Hotel Running: All Don't Hail Caesar!!!

This past weekend, along with 40 other fellows, I went to Atlantic City and Philadelphia in celebration of The Gull's bachelor party. Hitting all clubs specializing in the selling of liquor drinks, stripping and gambling, the group as a whole demonstrated little to no desire to engage in any sort of exercise-like activities besides throwing full cans of beer at one another and running to get pizza for certain ladies of the night. Nevertheless, I, the "runner devotee," did find time to hit the gyms of both Caesars Palace in AC and the Inn At Penn in Philadelphia. In the days leading up to any of my travails, I eagerly anticipate experiencing the environment of a new hotel's gym. While one can get a general sense of a hotel gym though a routine search of the interweb, nothing can fully describe the atmosphere of a gym like actually going to it. And so it was, dear readers, that I arrived in Atlantic City at the first of the 2 gyms I would go to that weekend.

I have gotten used to the fact that it has become commonplace to pay a fee for a hotel gym even when you are a guest of that hotel. While I don't like it, and think it slightly unfair, I have learned to accept that capitalism has invaded the once safe confines of the hotel gym. That being said, I cannot begin to describe the stupidity, absurdity and outrageousness-ity of the Caesars Palace gym. Upon arriving in the I'm-trying-to-look-awesome-but-because-it-is-Atlantic-City-I actually-look-tacky-and-ugly lobby of the gym, I was told that there was a $15 charge for the gym. Fine. No Problem. However, upon asking where the locker rooms were, I was then informed that, to use the locker rooms, I would need to pay an additional $50!! As my eyes bulged and my mouth dropped open, the stupid receptionist mistook my look of shock for one of excitement and asked if I wanted to pay for the locker room as well (note: the $50 does not even include the stupid gym, which would have been an additional $15, thus bringing the total to $65 if one wanted to use the gym and the locker room). I tried to control my rage, said 'of course not' and headed to the gym. Being a huge fan of Las Vegas, and loving the gym at the dopeness Bellagio Hotel & Casino, I figured the Atlantic City gyms would at least be somewhat on par with their counterparts in the Nevada desert. Boy was I wrong! The gym (it could better be described as a hotel room with a water cooler and a few exercise machines) was a small room with the treadmills on one side and a few lousy muscle machines on the other. Feeling that I had been ripped off by at least $13, I wanted pay back in a major way. After thinking about what I could do for 5 minutin, I decided to use running as a tool of retribution. With the knowledge that I have a tendency to rain sweat from my pores after only 10 minutin of a run, I switched treadmills after every 10 minutin of my workout, thus dirtying 4 treadmills in all and leaving a mess for stupid Caesars to clean up (I also helped myself to 8 bottles of water and 5 hand towels as well!).

With the memory of Atlantic City fading into my memory (through forced self-reflex), we headed to awesome Philadelphia and the Inn At Penn. While their hotel gym was literally a hotel room redesigned to house fitness equipment, not only was it free but it was also 24 hours! I would much prefer a decent 24-hour gym to a dopeness high-tech gym with a set closing time any day of the week.

All in all, the one bad gym cancelled out the one good gym, but because I missed my dopeness wife CVSW, 'twas a somewhat saddening weekend. In the course of writing this post, I came across an interesting article by the Athletic-Minded Traveler that lists the 10 best hotel gym in the United States. While I have not been to a single gym on this list, one thing is for certain, dear readers (CVSW, this also pertains to you!): I sure know where my next 10 vacations will be!!

Update, 2/9/09: I recently stayed at the Four Seasons Resort, Palm Beach and was happily surprised to discover that they had a 24-hour gym not unlike the Inn At Penn's (described above). Requiring only your key card, the gym had an ample number of treadmills, very new weight machines and all the cucumber water and lemon lime Gatorade you could ever want. While it may only be the Four Seasons, the hotel's gym gets 5 stars!

Update, 3/23/09: Offering three decent Precor treadmills, four exercise bikes and a fairly large selection of standard gym equipment, the New Orleans Windsor Court gym’s best feature is the free and endless supply of bottled water contained in an unsupervised refrigerator. Eventhough the gym’s posted operating hours are from 6:00am until 10:00pm, upon checking-in, I was told that hotel employee’s could open the gym for a guest should they desire to workout outside of those hours. While there was nothing particularly lacking at the gym, in the end it was, as Simon Cowell would say, “Completely forgettable”. At least I managed to accumulate 25 bottles of water over our 3-day vacation!!!

Update, 6/12/09: As much as it pains me to write this review, as a unbiased member of the blogosphere, write it I must. The One & Only Ocean Club resort's gym in the Bahamas was surprisingly sparce and without the normal accouterments one would expect to find in a high-end hotel's fitness center. With only 5 TechnoGym treadmills, a couple of ellipticals and exercise bikes and a few weight machines, the gym was mostly empty space. Opening at 6:00am and closing at 8:00pm, the gym offered no cold water or other energy drinks though there was a bottle of room temperature water on each of the cardio machines. The locker room was not attached to the gym but was in ts own structure adjacent to the fitness facility and only had lockers and a steam room. While the staff was friendly, they did not make up for the paucity of amenities I was hoping for when I arrived.

Have you had any particularly good or bad experiences at a hotel gym? Any feedback you provide would be much appreciated as it is my desire to compile an overall list of recommended and unrecommended hotel gyms across this great land of ours!