Bootcamp Beach
Listed under Boot Camps in Bournemouth, United Kingdom.
Bootcamp Beach is going to be a huge success for one simple reason: it's the best boot camp deal in the country by a very long way!
Suddenly someone isn't charging four figures, and all points north, for a week at camp. What a breath of fresh air it is to see en-suite bedrooms with televisions and the use of an up-market pool, sauna & jacuzzi complex in the evenings, all being thrown in for the price at a boot camp that'll bill you just £575 for a single (it's actually a double), £495 for a twin & £455 for a triple room. Along with Apples & Pears, Bootcamp Beach is the only other camp in the country to win the full 5 Stars for 'Value For Money'. Just do the maths for yourself. Would you rather pay some camps over three times as much for one stay, or pay exactly the same amount of money for three stays at Bootcamp Beach? Which option, do you reckon, would do you the more good? Which course of action would be better for your health? Excuse my bluntness, but I would call that an absolute no-brainer.
But, you will immediately ask, is Bootcamp Beach any good? Well, to start with, it would not have won the award for Best Budget Boot Camp in The First National Boot Camp Survey, if it wasn't. There are plenty more positives than the ones listed above.
One of them is Principal Trainer, Boris Stone. Unfortunately named, perhaps, in that he sounds like a Russian guard at a gulag when he couldn't, in fact, be more different from one. Boris is invariably enthusiastic and amusing, really knows his subject, and has a heart of gold which he wears winningly near to the surface. Owners, Nick & Susan, assured me that 'everyone loves Boris'; and from what I saw at my camp, I've no reason to believe anything else.
Boris is ex-Army, and enormously well-qualified - with a string of certificates long enough for him to host a personal health site on the internet and run his own successful training company. Far from being ' a budget trainer' - and I can vouch for this fact after all my boot camp experiences - Boris Stone will give you, both at the beginning & at the end, a comprehensive test of your fitness and an in-depth analysis of your body's composition, only surpassed by just one other trainer I've met in England. So the trainer's 'cool' or 'hot' - or whatever it is you're meant to say these days.
Activity highlights would be the uniquely-offered chance to go paddle-boarding, hiking the coast with Bergens & the cycle ride which takes you through Sandbanks and over, on a ten-minute ferry, into the beautiful Dorset countryside around Studland Dene and the hill-top ruins of Corfe Castle. Bootcamp Beach - like all the best camps - neither starts before 7am, nor drags you out again after dinner for yet more physical work. I think you'll soon find out that 9 hours a day with Boris is quite enough, on its own, to achieve the aim of significant weight loss in a short time.
And the old-age pensioners lined up on the front at Bournemouth Beach aren't shy of lending an unexpected hand to the proceedings either. Rocked back into their own memories of Army life at any sight of Boris out front with his military kit on, it's only moments before they're off and roaring out ever-more bellicose instructions to him as to what he should really be hitting everyone with! Bored with that, they'll then open up on any slackers in the group, exhorting them loudly to improve their performance rapidly, and roughly by a factor of ten.
Truth be told, however, that only happened twice and the beach at Bournemouth is arguably the star of the show. With more sunshine hours and less rainfall than any town in the country, training outside in the sea air and coastal panoramas along Bournemouth Beach is superby energising, right from the time you're woken up by sea-gulls every morning. The sand is cleaned each night, all the many toilets are impeccably maintained, and there are contingency plans for when it rains - that rarest of occurrences, according to our National Office of Statistics. I should also mention that Bootcamp Beach has its own beach-hut and an another eternally cheerful asset in Hannah, Boris's aide and Jill-of-all-trades, who is also pretty enough not to appear in the background of any photo, whatever she says.
In addition, a Life Coaching Session on the first night helpfully tunes everyone into what they're about to do and, in Barbara Cox, they have a very bright spark of a nutritionist, deserving every bit of her media celebrity.
Finally, I should point out one thing: boot camps usually last for 6/7 nights, but Bootcamp Beach's programme is for 5 nights. When I mentioned that adding on an extra night would bring them up to the norm, they begged to differ. Their customer research has suggested to them that people prefer a camp to run from 4pm Sunday till Friday at 1pm, so that clients can have more of the weekends to themselves. Susan & Nick have got an awful lot right in a short time and maybe, in adopting this strategy, they'll have made a correct call once again. Time will tell with the public on that one, but I'm telling you something else: book fast and well ahead, because this is a brand new boot camp, and the secret's just got out.
- Accommodation: Comfortable, modern & better than basic, Bonnington Beach Hotel's bedrooms are all en-suite, with TV's & serviced daily. Staff are delightful and the hotel is only minutes from the beach.
- Capacity: 20. Mixed M/F.
- Duration: 5 nts. (4pm Sunday - Friday 1pm). Closed July & August.
- Cost: £575(sgles), £495(twin share), £455(triple share). All en-suite.
- Price includes: All food, lodging & activities which typically include: gym-style work-outs, principally in the open air on Bournemouth Beach, plus boxing,surfing, cycling, coastal hiking with Bergens, games, battle PT, comprehensive fitness tests, flexibility sessions, military tasking, paddle boarding, 1 Life Coaching Session, 2 Nutrition Seminars with media celebrity, Barbara Cox, tailored action plans with open access to staff for future support, farewell champagne toast, certificate of achievement & a personalised photo CD of your week.
- Evening Events: Nightly access to The Marriott Hotel's up-market pool, sauna & jacuzzi complex just around the corner. Otherwise TV's in all bedrooms.
- Optional extras: Marriott's in-house specialist sports masseur at £25 half, £40 full.
5 STAR RATINGS
- LOCATION: * * *
- ACCOMMODATION: * * *
- FOOD: * * *
- STAFF& ACTIVITIES: * * * *
- VALUE FOR MONEY: * * * * *
- LIFE CHANGING POTENTIAL: * * *
Written by 
Graeme Harwood.
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- Bournemouth travel guide
- West Country travel guide
- United Kingdom travel guide
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Great value, Great results!
It was by accident (or perhaps fate) that I stumbled across the web page for Bootcamp Beach but how glad I now am I did! After living overseas for 10 years, I had let my health decline and waistband expand in almost proportionate levels. I was also getting married in a few months so I thought why not give it a try..... so it was with fear and trepidation but also an optimistism of what I could achieve that I made contact with Susan and arranged my trip to the Camp.
When I arrived there was a total mix of people there - a good few looking excessively fit before the Camp even started and others although not quite as fit who still looked way fitter than me - so I began to get some inital nerves and this probably added to my already elevated blood pressure! We all went through an inital health check and my results were as scary as I had feared!
The hotel itself was bright and airy and had a nice feel to it - as did the bedroom. There I waited to see what sort of hell Monday would bring....
What can I say - although tough and strenuous - the training from Monday through Friday was excellent. Boris and Billy with assistance from Hannah were totally brilliant - very knowledgable and motivational. The way the days were organised means that everyone could train at their own level. It consisted of warm up excercises, fast walking, jogging, sprints and hikes mixed in with beach games, cycling and surfing! An excellent mix. Being overweight I struggled but received excellent encouragement from the trainers (and also a number of my co-campers)! It is amazing how much easier training becomes with a bit of support and encourangement! However, I kept at it and by the end of each day was totally exhausted but had a warm glow at the thought of the good this was doing for my body.
By the end of the week - time came for the second fitness results - basically I lost nearly 10% of body fat and 10 lbs in weight so all in all - an excellent week.
The Camp has provided an excellent springboard - i've kept up the training and have lost another 10 lbs - I've also lost 4 inches of my waist and seen my blood pressure go decrease! Boris has already called offering his encouragement and support...
It is hard to put into words but seeing the way clothes are beginning to lossen and the lack of breathlessness that I used to experience are definitely visual signs the Camp works - I believe the Camp has helped me turn a corner and started me on the road to a slimmer and healthier me! My future wife and I strongly recommend!!