Holiday Fit Gili Air – Centre 1
Jl Kartini, Gili Air
Opening Hours: 7:00 – 22:00 7 days a week
Cost: 50k per day, or 100k for 3 days (in a row), or 150k for a week
Location
Holiday Fit Gili Air Centre 1 is correctly located on Google maps at the time of writing. You’ll find it in the northeast of the island, easily visible, and even signposted from other points in the island.
Facilities
Firstly and foremost, this is THE best gym I have found on the island. At present I can only find two gyms on Gili Air – this one and its sister gym, called Holiday Fit Gili Air Centre 2. If you’re keen enough to work out when on holiday, then regardless of convenience or proximity to your accommodation – I strongly recommend you go the extra mile (actually it’s only 1km) and come here. The other centre is only a fraction of the size, has much older equipment, less of it and when I went, was hot and stuffy. So this is the place to train. And, it’s the same price!
Now that I’ve said that, don’t go expecting this to be Fitness First. Gili Air is roughly 1.5km square and you didn’t come here for its Olympic facilities. The club is small to medium sized and is a comfortable temperature as it’s air-conditioned, but equipment is not especially modern. It all works and the gym is tidy and looks well maintained, but some of the resistance machines do look like they belong to a previous generation. All in all though, considering the size of the island, the facilities are very reasonable, as is the price. It’s also well laid out with plenty of space between equipment.
Staff were also friendly and welcoming. When I attended around midday on a weekday I was (unsurprisingly) the only person training. Midday is not a popular time to train in tropical heat, though perhaps it should be, given the aircon.
Weights
You’ll find a full rack of free-weight dumbbells here. They were the ones composed of small discs so I’m not entirely sure what they went up to, but I’d guess approx. 30kg.
For the upper body you’ll find a cable crossover station, a couple of sets of pull-up bars, a lat pulldown and two tricep pulldown stations. You’ll also see a preacher curl station here. Note that the pull up bars take the form of either a simple horizontal bar, or you can use proper shaped pull-up bars, but they are pretty wide set if you’re not naturally broad.
For the lower body, there’s a Smith machine and a plate-loadable inclined leg press.
Resistance equipment includes a combined leg extension and leg curl, along with a pec dec / flies machine. There’s also rotary abs equipment here.
Cardio
You’ll find two Spin bikes, two treadmills and two ellipticals here. Like the rest of the equipment, it wasn’t top of the range but it was in good condition. The Spin bikes looked especially appealing.
Functional Equipment
Gym toys here include a Swiss ball, skipping rope and 8kg and 10kg kettlebells. You’ll also see an abs roller here.
Although there is no allocated floor space, the gym is spacious, allowing you to create your own.
You’ll find an inclined abs bench so you can tone up those abs – you can adjust the height on the ladder it’s propped up on.
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Summary
Holiday Fit Gili Air Centre 1 is currently the best gym on Gili Air and WAY better than Centre 2. If you’re keen enough to use a gym on your travels then make sure you get to this one. The temperature is comfortable, staff are friendly and it’s walkable form wherever you might be staying on the island. Have realistic expectations though – the facilities are not quite on par with most Western gym standards but there’s plenty here for most people to have a good workout, regardless of whether you’re into cardio, weights or functional training.
Gyms in the Gili Islands
Gili Tropica Gym was the best gym on the Gilis that I found, and I expect it is the best gym available on the Gili Islands. The other major gym on Gili Trawangan was closed for the forseeable future, having a revamp when I enquired. For the other gym on Gili Air, see:
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