Best yoga and pilates

Seven yoga and pilates studios in Torre del Mar carry a public rating, and as a trade they hold the highest average rating in the whole directory, with the leaders sitting at 5.0 and 4.9 on eighty odd reviews each.

When everyone scores five, the rating stops working

A table where the top four are separated by a few points of score, all on near perfect ratings, is not really ranking quality. What it is ranking is how many people are behind each score and how reachable the studio is. Useful, but not the same thing.

Three questions that decide more than the table

• Reformer or mat. Machine pilates runs in very small groups and costs more. Know which one you are comparing before you compare prices.
• Ask the group size. It changes the experience more than anything else and it is the figure least often published.
• Ask for a trial class. It is the only way to find the part no review captures, which is whether you get on with whoever teaches it.

Language

Several of these studios teach classes with a foreign clientele in mind. If following instructions in Spanish while holding a position sounds optimistic, ask before booking a term.