Reservations

Luxury Travel

Reservations

Luxury Travel

If all the lockdowns have left you feeling sluggish but you still want to get away from it all, choose a holiday which combines sightseeing and getting fit

Five Ways To Get Fit On Holiday is a feature from Issue 3 of Charitable Traveller. Click to read more from this issue.

1. Get on your bike

A cycling Holiday could mean peddling from place to place or staying put and using a bike to explore (The Netherlands and Nordic countries are very bike friendly, even in cities). If you’re an adrenaline junkie then head to a resort in the European Alps of the Rockies. Perfect cycling destinations include Cambodia, which is an easy amble past temples, rice paddies and along the Mekong, and Cuba, where quiet roads pass the tropical forest and limestone hills of the Viñales Valley and the sparkling Caribbean coast.

2 Time for Yoga

An exercise for the mind as much as the body, yoga originated in India but you enjoy it anywhere. Purists who love luxury can head to Ananda, a luxury spa resort in an 100-acre Maharaja’s Palace Estate in the forested foothills of the Himalayas which overlooks the spiritual town of Rishikesh and the Ganges. Yoga packages incorporate meditation, breathing techniques, and hydrotherapy. Or check in to LaLuna on the Caribbean island of Grenada, a hippie-chic boutique resort with a beachfront yoga pavilion, organic garden and Asian spa.

3. Check into a fit-focused hotel

Some resorts are made for overeating and catching up on sleep, others are geared up to getting you in shape. All-Inclusive resort, The BodyHoliday, in Saint Lucia, offers unlimited activities as well as rum punch – book yourself in for wakeboarding, kayaking, fencing, tai chi, or tennis, or take the Quadrathlon Challenge which combines a 13km mountain bike ride, 4km run to a cliff, a 100-foot abseil down the rock face to the beach and a 2.5km kayak back to the resort! Canyon Ranch has fitness-focused resorts in the forests of California or the Arizona desert.

4. Walk this way

There’s no simpler way to get fit than putting one foot in front of the other and walking offers access to some of the earth’s most beautiful and isolated spots – the snow-capped peaks and pure blue skies of the Himalayas, the lonely lochs and misty glens of Scotland or the icy glaciers and fiery geysers of Iceland. You can also follow in the footsteps of history on trails like Turkey’s Lycian Way, which passes ancient cities like Olympos, trek the Great Wall of China, or follow the jungle trail to Peru’s lost city of Machu Picchu.

5. Take some vitamin sea

It is possible to get fit on a beach holiday – you just have to leave your sun-lounger! Try windsurfing off the cast sand dunes of Fuerteventura or the white sand beaches of colourful Dutch Caribbean island Bonaire. If you prefer surfing without the sail try the foodie city of San Sebastian in Spain or the spiritual island of Bali. Stand-up paddle boarding looks gentle but it works your core like a pro. Head to Hawaii where is was invented or to Florida, where it’s rude not to have a go thanks to calm seas and the chance to spot manatees in the mangroves.