Palm Beach Padel

Start with the number, because almost nobody in this county publishes one. Prime time is $150 per court for a ninety-minute session, and the club does the division itself in its own membership small print: "$150 per 1.5-hour session, split among 4 players ($37.50 per player per session)". That is $100 a court-hour, stated as the rate rather than as a floor, and used as the basis of the club's own savings arithmetic — which is about as solid as a published price gets. It also defines its own bands precisely: prime time is weekdays 6:30 to 10am and 3 to 11pm plus all day Saturday and Sunday, and "there is no low time on weekends". The only cheaper window is weekdays 10am to 3pm, and that rate is not published, so plan against $37.50 a head unless you are playing mid-morning.

Four outdoor courts, all doubles, all tagged panoramic in the club's own booking configuration, and four is a deliberate number rather than a first phase. The co-owner: "We knew that four was the minimum to be profitable. For us four courts was the point to start, learn, and eventually replicate the business."

In a county that put 41 of its 51 courts under a roof, this club stayed outside and is the only one that will say why. Co-owner Biel Roca Carreras: "I come from tennis and always played outdoor here. In Spain I never played outdoor, but here the weather during most of the year is incredible. I prefer outdoor 100%. If we could have both, we'd love to expand into indoor." So there is no cover, no cooling, and no claim of either — a preference, an admission that indoor would be an addition rather than a correction, and the only straight answer anybody in Palm Beach County has given to the heat question.

The build story is unusually concrete and it is worth reading before you conclude four courts is small: "At first it looks simple — four courts and that's it — but the real problem is permits. That is the longest process. Depending on the land, you have to level it. Here we had to put more soil because the city required it. All that is much more than the courts themselves. The slab can cost the same or even more than the court." Two years, four friends — three Spanish, one French — their own money, and rented land: "We know the owner and that helped us. Otherwise it would have been impossible because of the prices."

Every court has an AI camera on it. Both memberships include "complimentary use of the AI-powered video technology that records games, creates highlights of the best points", and the club is explicit that non-members pay for the same service — price unpublished. For a group that wants to see what it actually did rather than argue about it, that is a real differentiator here.

One restriction is easy to get wrong, so it is worth being exact. The sauna, the cold plunge and the open-air workout area are members-only. The club's booking-system blurb advertises all three as club features with no qualifier, while its own membership page describes them as "exclusive access to a dedicated space for members". Both are the club's words; the membership page is the more specific and the more recent. A non-member gets the courts, the café, the pro shop, the chill-out area and the changing rooms — not the recovery zone. Lockers are switched off in the club's own configuration, and showers are never mentioned on any page, so do not count on either.

Memberships are $120 and $280 a month with no initiation fee, both confirmed on the club's website and in its booking system. What they discount is where the club argues with itself: the summary cards promise sixty and seventy percent off court bookings, while the detailed small print on the same page gives twenty and thirty percent off prime time and forty and sixty off low time. Those cannot both be true and the gap is roughly threefold, so this page publishes neither percentage. The prices are firm, the free-games allowance is firm — two ninety-minute games a month on the cheaper tier, four on the dearer — and the discount is a question for the desk.

Cancellation is published and tiered, which is rare here. Non-members get twenty-four hours for a full refund, and the penalty for missing it is the full court fee rather than a portion of it. The cheaper membership buys a twelve-hour window; the dearer one lets you cancel at any time. Racquets and balls are not included with a court booking — rentals are sold at the front desk and are free to members.

Four doubles courts seat sixteen with nobody sitting out and stretch to twenty-one with rotation. At ninety minutes that is about six rounds at a points target of 32. Doors are 7am to 11pm every day of the year, the latest close in the county by an hour, which is the practical answer to playing outdoors in Florida: the 9pm slot is a real option here and at only two other clubs.

This club prices the court and expects you to split it, and it says so explicitly: every member discount applies to "your proportional share, meaning 20% off ¼ of the total court cost". So $150 for ninety minutes at prime time is $37.50 each for four, and a fifth person does not raise the bill.

The cheap window is narrow and weekday-only: 10am to 3pm, Monday to Friday. Everything else — early mornings, all evenings, the entire weekend — is prime time at the published rate.

Bring rackets or budget for rentals. The club states plainly that racquets and balls are not included with a court booking, and non-members also pay for the AI video that members get free.

If somebody in your group wants the sauna or the cold plunge afterwards, they need a membership. The recovery zone is the one part of this club a non-member booking does not reach, and the club's two descriptions of it disagree — the membership page is the one that governs.

Missing a booking is expensive. Cancel with less than twenty-four hours' notice as a non-member and the full court fee is charged, not a share of it.