Meet you at the Village Hotel

Encountering new things on my own doorstep here in the North East is always fun to do and the Village Hotel in my hometown of Newcastle was a very pleasant discovery. Just just 15 minutes' drive from Newcastle city centre, next to the Cobalt business park, the hotel offers a stylish place to stay with an extensive spa and leisure club including a 25m swimming pool. There's also an Italian restaurant and a Starbucks Coffee Shop in the bright and bustling complex.
I was sampling the spa and leisure facilities; the gym and fitness studios have recently had a refurbishment and are pretty impressive.

State of the art gym facilities

The Village Spa is a cross between a salon and a spa and it offers a wide range of treatments which are all personalised and Jemma the manager was super friendly and welcoming. Luxurious ESPA products are used in all the treatments and they smell gorgeous! I had a lovely relaxing massage and express facial from Sarah and a rather nice head massage too.

Ready to feel fantastic?

There are lots of options to choose from to pamper yourself, and the treatments are all very professional and reasonable priced.
In the leisure part of the hotel there are lots of different classes on the timetable from Zumba Gold to Line Dancing to Spinning and virtual Sh'bam, (a fun dance workout.)
The facilities here are pretty high tech and there are even huge screens which can allow you to follow a video link to an instructor from elsewhere delivering the most up to date of fitness routines. It's the first time I'd seen virtual classes advertised and I was intrigued, I confess. The newly refitted spinning studio (static bikes for the uninitiated) was like something out of star wars with a huge screen at the front of the room and all the bikes facing it - for more virtual instruction I imagine. the room was pretty dark with a dazzling array of computer wizardry allowing the lighting to change in the ceiling to different colours and patterns. The environment helps people to focus on their exercise and let the instructor use the best music and tempo.to motivate the class. I think its called an Immersive Fitness Studio.

Coffee anyone?

The high energy stuff is great fun there's no doubt, and a huge name in fitness is Les Mills whose global exercise routines most gyms offer now, and the Village is right there with all the latest releases available. Les Mills, for information, while sounding like a Geordie builder, was actually a New Zealand track and field Olympic athlete and politician. He opened his first gym in 1968 and gave his name to the company Les Mills International founded by his son Phillip. From the shot put to virtual Sh'bam!

Sh'bam thank you mam

I tried the Apex Activ class which was a kind of circuits toning class with different types of equipment. It's always more fun when you do things as a group rather than suffering the loneliness of the long distance treadmill runner, I think. This class was about strengthening and toning rather than cardio. Doing exercise for strength becomes increasingly important as you get older and if you do it correctly results can come quite quickly. Julie Bisset, the leisure manager took my little group through its paces before she shot off to teach an aqua fit class in the pool.
The pool is much larger than many gyms have,which is great for a proper swim, and there's a good steam room sauna and jacuzzi. There's a 'sun shower' too, which does look a bit like a purple time travel pod, but a bit of additional  UV light is sometimes necessary in these Northern parts.

A quiet moment at the pool

Folks at the Village Hotel are super friendly, everyone just chats to you, which I really liked and there's a kind of happy busy bustle about the place. Everything is very professional and up to date and I would love to be able to go back and try more treatments and classes and maybe even have a bit of a staycation!
If you were coming from further afield the delights of the city of Newcastle and the stunning North East coast are literally a stone's throw away and the hotel would make a great base for exploring the area.
Check out the Village Hotel Newcastle website for offers and deals and hopefully I'll be back again myself soon!

Come on over the Tyne Bridge!