Roman Gym & Coffee
Tân Thành, Ninh Bình
Facebook – note, it shares its page with its sister club with the same owner. Images here are from Roman Fitness & Yoga.
Opening Hours: 5:00 – 21:00, seven days a week.
Cost: 50k per day or 900k per month
Location
Roman Gym & Coffee is located around 1km northwest of the centre of Ninh Binh, around 2.5km away from the train station. Bear in mind though, many hotels and hostels offer bicycles (for free or otherwise), so it doesn’t have to take ages to walk there or cost a fortune.
* Also bear in mind that Ninh Binh doesn’t currently have Grab bikes, only cars. If you need somewhere more central its sister club Roman Fitness & Yoga is more central.
Facilities
The facilities at this stunning medium-large gym are top of the range, modern, attractive and clean. It’s set over floors 3 and 4 of the building, with a yoga studio on floor 2.
The third floor contains the cardio equipment and functional training equipment and some resistance machines, whilst floor 4 has predominantly free weights and disc-loadable resistance machines.
To look at, this beautiful gym leaves little to be desired. Its only fall-down for me was the lack of aircon, and the two coolers present on floor 4 did little to help. That said, standing directly in front of one to cool off was pretty refreshing! In terms of cooling the room it did little, perhaps as all doors and windows were open and perhaps as it wasn’t hugely powerful. Attending at 17:00 was not my smartest idea in the middle of August. However, the north of Vietnam enjoys cooler temperatures at other times, so it might not be a show-stopper depending on when you’re there.
When I used the gym a second time at 8am, it was a little more bearable, though still very hot.
Book Top-Selling Tours with Get Your Guide – Beat The Queues!
Weights
You’ll find most of the weights on floor 4, including dumbbells up to 35kg and disc-loadable resistance machines. These comprise an inclined leg press, chest press and lat pulldown.
There is also a preacher curl station, 4 bench press stations, pull up bars and cable crossovers. Along with these is a lat pulldown and tricep pulldown.
Want to work your legs? Good news, you’ll find a squat rack here too and there are more pull up bars on the same station.
Go down to the third floor and you’ll find standard resistance machines such as a pec deck, lat pull down, torso rotation machine and a few other standard upper and lower body machines.
Cardio
You’ll find the cardio equipment on floor 3 and beware, there was no air-conditioning on this floor when I went. There are windows on all sides though, but if you’re here in summer this might not be sufficient – it wasn’t for me. There is however a well-positioned overhead fan by the Spin bikes which made for a good cycle!
You’ll see four treadmills, four Spin bikes, two crosstrainers and one vibrating machine. Everything was in great condition and very modern looking, with the exception the crosstrainers. Probably just me, but I couldn’t work out how to turn on the display and therefore couldn’t adjust the resistance! The Spin bikes were easy to operate but the seat didn’t go up very high; the max height was too short for my 84cm / 33″ legs.
Affordable and Reliable Transportation Around Asia
Functional Training
You’ll find a generous amount of floor space and a strip of astroturf on each of the two gym floors at this lovely club.
Gym toys include a Swiss ball, plyo box, foam roller, battle-ropes and a boxing bag, as well as gloves and pads.
You’ll also find a range of kettlebells, BOSUs and some yoga mats around. The range of equipment here was reasonable, and having so much space to train was a treat. There’s also a long overhead bar where you’ll see looped resistance bands attached.
Studio
You’ll find an attractive medium-sized studio on the ground floor at Roman Gym & Coffee. It hosts around 37 classes per week, many of which are different types of yoga, given labels such as Ashtanga, Hatha, Gentle, Ball, Stretch, Core and Yoga for Back. You’ll also see a few Zumba and Aerobics classes for variety, as well as Hip Opening classes and other flexibility-related classes. When I went to use the gym late afternoon, the class was well-attended.
Summary
Roman Gym and Coffee has superb facilities in a quiet location a bit out of town. I’m not sure about the “coffee” part of the name – the staff told me they didn’t have any when I went, although I didn’t want any when I was there so I didn’t pursue this!
The club was fairly quiet both times I trained, which was good – I’d been expecting it to be busier at 17:00 on a weekday!
The downside for me here was the temperature as it was very uncomfortable in the August heat (high 30s outside), but otherwise this gym was excellent for the price and I’d happily train here regularly if it had been cooler.
Nice view from out on the balcony too!
Personally I much preferred Roman Fitness & Yoga, which has the same owner, I’m informed. The club was cooler, set out over one floor and more central. It’s the same price and opening times! See my full review here.
Enjoyed this?
Check out my Five Top Tips For Keeping Fit Around the World and
How to Look Ripped on Your Travel Adventure – For Free!
Need Travel Insurance?
Check out my feature on Travel Insurance for Adventurers!