Dittmar Recreation Center

As a newer resident to Austin I must admit I have never seen such a great parks dept. Austin parks are not only clean, up to date, safe, plentiful, water feature covered, & close by. We have it really good!
This review is for the Play area, Preschool, & gym.
First the preschool.
My daughter is enrolled in the M/​W 3yr old class. It’s 2 days week from 9 – 1 and it’s only $ 40 A MONTH. read that last part again. $ 40 a month. It’s not a special or poor kid program, its that price for everyone.
The teachers, while not accredited with tons of degrees like the Primrose school, are loving, understanding, & good at teaching my daughter the fundamentals while prepping her for school. Each day they do some creative stuff, some numbers, letters, lunch socializing, & play in the awesome play structure outside. Ms. Maudie & Ms. Aly are outstanding & my daughter loves them. My only complaint is that she has move up to the 4yr old class leaving our great teachers behind. The classroom is bright & clean & the facilities are clean.
The Gym is also amazing. It’s a fight free basketball place with fair pickup rules. While I don’t ball anymore my wife & I take advantage of the FREE GYM! Again it’s not Lifetime Fitness but it is a very serviceable work out facility. Working ellipticals/​treadmills & great free weights. Cleanliness currently is not the best as the Dittmar Rec Center was just a shelter to people who lost homes in the flood. My wife & I will be doing a deep clean so it should be better soon. Again… free gym. The front door is manned so you have safety there.
The last part is the outside area. The playscape is 3 stories tall & connected to a climbing rock. It’s pretty amazing when you take it in. Living on the side of the play area is a massive tree (don’t climb on it!) that is great for sitting under to watch your kids. Also a park bench if you have to work. Yes I said work… any Austin Park has free WIFI! Good fast wifi too. The only drawback is that this is a more advanced park scape.
The field behind the park is huge! Great for naps, picnics, bikes, etc. Below the pool (which I haven’t used yet) is another soccer field with running track. I see runners here all day!
To sum up, this place is a gem of South Austin.

Great place. Glad to see where kids and young adults can go hoop indoors and stay out of trouble. Very well run!

I actually really enjoyed this park while I was here with my mom and nephew. They had a huge playground with a couple of different slides. There was a smaller play pad part for the little tykes too.
There were only baby swings and no regular ones, which I thought was weird. The playground was sort of tall I thought when I compare it to most other playgrounds. I also thought the park was lacking a bit in benches.
I did like that they had some rocks that kids could climb on. I could tell many kids were enjoying this. It is a little different extra feature that most playgrounds do not have.
The park overall was large and there was a field where kids could play soccer other sports. They have a community pool here, which I have been to once before.
The main reason for the 2 star review here instead of a 3 or 4 is because on the main playground there was a stepping pad where one of the steps was broken and they had it blocked off with orange netting. In the photos on Unilocal you can see that Nelson M. posted a pic of the play set on 10÷22÷14 which was 2 months ago. I think it is ridiculous that this is not fixed yet. This is a public park where kids come all the time. While I was there the netting was there however had fallen a bit and I saw kids still using the step pad. This is totally unsafe and needs to be fixed ASAP before some kid gets hurt!

It’s great for kids, but terrible for lap swimmers. There is only one lane and they don’t keep non lap swimmers out of it. However, it’s free, and if you’re going for fun in the sun only then this is your place.

Great pool. Very clean, well taken care of. I feel like my tax dollars are well spent at this Rec Center. Best part is it’s FREE. The best times to go are in the morning & after 6:30. The pool has 3 areas — the kiddie area, which is covered so the sun is not an issue, the lap area, & the deep area with the diving board.

great pool for lap swimmers during «lap time» (10-​noon M-​F)! never crowded, but the lifeguards are slightly annoying and always have their friends around and are chatting loudly across the pool, which can be distracting, as I sometimes think they are trying to tell me something or what not.
And the best part… it’s FREE! I walk here from my house, first doing a few laps around the track down below by the woods, walk right in, do some laps in the pool, then walk home. Love that it’s so close to me. The center also apparently has a yoga class on Tue night that I might check out. $ 13 though seems a bit pricey for one class… we’ll see.