Esporta Health & Racquets Club

The oxfordshire has great parking, and has a lovely Tranquility area which provides a relaxing beauty treatments, and has a great hairdressers, which members and non members can use.  The hairdressers are great with children so you should give them a try, and their price a very reasonable

Nothing much to write home about to be honest!  Yes, it's classy in terms of how it appears on the outside but when you get inside, it's not that exciting!  The gym equipment (at least in Oxford) I found uncomfortable (and I DO go to a gym currently [and regularly]) but it just doesn't inspire me personally.  There is a sauna/steam and jacuzzi which are all nice but nothing special - the jacuzzi especially nice as I don't have one where I am at the moment (I'm doing a weeks' free trial at Esporta this week!).  Esporta also have an outdoor pool (as well as indoor - forgot to say that!) which is nice but in the UK, how often is it hot enough to use!?

The staff seem friendly enough but I suspect they are being especially nice to me because they want me to join but I don't think that will happen!  You have to negotiate a billion road humps on the drive (it's in the grounds of St Edward's School) which is annoying (the humps I mean!).

If you can afford it, you might consider it - I can afford it but would resent paying the amount they're asking for 12 months for what I consider to be no better facilities than I have at the moment, albeit only one indoor pool, no jacuzzi where I am now!!  Where I am at the moment has a lovely 'family' atmosphere and better equipment as far as I'm concerned - it also offers classes at better times for me - at Esporta, the earliest during the working week is at 5:45pm which is too late for me!!

Set in North Oxford (with excellent parking!), Esporta Health Club offers up to 60 classes a week and has a great gym with top class equipment and expert instructors. It also has indoor squash, badminton and tennis courts, as well as outdoor tennis courts for the summer months. Our Oxford team rate this as one of their favourite places to keep fit.

First impressions of the club facilities are reasonable but not good enough to justify a significant price premium over competitors.

Management were in my experience poor at resolving queries and repeatedly failed to respond to requests for information and call-back.

Induction was not provided; outside pool was unusable due to water temperature; Lockers in changing rooms were broken (broken into??); water temperature in shower variable at best.

A quick search online reveals serious problems with membership and unfair contract terms to the degree that the OFT was involved, with the company very quick to involve credit collection.

Although perhaps not up to their high standards in their clubs across the rest of the country, Esporta in Oxford charges premium prices for what it claims are premium services. The gym, swimming pool, sauna and steam room are all adequate, though fairly typical of similar facilities elsewhere. If you’re a member or live nearby, it’s an ideal solution for your fitness needs, assuming you can afford their memberships!

I love this place, there are two studios for classes which are well run and plenty to choose from. The gym instructors are friendly and will create programmes to suit you not just a generic one like some gyms and the showers are lovely!! I love being able to relax with a costa coffee afterwards and the cheese on toast was a hit with my son. My daughter loved the pool and the chance to pamper herself in the changing rooms - i.e. use a hairdryer! lol

This branch of the Esporta chains is unusual in that it is built in the grounds of an independent school (St Edwards), whose pupils and staff also use the facilities. That was probably the only way of finding a suitable site in north Oxford, and on the whole it works well. The facilities are OK: indoor and outdoor pools, sauna and steam room, two large studios, and a decent sized gym. It also has a beauty spa and a creche. There are some things that are not ideal. The pools are not the largest in the Esporta chain. The spin studio is small and very stuffy. The food in the cafe is terrible, and anyway the kitchen never seems to be open at times when anyone would actually want to eat! But the staff are friendly and seem to know what they are doing, there is a reasonable range of classes and generally a good atmosphere.