YMCA

This place is fine for regular swimmers but just a heads up, the water slide is always closed down and they're very inconsistent to whether they allow swim fins/mermaid tails or not. It's hard to plan ahead when only the lifeguards can tell you if they're allowed or not on a certain day so you can't really call ahead and ask. (The front desk staff are always kind though) It depends how busy it is, if you get a lifeguard who's rude or not, etc. The first time I went they were only comfortable with me swimming in my mermaid tail in the family pool with a ton of children for some reason. Despite me offering to do a swim test in the empty lap pool with just a monofin to prove I'm an experienced swimmer because the family pool is too shallow and I didn't want to get in people's way. Of course my $425 Finfolk fabric mermaid tail suffered some damage due to me trying to swim in that rough bottom pool. It isn't deep enough so I scuffed the bottom a lot but I figured I would try it once cause I was desperate to swim in it for the first time and this is the only pool in town. The second time I got lucky and the lifeguards were really nice and let me swim in the lap pool without any issues! Then the third time my mom and I were going to swim in our Finfolk mermaid tails together and the lifeguard at that time said "No mermaid tails allowed at all." At that point we just decided to ask for a refund, no one was available to process it immediately but luckily we were refunded within a week. Things that could be improved: The pool rules need to be CONSISTENT, either don't allow swim fins at all or if certain lifeguards are worried about it, hold a meeting and educate them about how to ensure the safety of everyone. Offer a swim test to anyone interested in swimming in the deep end with anything that could be considered "unsafe" if not used correctly. Only allow people over 18/teens with adult supervision to use things like mermaid tails. Would also be great to know a capacity limit for when they're no longer allowed as well cause apparently it depends on how many people are there on certain days. The people at the front desk should know all of this information as well if anyone calls ahead and asks. The website should be updated more too and clearly state if the water slide is ever going to be open and what the pool rules are. (The "Swim testing, pool rules and facility guidelines" page still says "404 not found.")

Super-friendly staff. The place is open 18 hours per day on weekdays...so...pretty much 24 hours. You can go swimming here in February. What's not to like? Clean locker rooms. You get workout towels as part of the membership. Tons of cardio equipment and everything I need for weight equipment. The main manager gave me a tour of the place and thanked me for joining. In my opinion, if you're going to spend your money on a gym membership, why not spend it where you're appreciated? Also, the YMCA helps folks out who need help. Other places, the profit from your membership goes toward putting a deck on the owner's lakefront house or whatever.

The Red Wing Y is an ok place. There isn't much to choose from in Red Wing so your kind of stuck with what you get. They keep up their work out equipment which is nice and the locker rooms are clean and well kept. They have a Sauna which is nice, but its pretty small and only it can only comfortably fit about 3 or 4 people depending on how close you want to get to other naked men. The hours are limited and i would have preferred that they were open earlier in the morning.

Expensive for the extremely limited hours. Then I go in today to work out and half the gym is unavailable for whatever they are doing, cleaning or re arranging or whatever, but they close so early on fridays saturdays and sundays that they could be doing this during that time rather then when I'm trying to workout during their already limited hours.