay to get in, some do get packed fast. One thing I don’t like is how pricey the membership is.

If you approach swim teachers about not wanting your child to sit on the stairs or the wall their whole session most are responsive. Some teachers are really great. However you are paying for parking every visit. And there is no forgiveness for an ID card left at home. $ 5 fee? The card is a little piece of paper with your name on it.? If they see your family 4 days a week you would think they would be more reasonable and understanding. Classes are often «full» and not a lot of openings. but in general the pool is pretty empty with the exception of weekends. Pool is really nice and very warm. Only 2 family changing-​shower rooms. Which can be difficult if you have a large 5 year old boy with his mom in the ladies locker room. Or dad with daughter in men’s. And keep in mind serious traffic on Giant game days it is really hard to get to the pool. Good luck with your swim lesson searching

Don’t let the picture of the rock climbing wall fool you. It’s basically a marketing ploy as it’s roped off 95% of the time and is only available for an hour or two– a week on some random time like Saturday afternoon.
The swimming pools are great… eh, sorta. Again, you have to check when you can swim because it’s usually a «Mommy and Me Swim Time» or «Training for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games», and not much for swimmers in-​between.
RENOVATION BLUES
But then again, I feel like I should be happy that there’s a functional pool to use at all, as the pools were closed for so many, many, months last year. I definitely question their wisdom in choosing to close the swimming pools over the summer (the time when people want to swim most).
Though the facilities are relatively new (5 – 6 years), they went ahead with a renovation/​remodel which not only closed the swimming pools, but the locker rooms, as well. I didn’t mind too much using the temporary locker rooms with the temporary, Porto-​potty-​style, showers, though it’s upsetting that I was paying the same monthly member dues, yet (due to the renovation) I did not have access to the activities and the facilities that I signed up and was paying for.
I excused the inconvenience of almost half a year, telling myself that it’s going to be all for the better; that the new locker rooms will be snazzy and updated. However when I first saw the renovations to the locker room upon their completion, it was such a disappointment. All those months closed and yet renovations actually made the place look OLDER! It was like I stepped into 1983 with curry-​yellow tiles (to be more accurate, I’d say ‘the color of poop from a breastfeeding infant’). They changed out the Berber carpet to linoleum floors that came straight out of my elementary school classroom circa 1984. What is peculiar is that the locker room before the renovation wasn’t bad at all, or even «shabby», which brings to question why they were renovating it in the first place, but the irony is that the renovations, which took so very long, made the place look worse. I’m not privy to what the decision makers’ intentions were, but one could guess that it involves the allocation of «use-​it-​or lose-​it» funds.
Now the good:
The staff and trainers who work there are great, even spectacular. The place is always very clean. All the machines and equipment is A+.
In conclusion: it’s the best gym among its comparables in the area. Unless there’s a protest at the UC Board of Regents meeting held in the same building. Then you’re either screwed with no parking or the gym being shut down all together.

1– location and facility: ⁴⁄₅ stars
2– receptionists:1/5 (rarely ³⁄₅).

I was a student here and then kept my membership while I work. I got scheduled for a last minute shift (as nurses do) so I called to reschedule. I could only r/​s for the same day, which is ok. They are very strict about their Massage schedule policy, 24 hour notice and not a minute less or even for a later slot. For $ 105 a massage (tip is not allowed and from a former therapist, most of the fee does not go to them), I think they should allow more flexibility, especially in their payments and to cancel online more than 24 hours. Granted, a 75-​minute massage is nice but only some of the therapiast are amazing, while others are ok. I wish they had more female therapists.

I have been a member of UCSF Bakar for the last 5 months and this gym is very disappointing. They had shut down the women’s locker room for the better part of last year for repairs. It finally opened last month only to see that the women’s sauna has broken down (unbelievable). The problem has not been fixed for this entire week that I have been there. The weight selections and fitness floor equipment are also dated and not up to the mark. Cleanliness could be improved all round. It may be a fine deal if you are connected with UCSF as you pay a lower rate. But everyone else pays the going rate in the market for comparable gyms EXCEPT that the quality does not compare, alas. I was previously a member of the JCSF in Palo Alto which was a top notch gym and cheaper!

Only warm pool in sf for children to take lessons that I have found. The teachers are great however not very parent or user friendly. Difficult to pay, no one knows what’s going on, no charts or skill levels displayed or discussed. I am fortunate to have worked teaching swimming and gymnastics for years so I am comfortable asking and learning their system. For parents who are busy or unfamiliar I could see being stressed out and confused. Kids don’t know their teachers, there is no line ups, and absolutely no levels or skill charts to know what your child has learned or even learning. They could be making so much money and have a great wonderful set up if whoever managed this got there shit together. Truthfully I would like more of a parent friendly interface as well as the desk people be informed what is going on to help for basic things.

Beautiful fitness center with very nice and bright outdoor swimming poll! I love this gym! The spin classes are hard and kicking my ass !!!

LOVED Shelley’s meditation and yoga combo class today. Best yoga class I’ve had yet in SF. She works the whole body but somehow maintains a sense of ease and relaxation. The perfect complement to a fierce gym workout. I’ll be back! (Gorgeous facility, too — I can’t wait to come back and try the rooftop pool and get a massage!)

I’ve been coming here for a few months now, and about a month ago it suddenly got much busier. Lots of the spaces seem to be under construction and equipment wasn’t really relocated (no punching bags anywhere). There is only one squat rack and no safe space to do dead lifts. Can lead to slower and less focused /​safe workouts because of the lack of equipment /​space. Equipment isn’t really kept organized and seems to drift around. One of the two bars for the benches was just missing without a trace for the duration of my visit on Friday.
It’s an okay gym and the only one in Mission Bay (which is still mostly dominated by construction sites /​AT&T Park parking). Probably not worth the non UCSF affiliated rate for people in the neighborhood. Definitely not worth it if you live outside of Mission Bay. I’m looking around for alternatives.

This place is AWESOME! I have been a member for about 3 months now. I was a member of 24Hr Fitness previously but made an up-​grade and became a member here. Best decision by far!
This gym never gets crowded as other gyms do. The machines are all clean and up to date. If there’s a problem with a machine, they have an on site technician that comes right out and fixes them; something that 24Hr never did… What I really enjoy about this gym and what really closed the deal for me was their swimming pools. Can you say plush? Two pools, both heated. One is inside and one is outside on the roof. Very clean and well maintained. They offer classes also for a reduce price than other facilities in SF. They even have an outdoor rock climbing area! How cool is that?
The one complain I do have is their hours or operations. They are open 7 days a week with weekdays opened at 530am-​10pm and weekends from 730am-​8pm. Monthly dues for non UCSF members are quite high but if you’re tired and disgusted with 24Hr or any other below average gym, then this fitness center will definitely be it for you!

It’s not an affordable gym for us non-​UCSF affiliates but; the facilities are decent, I never feel crowded, towel service and free parking and decent classes.
I was transitioning physical therapists and was recommended by my doctor to try water physical therapy (which is surprisingly hard to find in SF!). I disliked the water physical therapist I found in Daly City but realized that the UCSF water fitness classes were a little more challenging in a good way for me. I joined this specific gym for the deep water exercise class (running in deep water with a belt) and the aquafit classes (basically aerobics in water), It’s been a few months and I now go to other types of classes including Iyengar yoga (slow and long yoga poses) and pilates.
I am concerned about the upcoming gym remodel where the pool will be closed for many months and the parking situation is not stellar, sometimes nearly impossible to park.

After about three months of membership I can truly say that this facility hasn’t let me down yet. The only thing is that the hours can be limiting compared to Crunch and 24hr.
Group classes are well designed and they switch it up every few weeks or so to keep it interesting.
Machines are well maintained and staff is friendly!