I'm 64 and the past several years have been very stressful. While "exercise and eat right" are mantras in public health, it's hard to do when one has chronic pain and stress. I found Harbor last October. The warm pool has helped me exercise without the pain of other workouts. I've lost 30 pounds in 9 months and I have made friends with some true "early birds" who make my time there even more enjoyable. The staff and patrons are truly an exception to my experiences with other gyms. I feel welcomed, not judged, and so happy with my personal progress. Thank you HAC. read more

I Love Harbor! It has a huge variety of workout options and I can play basketball, lift weights, and swim every time I go there! Tony read more

As a dues paying member that doesn't frequent this place nearly enough to properly justify the annual costs I perhaps shouldn't write pro or cons about the facility. Most of it, the areas I've actually spent time at have been completely fine and have never been thought to be lacking. But this afternoon I happen to be accompanying my disabled adult daughter, at her futile swimming 'lessons' I'm aghast at the condition of the "women's" swimming pool area. The pool has a sign indicating it's women's but since it has a men's locker room adjoined to it and I saw an elderly male with a woman I presume to be his wife, I'm unsure. The pool itself is not too alarming, nor is the whirlpool along the edge of the room. Though as I am again looking around, all the chrome railing step rails are stained with white calcium deposits, visible surface rust. Clearly presenting that it's been at least weeks, if not months since they've actually been properly cleaned as daily maintenance schedules should in fact be including. Dried calcium splotches on at least the window to my immediate left, viewing into the weight room are further evidence of poor efforts at cleanliness. But the ceiling above has water damage and areas that appear to have been painted with a non matching white KILZ rattle can to conceal rust/mildew. It's additionally certainly a clue that would prove to be breeding patches of mold and mildew. Numerous rust stained blotches are evident. I've stayed in rundown motels with similar facilities that clearly don't have revenue to address this issue. Low budget clientele, ancient facilities, and an excusable lack of staff to upkeep their diminishing investment. Those conditions are to be accepted as a given, after all, if you are frugal or on a low budget, you aren't finicky about such things. But this place charges a premium relative to the area and it's typically well off residents. People with any number of options if they want to belong to such a place. This isn't a posh country club, there's one a mile away that's packed with affluent snobby people who wouldn't allow their papered pedigree pooch to urinate within the boundaries of this or many other sub Rodeo Drive aspiring "Look at me" poseur clubs. When I was a kid, I had a friend who had a mother who dragged us to the country club she made her family belong to. I didn't know what it was about. But the pool was nice and when she brought us into the white linen table cloth dining room I saw things my family wasn't accustomed to and wasn't impressed. His mother was such a snob she eventually told me I couldn't come to lunch after a few apparently disturbing requests for just a PB and J or macaroni and cheese that didn't taste like sour socks. As a grown up with more refined tastes, I only enjoyed a country club a friend of mine took me to for drinks because he was a member and his family was high stature enough that his drunken fun banter was allowed and the booze was pretty good. As were the appetizers. Otherwise I don't think I'm missing anything. This perhaps isn't a review. I think half my writings are more about observations and less about some proper review. I enjoy the elite status in the title. And as I approach the 5th year as being one, I was recently made aware of being nominated but not assured of the continuing raised status the word implies. Seeing as how I didn't apply to begin with, I was admitted or somehow at some point I was made aware of the title. I kinda like it. Hopefully this writing will endear me enough that I'm not stripped of its illusion, er prestige. read more

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My favorite gym to exercise at when I am home from the summer! Super friendly staff and members. It is 100% a family facility that makes everyone feel welcome and comfortable. I would recommend Harbor to anyone! read more

We love this gym. The staff is super nice. Everyone is friendly and very helpful. The workout rooms are a nice size and they offer lots of different classes at different times. Love the Barre and Body Pump options. We've been very happy with our membership. There are rags and spray bottles handy throughout the gym which is important to us. This gym is clean. We constantly see staff cleaning and vacuuming. Thank you to the nice staff. read more

This place changed and I stoped my membership in 2017. After seeing a kid shit in the pool and the owner came and scooped it out with a net and did not close the pool down to treat the pool ( anyone can have Hep C y'all) no thanks . Also they seem to want to sell to everyone families singles people etc . As someone who likes to swim the pool was a real pain they allowed kids to throw balls which kids tried to force kids adults out of the pool as they had no parents with them . They need more staff here in general and with COVID times I would need to see how they are cleaning . I used to run my own cleaning company and I saw a young kid running around with the same rag using it with the same bucket of water . When I quit one of the managers asked me why I was quitting and I said because of cleanliness and they oversell memberships . She proceeded to argue with me . I highly recommend the meditation classes as here you can take them as a non member Jodi is great . read more

Harbor Athletic Club has been a wonderful place for our family for several years now. The staff in general are great but there will always be a special place in our hearts for all those who run the kids programming. Within a week or two, they knew our kids names and welcomed them as they came in the door. Highly recommended! The space got a major remodel in 2020. read more

I've been working out here for years and keep coming back for several reasons: it's always clean, any broken equipment is fixed quickly and the staff is extremely attentive. And the childcare is da bomb. read more

I have enough going to Harbor for many years,Rehabing my knee and back. The building is very well maintained.The pools are in excellent condition. All of the employees are friendly,knowledgeable and welcoming. read more

They have tons of great amenities: 4 different pools (1 outdoor), lots of great classes, a basketball court, tons of workout equipment, a childcare section (so you can workout), racquetball, etc. Our family has been happy members for about 2 years now. No problems at all. The club is run very well. read more

Ive been going to this gym since I was 12 years old. The staff does a good job at keeping the equipment clean.

Harbor is a great place for my daughter's swimming training , especially during winter when there is snow and the other swimming pools are closed. It has couples of pool and fits people's needs. I like the warm pool the best! read more

I am here 24/7 with my family and friends. In the morning I work out with my dad. Also after school, me and my family sometimes goes swimming. I also met lots of great people here by just working out and playing basketball. In general, I would definitely recommend going here read more

Quality gym all around. More than basic needs and lots of options for classes.

Well maintaned and clean club. All the pools are great and enough room to spread out. Great place for kids to get some exercise.

Has pretty much everything you could want out of a gym. Free weights are downstairs, cardio and weight machines are upstairs. They have four pools (sports, lap, warm water, and outdoor), and 3 hot tubs. They also have two basketball courts, racquetball, and a running track. There's even a second building with more stuff, but I haven't been in there yet. My favorite part is honestly the warm water pool. If you get there after the kids clear out it's nice and peaceful. They are currently undergoing maintenance on parts of the main building, which disrupts some ability to use the facility. I'll update the review and add more detail once that is finished. read more

Clean. Large. Friendly. Machines work. Wide range people & abilities. Safe. Value. Inspires. Reasonable. Open. Maintained. Helpful.

75 min Hot Yin yoga, which was the BEST ever, as well as some other great hot classes are gone. The gym is old, with old rusted machines and weights, and people still spraying the machines directly and not drying.... letting it rust, making them difficult to lift smoothly. Very expensive for what you get here. It's really gone downhill. The remodel is a waste of space, and the TV is always blaring. If I didn't live next door, I'd go elsewhere. read more

This club is run by a decent unpretentious staff. I have been a member since sometime in the mid-1980s. They have more equipment and a diversity of activities and classes than other clubs I have seen in the area. The saltwater pool is great. I just wish it was 50 yards long instead of 25 yards. The monthly cost is very reasonable. The staff and members are friendly and non-intrusive. The club does get crowded from 6:00 to 8:AM and again from 4:30 to 6:00 PM. The crowd is not overwhelming. I should add that I have not been to the club since the pandemic hit Wisconsin in March. This is a personal decision. read more

I have been with Harbor Athletic Club for a year. I am really not happy about the club. I left my jade Chinese face scraper in the sauna room. I called right after I got back home and they found it. I was told to pick it up from the front desk. I got there after two days and no one can find it. It literally disappeared from their front desk. They changed the policy for having one lap lane open with the master swim classes. I was speaking to Melissa (she told me that she is the owner of the club), she told me that all the schedule won't be changed. If the schedule does not work for me, I can go somewhere else. I was shocked to hear that. This is the worst customer experience. All I am doing at the club is swimming. I went ahead and moved myself to Princeton the same day. The place is dirty and is always in construction. read more

If Harbor Club works for you, I'm certain it absolutely works for you. But the potential deal breakers are worth knowing about. Such as... 1 - Uses multi-year membership plans, which you can't get out of. So, if you stop wanting to go there, you'll still be paying $50, $100, etc a month for the rest of the plan. 2 - The locker rooms are old and sort of creepy. 3 - The pools are likewise sort of old. And full of kids frequently. And you can only use certain parts of them at certain times, and keeping track of all of that can be annoying. 4 - The rest of the club is, well, really all of it, is the same. Old. Old-ish. Even when the equipment is brand new, the vibe around it feels very 1980s. Or 1990s. But this is the mid-2010s. And I'm not Marty McFly, or Marty McFly's kid. You probably aren't either. Having said that, if you have kids, this is probably a dream club. Or if you have money that you don't care about being taken even if you're not getting goods/services for that money. Those, however, are two very specific Venn Diagram circles. For adults, without children, who want flexibility in how they spend their limited resources... Harbor Athletic Club is (possibly) not for you. read more

Harbor Athletic Club is great. We use it all the time - swimming classes for the boys and yoga, pilates, and cardio classes for my wife. No classes for me, but I still enjoy the club. Membership dues are right in line with other major clubs in the area. Highly recommended! read more

Look, I love this place and I don't want you to join. It's the antithesis of the meat market known as Princeton club. Sadly, smoothie bar/cafe is gone. Harbor is a really laid back health club that has everything that I need and more. The only downfalls are that it's super old and kind of put together like a corn maze. 8 years and counting! read more

I love this club. I grew up in Middleton and remember the club being around when I was a kid (i'm now 34). I recently had to come home to help one of my parents in the hospital and the staff made it really easy for me to workout there while I was in town. While I had previously worked out at Princeton club while in town - it is $20 each visit to workout even if I explain any circumstance or short term stay to them. They are a cash cow and are not accommodating at all. Going to Harbor Athletic club is supporting small business that clearly cares about their community. You can tell from the staff that they hire and the feel of the club. They have everything you need and the equipment is well maintained. I mostly like to lift weights and they have many more options than the 24 hr fitness I go to in Los Angeles. I can't say enough about this club and am so appreciative of their personal customer service in my stressful circumstances. read more

Love their wellness studio, has so much to offer !! Would recommmend this club !

This entire facility is SO outdated, I was shocked when i went for a tour and looked around. Everything was dingy and there's dirty wallpaper, 70s wood walls, old carpeting, moldy ceilings in the pools (which reeked of way too much chlorine), the list goes on and on. It very badly needs an updating! Such a depressing looking place to work out. I wish the owners would take a little pride in their business and make their members feel like they are really getting what they pay for. The variety of classes and instructors is the ONLY impressive thing they have going for them. Just being honest. read more

*This is only in regards to the harbor wellness studios... I dropped in 3 times to harbor while using ClassPass. So I only got to go to classes people pay extra for, for the wellness studios. Let me tell ya, i wouldn't pay extra for these! Overall these studios are very outdated and the basement is super gross (where TRX is held). If you are of low fitness level and/or recovering from injury this would be a good place to hang out for a while, but their motto of "train for life" is not very fitting for the studio classes. I guess if you're at the end of life maybe it's applicable Class 1: Flow Yoga... this was awful. Taught by Kelly Otto... flow had NO flow at all. I honestly felt like she walked in (late, i may add...) and pulled it outta her rear but did so very poorly. You'd think yoga instructors with may years experience could pull a class outta their rear and do a good job by now but this was just awkward and a mess. You could see everyone looking confused. She also used random terms I've never heard in yoga before and i've been to many yoga classes. This was 75mins of wasted life. Class 2: TRX.... this was just funny. I was told to go downstairs for this class so i went into the creepy basement which was just weird and kinda gross. It was like overflow storage and some 'office' space and one random studio. I thought there was a private lesson going on because there was one older lady down there with an instructor going VERY slow on the straps. I was sitting outside for a while (and also my bad i thought the class started at 545 but turns out it was 530) and waiting for them to walk out. I peeked in and they were still going. I looked at my watch and realized it was already started and a private session was NOT running over. This was the class. one person signed up. It looked very unchallenging. I literally left. Class 3: HOT Yin Strong/ Pilates mat.... Funny pt 2. When i checked in, the front desk lady did not tell me which room to go to like the TRX class and classpass does not tell you what room it's in. since i had already been to 1 yoga class, i assumed this was in the same studio. The instructor showed up late to this class too. i was 10 mins early this time. Everyone in the class had a mat so i assumed of course, this is the correct class. Again, this was a very geriatric class and i was the youngest in here by 30 years prolly. Well, the instructor rolls in the second class is supposed to start. 5 mins later she says its time to start. About 2 mins into her starting I realized this is NOT hot yoga.... this is apparently pilates... CRAP! And since it started late, I didn't want to not only get up and dip out and announce i was wrong, but didn't want to go bust rudely into the other class late. So i sat through this god awful pilates mat class and wasted another ~45 mins of my life (this was supposed to be an hr but started late and ended early thankfully). I literally didn't break a single sweat in this class. Overall, I obviously had a terrible experience here. I would highly recommend spending your money elsewhere and if you use classpass to use your points elsewhere. read more

Where to start with harbor? Overall, it's just not that worth it for for the price. The decor is old and outdated, there isn't any natural light in the facility except for one pool, the equipment is old and outdated with many machines that don't work. Here are a few more: -The flow of the entire place is off, from the parking lot to the lobby to the cobbled-together workout areas. The parking lot is full at almost every hour. In the lobby, the setup makes no sense. People are encouraged to not go by the front desk when they check in and instead scan their ID at a smaller deal, but people will just stand at the ID scanner and chat with staff anyway. Turn a corner, here's a...pool? If you're into lifting, you'll probably have to go to a couple of different rooms just to find all of the equipment you need. While it seems like they have plenty of cardio equipment a number of machines will be non-functional at any time. -Many parents are quite obviously using HAC as a free babysitting service while they do their workout. You'll frequently see kids who are on their own and playing on the machines or using them incorrectly. -You'll never see a staff member in the facility, however, 3 or 4 of them will always be chatting at the front desk. They don't seem to be attentive to issues that are happening in the facility. -the reason I joined HAC was the variety of group sessions, but the schedule is so difficult to navigate I only went twice. Some sessions are drop in, some are free, but you have to sign up online, some you are supposed to check in when you get there, some you have to pay an additional fee for, and all are on the exact same schedule. I asked for help on this multiple times, even the staff seem confused about the sessions. HAC is fine if you're looking for an old school experience, but not so much if you're looking for newer equipment that actually works, a class schedule that makes sense, and a workout that's not interrupted by someone else's kids. After a year, I'm off to find a better option for the price. read more

I came to Madison and tried out this club. VERY NICE for the individual price. A warm pool, lap pool, two hot tubs, cardio/weight room upstairs, weight room downstairs, raquetball courts, you name it. Had a great workout, and and an awesome protein shake at their smoothy bar on my way out! Really nice staff too! read more

I'm disappointed with my experience at Harbor Athletic Club. We pay $112/ month for a family membership (my husband, 3-year-old son, and myself). It's pricey but we were willing to pay it because HAC touts itself on its access to 4 pools. When we signed up we were told we could have access to any of the pools except for the time period when the warm water pool had classes or lessons. Much to my surprise when we went to use the regular pool tonight we were kicked out of the pool by a swim instructor who was using one lane to teach a private lesson to ONE student. She was rude and inflexible about the situation. She didn't even have to the common decency to walk over and talk to us. Instead she screamed at us from across the pool! No one else was using the ENTIRE rest of the pool. Another member pleaded with her to just use one area as well since they were only using one lane. She claimed to be a manager when we asked if this was a new rule. And of course no other managers were on site. I'm shocked that this is the way a manager is trained to talk to members. The remaining two pools were occupied as well so this pool would have been our only option to swim with our 3-year-old son. If they had been transparent about the pools availability I would have never signed up for a year contact at $112/month. Your money is better spent at another club. I definitely feel like just another number here after the way this manager treated my family. read more

This is a well-run club that has seemingly unlimited choices for its members at a very reasonable price. The strength and cardio equipment is modern and always in working condition, and you rarely if ever have to wait for anything. The group fitness options are plentiful and the instructors are engaged and motivating. I don't partake, but there are a ton of yoga, Pilates and Barre offerings in the wellness center across the parking lot from the main facility. The pool areas are clean and well-maintained, and the water in the pools is kept at a comfortable temperature. I've worked out a Harbor for a year now. The club has the appearance of a facility that has expanded multiple times as best it can given the architecture of the building and the space available. It's not easy to navigate as there are many separate rooms, but the staff is friendly and helpful and it's easy enough to figure things out once you get the hang of the layout. I wouldn't mind an update of the facility, but not at the expense of higher prices. It's clean and friendly and doesn't lack options and to me, that's most important. read more

I LOVE LOVE LOVE HARBOR! It is almost solely based on the group fitness structure. There are a lot of add ons that can get pricey which can be annoying. I have been a member for the last ten years so I have a fabulous rate. It isn't a huge concern for me. But the facilities like many people below have mentioned are really outdated. The feel down to the carpet, to the locker rooms... they could try a LOT harder. The trainers Moira and Becky are just phenomenal, and I love their cycles. The vents and other areas could be cleaned better as I have seen dust flowing out of them at times. But I can not stress how amazing the group fitness is there. read more

We joined the Harbor Club shortly after moving here almost 2 years ago. The main reason was for the kid care. I have two kids (now 2 and 4) and it was most important to me that I felt that my kids were in good hands while I was working out. The Kid Care is fantastic! They greet my kids by name and my kids run in to go have some fun without wondering where mom is going. Although my monthly payment seems large ($65+), the kid care is super reasonable ($10/kid). So I figure it averages out. During the year, and even more so in the summer, the Kid Care provides other activities and classes for kids with a small or no extra cost. They have ballet, yoga, tumbling, etc. My oldest (3/4) has taken multiple lessons of swim lessons and he thoroughly enjoys them. I have taken multiple exercise classes and find the instructors to be friendly, well-trained, and organized. I have enjoyed Body Flow, Body Combat, and Body Attack. Overall the Harbor Club, has been good for our family. read more

I think overall the place was ok, it has a dated feel to it and a broken up floor plan that has it's issues. Also it has a very kid friendly, family feel which is ok if you enjoy that type of vibe and kids all over the place. Pesonally I like to get in a workout with out dodging kids and soccer moms going to the pools. The locker room are ok and have all the needed things, but again have this small and dated feel. I guess they feel a coat of paint fixes all these issues, but I've seen a number of other clubs around the city and their locker rooms are much nicer. In my opinion they could take some lessons from their other area clubs and spend some money on upgrades and improvements. read more