Hotels with the best gym/fitness centre

[defurax]

Like many other AFFers, I typically spend between 45 to 90 nights per year in hotels around the globe and one thing I find VERY annoying is that almost every hotel will say on their website that they have a "Fitness centre" or gym and the reality is sometimes in stark contrast with that claim. For example, the Fitness room at the Pullman Paris Montparnasse is a room of 3 by 3 metres with two treadmills and two 10 pounds free weights.

I thought it would be fun to have a resource thread to name the hotels in big cities internationally, and also smaller cities here in Oz, that have the nicest gym. Sometimes I don't know which hotel to pick in a given city and this would be a nice tool to help in selecting hotels.

I'll start with a few international destinations:

Stockholm: Hilton Slussen (a real commercial gym with everything)
Washington DC: Fairmont
Seattle/Bellevue: Hyatt Regency Bellevue

In Australia:
Port Douglas: Sheraton (very old facility and falling apart, but still has everything)

 

[bismarck]

A great suggestion.

In Australia:

Grand Hyatt Melbourne - a large, full commercial gym
Intercontinental Melbourne - good size gym, wide range of equipment. Nice pool (but not very long)
Park Hyatt Canberra - good sized gym with a wide range of equipment
Intercontinental Adelaide - average gym, functional but not especially wide variety of equipment
Grand Chancellor Hobart - pretty rubbish gym, limited and old equipment

 

[TonyHancock]

A very good idea for a thread. I must admit that these days I look for a decent gym when selecting a hotel - I cycle on average 25k's per day. :shock:

These hotels have been very good.

Hilton Hongqiao (Shanghai)
Intercontinental Chengdu Global Centre (Chengdu)
Hilton South Wharf (Melbourne)
Hilton Bromsgrove (UK)
Hilton NEC Birmingham (UK)
Hilton Warwick (UK)
Hilton LHR T4 (UK)
Hilton Wembley (UK)
Hilton St Georges Park (UK) (...is also the England FA's main training centre)
W Barcelona (Spain)
Novotel Busan (South Korea)
Hilton Grand Seoul (South Korea)
Hilton Slussen Stockholm (Sweden) +1 (Excellent - once I found it!!!!!)
Hilton JFK (USA)
Hilton Waikiki Beach (USA)
Crowne Plaza Singapore Airport
Crowne Plaza Phoenix Airport

The Hiltons in the UK tend to be setup as a Gym for non guests so have a decent equipment selection and are a decent size.

 

[Daver6]

Hilton Sydney gives access to a proper commercial gym downstairs.

Crown Metropol Melbourne has a pretty decent gym too.

 

[TonyHancock]

One of my biggest complaints is opening times. I try to find 24 hour gyms when possible. I'll quite often find myself wide awake at 4:30 AM on an overseas trip. :shock:

 

[defurax]

One of my biggest complaints is opening times. I try to find 24 hour gyms when possible. I'll quite often find myself wide awake at 4:30 AM on an overseas trip. :shock:

I find 24 hour gyms are still more frequent in the US, but for some reasons many hotels are now closing the gym from 10PM to 6AM. Maybe the staff is afraid of finding a dead body on the treadmill in the morning!

 

[TonyHancock]

Hilton Brisbane is pretty good too!

 

[earlyriser]

Palmer House Hilton in Chicago is the best I have been to in recent memory. Free weights, plenty of machines, smith machine, bench with a BB and a ridiculous number of cardio machines.

 

[andye]

CVK Park Bosphorus in Istanbul is the best hotel gym I've been to. Seemed to be open to general public and a bit of a hike from my room. Everything you could want and on a grand scale

HI on Flinders Melbourne-cramped fitness room but good rowing machine

IC Park Lane-lots of treadmills and bikes

Crowne Plaza Glasgow -small commercial gym. Board suggesting running routes too

Royal Horseguards London-spacious but ordinary equipment

Vibe Darwin-standard fitness room overlooking the small pool with ok treadmill/bike

Rooseveldt Hollywood-small but reasonable fitness room

 

[Cynicor]

Conrad BKK is decent, quite large, full free weights.

Hulhule airport hotel Male is oddly good too.

Conrad IST was good.

Always thought about making this thread but never did. Thanks!

 

[defurax]

I just remembered these:
Sri Lanka
Colombo: Hilton Colombo (gym and pool are accross the street, but accessible via overpass)

Saudi Arabia
Riyadh: Ritz Carlton (the pool is magnificent, but for men only)

Australia
Sydney: Sofitel Wentworth (commercial gym in basement)

 

[Jonno Oon]

My dream thread! Massive fitness junkie here.

Seems like the Hiltons tend to have a good gym set up across Aus.

Would anybody have any recommendations as to which Sydney hotels have the best gym? (90% of my travel will be to SYD)

I've tried the Intercontinental Sydney's before and it was not bad.
Shangri-La had an excellent gym.

Will be looking to compare Intercontinental, Hilton, Accors (Sofitel, Pullman) and SPG's (4 points, westin, sheraton)

 

[defurax]

So the Qantas Travel Insider had a go at finding good hotel gym/fitness centre in Australia...but these are not in cheap hotels...:shock:
The Best Hotel Gyms in Australia | Qantas Travel Insider

 

[defurax]

So I'll add to the list the Novotel Century Hong Kong in Wan Chai. I wasn't expecting much since it's not an expensive hotel, but the gym has lots of free weights, dumbbells and machines. There is also an outdoor pool long enough to do some laps.

 

[Isochronous]

Kerry Hotel in Beijing is pretty good. The Kerry Sports Centre appears to be open for external membership - it is a 3 floor facility with plenty of machines and free weights, separate rooms for privacy/group exercises, PT service available. great 25m indoor heated lap pool, Jacuzzi with steam room and sauna in the changing rooms - and most importantly for me - it even has an indoor tennis court!

 

[Shano]

Somewhere I frequent...... Rooty Hill NOVOTEL gives free access to the one55 gym at the RSL complex as well as access to the SGAC. Perfect setup to offset staying in the western suburbs.....

 

[vetrade]

This may be considered a little off topic but I have made use of a monthly pass at Golds Gyms in the USA which I arranged online beforehand. There are plenty of Golds Gyms all over the US and most are huge by our standards and have all the equipment you could wish for plus some. The pass I got cost about $US30 and allowed me entry to any of their gyms in the USA. Great value!

 

[R36snowbound]

The Langham in Melbourne and the Shangri-la in Bangkok have decent gyms.
The gym in the Langham Auckland is terrible but the Novotel Auckland airport has a decent gym. Nothing like having a good workout before getting on a long flight.

 

[jb747]

Marriott Marquis in Dubai is the best one I've ever used.

 

[earlyriser]

This may be considered a little off topic but I have made use of a monthly pass at Golds Gyms in the USA which I arranged online beforehand. There are plenty of Golds Gyms all over the US and most are huge by our standards and have all the equipment you could wish for plus some. The pass I got cost about $US30 and allowed me entry to any of their gyms in the USA. Great value!

That is a pretty awesome deal, thanks for sharing. Did you find you had to go out of your way to find a location at times? In my experience there are more locations of other chains such as 24 hour fitness and LA fitness.

EDIT: A little googling tells me that there is more Golds than 24 Hour Fitness.