About
The Grand Traverse Bay YMCA (West) Program Center, located at 3700 Silver Lake Rd in Traverse City, MI, is a comprehensive community and fitness facility. It features a premier fitness center, a full-size gymnasium, an indoor track, and three distinct pools. The center offers a wide variety of group exercise classes and provides family-friendly amenities including the West Side Kids Zone, Child Watch, and School Age Child Care programs.
The Grand Traverse Bay YMCA (West) has three pools: the Lap Pool is maintained at a comfortable 80°F, the Program Pool is kept at a warm 88°F for aquatic classes and open swim, and the Whirlpool offers a relaxing 102°F.
What are people saying (AI review summary)? The Grand Traverse Bay YMCA receives mixed reviews, often praising its large, clean, and well-equipped facility. Positives frequently mentioned include a spacious, clean pool with numerous lap lanes, a wide variety of cardio and weight equipment (including Life Fitness with tracking capabilities), and a good selection of classes. Many visitors, especially those from out of town, are impressed by its new appearance, overall cleanliness, and the friendly, helpful staff. Additional amenities such as tennis courts, basketball courts, and a sauna are also appreciated. However, significant negative feedback centers on severe overcrowding, particularly in the afternoons (2-6 PM), when it's frequently described as a 'glorified daycare' due to a large influx of local children, leading to disruptive behavior, harassment, and an inability to use facilities. Overcrowding is also noted in the early mornings. Other criticisms include perceived inadequate staff response to issues with children, a manager's unprofessional conduct, poor communication regarding holiday hours, annual price increases, and minor complaints about locker room floor cleanliness and shower stall design. The therapy pool is also noted as being small.
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Reviews
Listing Reviews
June 7th, 2025Rebecca Schrand
I am from out of town, and this is the best Y I a have attended. It is large and seemingly brand new. The pool is large and crisp and clean and empty, and there were plenty of lap lanes, which I didn’t have to sign up for. There was frequently a friendly staff member to help. The bathroom had someone squeegeeing the floor like twice, unheard of where I come from. Locker room and showers were huge and sparkly. Everything was clean. The ankle weights were plentiful and sorted by weight. There were lots and lots of crispy new resistance bands. I want to move here for the Y!! All it needs is an outdoor pool!
May 9th, 2022Bill Cleveland
Grand Traverse Bay YMCA West on Silver Lake road is a great place for a workout. I stopped from out of town a couple times to grab a swim. Nice 8-lane pool with plenty of room. Locker room floors could be cleaner and I’m not a big fan of the shower stalls with doors. Staff extremely friendly and helpful with checking in.
October 25th, 2020Bren
This is a great facility! Staff is friendly, compliance with CDC recommendations, and great equipment. They also have classes for every fitness related activity you can think of. My partner and I typically work cardio and then weights upstairs. We want to use the pool here soon, but haven't got around to it yet. I've included some exterior photos but will include some interior photos on a later date. The cardio equipment is manufactured by "life fitness". When you're done with your workout on these, you can scan a QR code on the life fitness app, and track your workouts. I find this is a fun way to keep track of your progress through time. All the cardio equipment faces the 8 or so TVs on the East wall and you can tune into each TV if you have the YMCA app. Otherwise, when we have been there, the overhead music has been 90s and early 00s alternative or 90s mainstream. The gym also includes tennis courts, and basketball courts. There are for sure more things to do, but I haven't had time to explore every area yet.
May 11th, 2024Levi H
I’ve gone to this gym for 2 years now. Before I give the glaring cons: The facility itself is great. There is a variety of free weights and equipment. Room to run and tons of treadmills. Equipment is relatively clean. Basketball courts and tennis courts are all available. They have a sauna. Why makes this gym so terrible is that it’s really a glorified daycare center after 2 and the staff spend more time policing adults than they do the children. Local kids come over after school and make the gym terribly overcrowded. The basketball courts/fitness center are pretty much useless between 2-6, which is when most people want to use the gym.There’s too many kids running around acting rude and with regard for none of the other gym-goers. I’ve personally been harassed 3 times by kids just picking fights and when I called the staff to discuss no one picked up, and no one called back on all 3 occasions. Want to go early in the morning before work to avoid this nonsense? So does everyone else! Making the fitness center still overcrowded and still impossible to get a workout without taking twice as long as it should. One time I was walking out of the basketball court with a ball that I brought. I accidentally dropped it in the hallway and the manager of the gym yelled (I’m not exaggerating, he physically yelled) at me before realizing I was an adult. He started to apologize, but opted to quickly just run into his nearby office and avoid the whole thing. If hours are different for a holiday they don’t send out notifications and just expect you to know. I’ve come into town just for the gym on weekends before only to find that they chose to close down early for the day. I’ve asked the staff about this before and they just grinned and said “hey I don’t make the schedule”. And on top of all this they’ve raised the prices every year that I’ve been there. Literally in 2 years the price has been raised at the end of each year. Really don’t recommend this gym. They’re taking advantage of the fact that they’re a larger gym than most of the local fitness centers. Just go to planet fitness. Or anywhere else.
December 20th, 2023Rick Renshaw
Joined because of the pool, had shoulder replacement surgery, B4 I share my frustrations let just say the facility is gr8 and clean considering the ton of people who use it, so far staff is friendly and helpful. The therapy pool is a kiddy pool and the entire facility is a giant daycare. The hours suck and it the most crowded gym I've ever experienced. Majorly over priced for the frustration. Then they robbed us with a 30 day notification and ruined our Christmas
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Opening Hours
| Sunday | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
|---|---|
| Monday | 5:30 AM – 9:00 PM |
| Tuesday | 5:30 AM – 9:00 PM |
| Wednesday | 5:30 AM – 9:00 PM |
| Thursday | 5:30 AM – 9:00 PM |
| Friday | 5:30 AM – 9:00 PM |
| Saturday | 6:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
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