Coral Gables Athletic Club

I am giving the 1 star because at least there is parking availability.
Otherwise staff members are rude and the facility is very small. Little tiny gym and spinning classes room … The smallest I’ve seen in Miami so far!

I came on the Memorial Day weekend. I liked the ambiance of the pool and its members. BBQ during the summers. Honestly I was quite skeptical about the the reviews initially, however, I came again last Saturday and had a great time working out. The burgers are also great on the weekends.
I like the cozy feel of the gym. Staff are pleasant and hilarious, and trainers are insightful. The only bad I can honestly say is that I wish it was a bit larger, but I was told by a staff member the place will be redone very soon, and should have a state of the art appeal. Will work out and bring family and friends to the pool. Guest fees and day passes are reasonable for the high end feel. I love the feels of this place. Will recommend to any Coral Gables resident. The prices are well within the range of paying for exemplary service. Unfortunately Equinox, and The Biltmore Gym have failed my standards as well dissuade me from ever going again with ridiculous policies and terrible parking situation.
Coral Gables Athletic Club gets my vote of confidence.

PROs: Convenient.
— Great for Coral Gables residents who don’t want to deal with the parking fiasco for Equinox or go to the Biltmore with their grandparents
— Nice pool with lots of chairs — there is always space to sit, even on weekends
— Pool is very family– friendly
— Adjacent to the club is the café where you can order a quick lunch if you plan to be at the pool for the day
— The owners of this place also own Cibo Wine Bar so they have weekly Happy Hours for members
CONs: So many to list! Where to start?!?
— No one working the front desk knows about pricing. You can ask three different people and get three different pricing structures
— Rules constantly change: you get two, three– day passes for guests when you sign up, but currently members can ONLY use them for guest who are Florida residents. Six months ago I used my two for a friend from Wisconsin and another for my husband whose license is from Indiana
— Most people who work the front desk are super rude — it is hard to get a friendly salutation from anyone
— The staff also do nothing all day but wander around, pretending to gaze out at the golf course
— The gym gets cleaned once every THREE DAYS. There are no soap dispensers or towelettes for members to clean off machines after use so basically you are working out in a cesspool of others’ sweat
— They blast horrible electronic music on about a 60-​minute loop
— Weight machines are very basic
— Limited cardio equipment
BOTTOM LINE: The only reason I continue to go is because I have a full year paid. Come January, I will take my dollars elsewhere, as will my husband. Management would do themselves a favor by firing everyone and hiring a staff with basic business and marketing acumen. Coral Gables Athletic Club… convenient, inefficient and underwhelming.

I’ve been a member for almost a year and I must say that it is very sanitized and chlorinated. It has to have the unfriendliest atmosphere of any gym I’ve ever encountered — this is clearly an overpriced family gym for elitists who live in a cloistered and unsustainable environment.
Just recently I had placed my swim gear in a locker and the lock was broken by staff that claimed someone’s belongings were in the locker — no announcements were made in the gym. Some of the employees have been very kind but the one who broke the lock was slightly indignant and claimed that I had placed my items in someone else’s locker and it was my fault. I was only in the gym for perhaps 45 minutes — (the locker was unlocked when I stowed my gear and the items must have been at the top).
I left a note for the manager along with the broken lock and he has refused to replace the lock. It was a small pink lock and deserves some respect!

This place can be very nice but it has an identity crisis.
It’s a venue for private parties to rent out, like for weddings or even daytime sales meetings or whatever. And it’s also a gym that sells 6-​month or 12-​month memberships.
The issue is, you pay $ 150 a month for a 2-​person membership, but if anyone at anytime wants to rent the place, you will get shut out of the pool.
I went last Thursday at 2pm to go swimming and was told the pool was closed for a private event. Middle of the day, on a weekday. I went today, a Saturday at 4:15pm and was told the pool was closed for a private event. Really? The pool can be shut down at any time, as long as there’s someone willing to rent it. This might not be a big deal to you, and I’m pretty much just talking about the pool area.
If you wake the pool out of the equation, I would say it’s like 3 stars, totally an ok place. The people are nice enough, the equipment seems fine, the classes are ok.
It’s not a luxury spa, and that’s fine with me. If they wanted to be 5-​star, they would be
24-​hour or at least open until midnight every night, they would greet you by name, they would never shut the pool area for private functions, they’d put Speakman Anystream shower heads and revamp the spa aspect… put an outdoor jacuzzi, have a co-​ed sauna area, maybe a massage offering. Maybe have a kitchen and offer healthy cooking classes, or organize community stuff in the area, like a walking group that walks around the golf course mornings and evenings, I don’t know, something to bring people together in healthy activities. They could offer bicycle rentals, or «kayak the Gables waterways» trips. More Canyon Ranch. That’s what 5-​stars would look like, I think. That’s not what they’re going for though, and it’s fine. They’re going for «Neighborhood Gym» and that’s cool, but I wish the pool were always open.
Edit: I’ve found you can see some of the pool closure times here.
It’s not completely accurate but it’s something:
So, if you only want to swim very early in the morning, or you happen to pick a day that they haven’t rented the place out, it can be very nice. The pool is outdoors and it’s good enough (25 meters) for most anyone to either swim laps or just lounge.
It can be really nice.
I’m not sure if it’s better at the Biltmore or at Equinox gym, but I’m going to find out.
Someone told me that the Biltmore gym membership only lets you swim on weekdays, and someone else said that they let you swim whenever, but you just can’t use a pool chair unless no one else is using it, which seems odd. I’ll find out.
I would rather join somewhere that I know the schedule and I can go swimming on a regular basis, rather than just those days it’s not rented out or weekdays only or something.
CGAC need to better reconcile their two roles. Maybe they could have a policy of only renting it out during specific days or times, like weekends after 6pm or whatever. But the way it is now, they take money from monthly members then take money from private parties also, and the monthly members get shortchanged a little.

As a Gables resident I have to give it 5 stars since I can walk to it. No it’s not the biggest or most luxurious. However, the gym equipment is Cybex and user friendly, the classes are plenty and the teachers are awesome. I love the pool area and especially the food and drink service that starts from spring through the end of summer. The price for couples is good value and I like the friendly staff. I totally recommend this neighborhood gym to the over hyped Equinox or Biltmore.

Been here using the facilities at the Athletic Club for about a year now, and never had a problem. The staff has always been friendly towards the members, and the equipment is top notch. All the instructors are experts in their areas of fitness and their classes reflect the instructors quality. The staff is always on top of the latest trends in fitness, and are always catering to the members wants and needs.

This gym is terrible. Horrible customer service. They were incorrectly making charges on my credit card and when I called to clear it up they were very rude and denied it. After that I wanted to cancel my account, which they claim you can do when you sign up, and they refused. There is a reason this gym is so cheap.