Texas summers get hot enough that a pool stops is more of a requirement during a mid-summer trip rather than just a bonus. If you’re traveling to Wichita Falls and looking for a place to stay with a pool, here’s some options for your trips.
Hotels With Pools
Most of the hotel pools in town are indoor, which is useful in the dead of winter but not exactly what anyone pictures for a summer trip. They’re also shared with every other guest at the hotel, which on a busy weekend means a pool packed with kids from six other families and maybe a “pool hours” sign that shuts it down earlier than you’d like.
If you’re picturing lounging poolside on a warm evening with the group you’re actually traveling with, that’s a different kind of pool experience than most of Wichita Falls’ local hotels can offer.
What Pool Type To Choose For Your Trip
If you’re visiting in winter, a hotel with an indoor pool is your best choice. An outdoor pool, however, gives more space, open air, actual daylight for tanning, and usually a lot less crowded, especially if you rent a short-term rental (STR, also known as a vacation rental) that has a private pool.
One thing to plan for: if you’re not local to Texas, you might not be prepared for just how hot it is during the early afternoon. Around 2-4pm is the hottest part of the day. On a day where it’s 105 degrees and above, when you go outside during that time, the air feels like it can get sucked right out of your lungs! So definitely make sure to keep cool and stay inside during this time of day.
Our Pool
Our Texas Honey Spot Retreat (located in western Wichita Falls) has a 30,000 gallon outdoor pool with a slide, sun loungers, and free refreshments. It’s semi-private, meaning it’s shared with our guests only, not the general public and not other unrelated bookings at the same time.
We provide pool towels, a pool bag, and sunscreen. It’s not heated, so it’s weather dependent, but on a hot Texas evening that’s rarely a problem. Guests tend to spend a good chunk of the trip out there once the sun starts going down and the heat of the day breaks.
Kids And The Pool
If you’re staying at a hotel, your pool may or may not have a lifeguard. It probably also has some pretty strict rules in place. Your kids will be sharing the pool with other kids, and that germ fest is never fun!
At an STR, you’ll usually get a private or semi-private pool experience. That means none of the stress of watching for other families’ kids or sharing limited pool chairs. But, there are some safety considerations to look out for:
- STRs usually don’t have lifeguards on duty, so keep a close eye on your kids!
- The pool may not be fenced separately from the yard, so it’s important not to let your children outside unless you’re with them.
- If there’s a slide or diving board, you will need to make sure your children are practicing safety with those.
- Some STRs, like ours, have age limits in place for swimming. At our place, we don’t allow anyone under 18 without adult supervision.
Pool Maintenance
Many of the guests who stay with us aren’t used to having a pool. What most people don’t realize is that pool maintenance needs to be done weekly or more than weekly. A pool doesn’t stay blue by itself!
Our pool maintenance team comes during the week to brush the pool walls, vacuum the pool, calibrate the equipment, clean out the filter, clear the skimmer buckets and pool robot, and balance the chemicals.
It’s super important that nobody is in the pool during this maintenance. Especially when balancing chemicals, it takes a few hours for them to mix in and be evenly distributed throughout the pool. If you swim before this time, you run the risk of swimming into a high dose of pool chemicals, and you may end up with burns or worse!
We also have to close our pool for maintenance when we mow the grass, and we need to remove grass from the pool.
This is every pool, not just ours. Hotel pools will close down for maintenance too. No pool is immune to maintenance. If you’re staying at a short-term rental that has to close temporarily for pool maintenance, I would recommend not getting bummed out about it. It’s to make sure the pool is clean and safe for you to swim in.
What To Pack For Your Trip
If you’ve ever gotten to a place with a pool and realized that you left your swimsuits at home, you know how awful that is. So, first and foremost, pack your swimsuit! If you’ll be in an outdoor pool, pack sunscreen. You’ll want to reapply every 60-90 minutes (of course, follow the directions on your sunscreen specifically).
If you want in on a little Texas secret, you should also pack aloe gel. This stuff is magic for cooling your skin down after the pool, and it definitely helps relieve the pain from sunburns.
My family always packs water shoes. They help our feet deal with any rough spots in the pool, and it helps settle my worries as a mom when I think about all the gross stuff my kids could step in at a public pool.
Lastly, a change of dry clothes for the way back to the hotel room, and one pool towel per person, keeps your group from sitting around in wet swimsuits longer than necessary.
Planning A Trip At A Hotel or Vacation Rental With A Pool
If you want the whole pool to yourselves rather than sharing one with strangers, that’s really the core difference between a hotel pool and one at a short-term rental.
If you’re traveling to Wichita Falls and want the experience of an outdoor, private pool, shared only with your hosts, checkout our calendar. If we have open dates that line up with your trip and the seasonal opening of our pool, send us a request to stay. We’d love to have you.
Outside Pool Season
It’s best not to assume that the pool at the place you’re staying will be open, even in the summer. Make sure that you check beforehand what hours and months the pool will be open, and if there are any expected closures.
If you’re coming to Wichita Falls, you’re probably not planning a trip specifically around swimming, but if it is something you expect to spend time doing, make sure you do your research.
Alternatives For Hotel Pools During Your Wichita Falls Trip
Wichita Falls does have some fun places to swim or have a day in the water outside of a hotel or STR.
- Castaway Cove is in eastern Wichita Falls and is a classic kids waterpark. The operational hours are seasonal, so make sure you take a peek at their calendar before you book tickets online.
- The Downtown Wichita Falls YMCA has an older pool building, with open swim and lap swim hours, and water aerobics sessions. Check out their pool hours here.
- The Bill Bartley YMCA will soon be open and will feature a more classic natatorium with a small indoor water park and splash pad and a separate short-course 25yd x 25m lap pool.
- The Dr.’s Park Splash Pad is a public splash pad in Wichita Falls that is constantly buzzing with activity. You can even hold small gatherings or birthday parties in the pavilion.
Where Is The Best Pool & Lodging In Wichita Falls?
We’re pretty biased, but we think that the Texas Honey Spot Retreat is a great choice for smaller groups looking for a place to stay with a pool. The a semi-private pool is shared only among your own group, so there’s no need to stake out chairs early or work around anyone else’s schedule. If you’re interested in staying in Wichita Falls and want to have a great pool to chill out in during the hot afternoons, take a look at our calendar to see if your travel dates are open.