Advantages: Opens early, closes late. Lots of facilities and services Disadvantages: Too many noisy children, expensive
Esporta Croydon, also known as The Surrey Health and Rackets club, is part of a huge UK chain, owned by venture capitalist Simon Halabi. It was primarily a rackets club and has been responsible for helping train some of the up and coming Tennis stars of tomorrow.
Esporta is situated in a purpose built warehouse on a large industrial estate not far from Waddon mainline station and houses a spacious gymnasium, also known as the "Fitness Arena", a large family pool and an even larger olympic sized pool. There are numerous Tennis courts and several Squash courts. It is a club which encourages families, so may not suit those in search of halcyon days.
Having parked in the spacious car park you will come through the double doors into the reception area, where you will be greeted by the welcoming reception staff, who will actually greet ...
Advantages: Luxurious gym, friendly staff, great equipment Disadvantages: A bit more expensive than other gyms and exercise still hurts
"Esporta Health and Fitness Club" has been rapidly expanding recently into various new sites around the country and although the Oxford site is not new, it is new to me as only joined recently and so far I cannot recommend it highly enough. In brief, Esporta provides much more pleasant experience than all other gym's I've attended.
Location
The Oxford Esporta is on Banbury Road, one of the major trunk roads going from the roundabout of the A34 (which links to M40) into the centre of this beautiful historic city. Esporta is 2 miles from the centre of Oxford in the leafy suburbs of the expensive North Oxford area. The entrance is not particularly obviously, as the centre is located behind St Edwards School playing fields, but if you look out to the left when going out of Oxford the blue sign should be obvious enough. If you get ...
Advantages: Great equipment, good range of classes Disadvantages: Expensive, impersonal, membership administration
I joined Esporta because I wanted a gym that would let me use its clubs all over the country, as I was doing a lot of travelling at the time. So Esportas Freeway membership seemed like a good idea. They have clubs all over the country which you can use at no extra cost and they're in nearly every big city. Gloucester was my 'home' club.
The gym is spacious and the equipment is all top-of-the-range. They seem to have just about everything, steppers, runners, x-country, rowers, cyclers and all the weights machines too. There's also cardio theatre so you can workout whilst watching the tv and listening on headphones. They have about 6 different channels such as MTV, Sky One, Sky News, Sky Sports, ITV, BBC1. Very good if you like to watch Eastenders and get a workout. You can also get a programme set up for you by the staff that means ...
