Indoor pools in North Charleston open to the public

North Charleston Aquatic Center

The biggest indoor pool in the area and the only 50-meter one, with ten lanes plus a separate 25-yard therapeutic pool kept warmer for water aerobics and rehab work. It opens at 6 a.m. on weekdays, which makes it the practical choice for lap swimming before work. It also hosts swim meets and swim team practice, so posted open-swim hours shift around events and the monthly calendar is worth checking. Anyone can pay at the door: there is no membership requirement and no residency test.

North Charleston Sports Complex

The city's second indoor pool: a 25-yard competition pool inside the complex that replaced the old Danny Jones Recreation Complex on the same Monitor Street site and opened in 2024. Admission is priced identically to the Aquatic Center, but the hours are shorter, opening at 8:30 a.m. and closing entirely on Sundays, so it suits midday and evening swims better than early-morning laps. The pool runs open swim, lap swim and water aerobics alongside swim team practice. The rest of the building holds a gymnasium, tennis courts and a roller rink.

St. Andrew's Family Fitness Plus

A West Ashley fitness center run by St. Andrew's Parks & Playground, a public recreation district, built around an indoor heated saltwater pool with eight deep lanes for lap swimming and a shallow instructional area for lessons and water walking. Its posted 5 a.m. weekday lap-swim start is the earliest on this list, and a day pass costs less than half what the downtown health club charges. One caveat worth calling about first: the district's own home page currently states that the Family Fitness Center pool is closed for maintenance, with no reopening date announced.

MUSC Wellness Center

The Medical University's health club on the peninsula, open to the general public rather than only to patients or staff, with a recently renovated 25-meter indoor pool. It is by far the most expensive drop-in on this list at $25 a day, but it is also the most complete facility, adding saunas, steam rooms, a rooftop track and pool-based group exercise classes. Guest passes apply only to adults 18 and over, so it is not an option for a family swim. If you buy a day pass and join within a week, the fee comes off the enrollment cost.

R.L. Jones Center Pool

A 25-yard indoor heated pool run by the Town of Mount Pleasant, and one of only two indoor public pools east of the Cooper. Mount Pleasant charges non-residents double the resident rate, so a North Charleston swimmer pays $10 a visit at the door; ten-visit swim passes and yearly memberships bring the per-swim cost down and need no membership to buy. The pool opens at 7 a.m. on weekdays and closes Sundays. Swimmers locally note that this pool and Park West both get busy at peak lap-swim times.

Park West Pool

Mount Pleasant's second indoor pool, at the north end of town inside the Park West Recreation Complex and reopened after a recent renovation. It runs on the same town fee schedule as the R.L. Jones Center, and a town aquatics membership covers swimming at both, so the choice between them is really about which is closer. Building hours shift with the season, so it is worth calling ahead. The town does not publish the pool's length or lane count anywhere I could find.

Summerville Family YMCA

The downtown Summerville Y on West Doty Avenue holds the only indoor pool in the Summerville area that non-members can swim in; the Y's Oakbrook branch pool is outdoor and seasonal. It is roughly a 20-minute drive from most of North Charleston, and the pool runs lap swim, open swim and lessons. Two things to check before you go: the Y charges a guest fee rather than offering an unrestricted day pass, and it does not publish its current guest rate or its guest-visit limit online, so call ahead to confirm both.