The aim of this study is to examine the association between factors hindering the participation of university students in recreational activities and their leisure motivations. The students (800) of the Erciyes University in 2014-2015 academic year became involved voluntarily in the research. The volunteers participating in the research filled the socio-demographic information form including their personal information; then, "Leisure Barriers Scale" and "Leisure Motivation Scale" were applied to them. The package statistics program of IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) 20 was employed in analyzing the data. The arithmetic mean and standard deviation of scores the university students got from the scales of Leisure Barriers and Leisure Motivation were presented as X±SS. In order to disclose the relationship between the data obtained from two scales, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Analysis was applied. The significance level was accepted as p<0.05. In conclusion, it was found that the leisure motivations and the participation in recreational activities of students are at middle level. It was detected that there is a positive significant correlation among the subdimensions of leisure motivations and barriers. University students should benefit from recreational activities during the time left from their studies and from the time spent for vital needs, in order to solve material and moral problems, socialize, enhance and share cultural and knowledge accumulation, and be healthy physically, spiritually, and mentally. Thereby, students would achieve success more easily in socio-cultural and professional life. For this reason, universities should arrange the recreational areas such as cultural, artistic, sportive ones, and multiply the recreational activities in line with students' needs.