Montecito Heights Health and Racquet Club

Very few machines and the ones they do have are pretty outdated. These machines don’t seem to work very well.

Very elite club with excellent personal trainers for swimming, tennis, special workouts and biking. The class instructors are all top notched as well. The facilities are well maintained and in a beautiful setting.
It will serve any workout need with superb knowledge, friendly staff and expertise.

I’m looking for a club in Santa Rosa and am so disappointed with my options. The cardio room at this place was like a cave. If you want to cycle (spin) you need to buy an extra membership to their sister club for a considerable fee. Their kids room looked nice, but when I was observing the kids were just watching TV. The club is nice looking but for the price they need to step up what they offer. Staff seemed friendly but I just can’t get over the extra fees for the small space and lack of cycling/​yoga options.

I have been coming to Montecito off and on since I was in elementary school. It is large enough to offer a wide range of fitness options, but small enough to still have the friendly feel of a neighborhood health club. Everyone at the front desk is always very welcoming and incredibly helpful. The club includes all of the normal health club offerings: a cardio room, weight room, fitness classes, child care, tennis courts, swimming pools, locker rooms with steam rooms, jacuzzis, saunas and showers, and a full spa.
Club members can choose between using the Flamingo Hotel pool, or a new lap pool. I loved hanging out with friends at the Flamingo Pool growing up, and now love the peace and quiet at the lap pool. However, the lap pool does not have the same food options as the Flamingo pool so it is sometimes a toss up…
The fitness classes are fabulous!!! The quality of the instructors is really impressive. I have taken from many of them and have yet to be disappointed. For yoga Helen is a great all around teacher. Doug teaches a mean yoga class so if you are in great shape or want to be too sore to walk the next day I would recommend his class. Body Change with Jan will definitely whip you into shape. Cardio Dance burns the calories, but a dance background is definitely recommended. Speaking from experience, I wouldn’t recommend taking Cardio Dance barefoot… trust me on this :) The classes generally have a mix of people of all ages 20s to 70s.
P. S. the front desk has a great little snack bar to hit on your way in or out with drinks, power bars and the like.

I would have rated this place higher had they extended the same courtesy to that of what they ask of their guests. On their website they ask that guests arrive 30 minutes prior to their appointment so they can shower, utilize the steam/​sauna rooms and hang out in the relaxation room prior to their service. If you state this on your website and tell me this over the phone when I schedule my appointment then you should be there 30 minutes prior to the spa’s opening for those clients that have 10AM appointments. I found that unprofessional and rude. Don’t warn me that my massage will be cut short if I’m late yet you aren’t even there to provide me the pre-​service ammenities I’m rightly due. It was just annoying. I went to the steam room and the hot tub since they share those facilities with the health club which are in the same building, but it was inconvenient. I used the steam room and hot tub but then had to put all my clothes back on and walk over to the spa when I was done. Usually spas have all the facilites all in one, but I had to constantly go back and forth and lug my things with me.
I gave the place three stars because Bryan, my masseur, was fantastic. I like my massages really hard and this guy was perfect. He uses a fair amount of elbow and forearms, but not to the point where it’s too much. He incorporated a little bit of thai and hot stone massage which made my 50 minute treatment absolutely fabulous. His heavenly hands made all the annoyances I previously mentioned worth it.

I’ve been a member of this gym on/​off for about 10 years. It’s alright. It’s like a neighborhood gym. It doesn’t have the same ambiance of a 24 Hour FItness or Fusion Fitness. No indoor pool. Not a lot of equipment. They have different brands of the same kind of cardio machine — different brands of treadmills, different brands of ellipticals, which makes it easy to start to prefer one type of treadmill over another and make it devastating when that one treadmill is taken. The layout is a little disjointed. The cardio room is downstairs, weights are upstairs, and then there are a couple of areas for stretching.
Locker rooms are pretty nice. Showers are pretty nice. Plenty of hair dryers. They do provide various hygiene items (soap, lotion, etc.) but the quality (IMHO) isn’t very good — still — better than nothing. The locker rooms also have a sauna, steam room, and hot tub which is all very nice.
I’ve never used the tennis courts but they look nice and there always seem to be a number of them open.
They also offer a number of classes as part of the membership including: yoga, zumba, and various other aerobics classes.
Employees can sometimes be a little bit short. Some highlights of bad experiences include a lady telling me three times when the gym would be closing (unless it’s closed I don’t care — believe me, I know the hours) and another lady — when I pointed out they were out of towels and asked if they had anymore — went on a rant about how people steal towels… not my problem.

My friend recommended that we forego a Saturday night in the city to come up here and experience a Thai massage from Jennipa, who you should definitely ask for. The people who work there will vouch she is «an expert» and I have to tell you, this is one of the strongest recommendations I could give. I mean, wow.
I had the 50 minute massage (they were sold out of the 80 minute ones, but I booked like the morning of). It was most-​excellent. I felt so loose and sublime, as though all the stress was being channeled away from me. It was truly like a massage I have never had before.
Quick tip: If you stay at «The Flamengo» (a famous hotel back in the 50’s, 60s), you get $ 10 off the massage above $ 75 (I believe). However, the cost for what you get out of this, for under $ 100, is truly spectacular. This is definitely worth the trip out here to Sonoma County if you want a retreat from the city and an excellent spot for vacationers.

Shared a couples massage with my husband for Valentine’s Day. It was a «special» deal which I thought was pretty reasonably priced considering the many massages I have had. When we arrived it was clear why.
We had been instructed to arrive a full ½ hour before the massage. We were nicely greeted and handed robes (no discussion of whether we wanted to disrobe and wait or just disrobe when we were in the treatment room) and given a plastic cup of water. We were then taken to the «relaxation room». No paperwork history or questions about health, etc.
A nicely decorated doctor’s waiting room with 5 other people waiting might be relaxing for some people. Unfortunately, my husband and I were fairly mortified to find that we were busy worrying about robes flying open in front of a group that it was FAR from relaxing.
Our massage techs finally called us in. If I had not disclosed what my needs were, I would have been treated like part of an assembly line. It was pretty clear that the masseuses are on a 50 minute treadmill.
The massage was fine. Nowhere near the best either of us has had.

An excellent spa. My wife and I have been here repeatedly for all services. Manicures and Pedicures are excellent and reasonably priced for the level of service. Ask for «the perfect day» for a reasonably priced 4 hour selection of services. The best improvement they could make would be additional space for changing rooms which could include steam, hot tubs, etc.

I had a massage here a few years ago. The 1 hour massage was more like 40 minutes, and the massage therapist, at least on that day, did not practice good personal hygiene. I will not go back.

OK, well the only service I had at the spa was a deep tissue massage, so be aware that my review and rating is based just on this… OK?
But wow, what a fantastic massage! For the price, I was expecting it to be pretty damn good, and my expectations were surpassed. Ask for Jo T. (?) if you go, and I highly recommend the deep tissue work. Along with your massage, you get to use the racquet club’s locker facilities, which include steam and sauna, loads of towels, and all inclusive amenities. In the ladies, there is even a little reading/​lounging area with a book exchange, very cute! And everything is spotless and shiney and nice, so you can really relax. Everyone I met there was very professional, friendly and helpful, and I will definately return the next time I’m in the north bay.