1 minute read
Flexing My Travel Muscles
by NANCY HELLMRICH
Last year, aboard an air-conditioned bus in Croatia, I looked out the window, saw people cycling up the hill beside us, and felt a pang of envy. I wanted their dopamine levels and cooling sweat. I longed to sleep the way they would sleep after a day of fresh air and exercise. I wanted to be on a vacation that awakened me, not just emotionally and intellectually, but physically.
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Not that what I was doing was sedentary. I laced up for city tours, nature walks, Dubrovnik’s wall, and wandering around Zagreb after dark in search of our hotel. (It’s around here somewhere, I’m certain.) Sure, logging 29,000 steps a day is bragworthy. But is it invigorating? Empowering? Does it expand my quality and quantity of life?
For some, yes. For me? Not anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still queue up to gander at a Michelangelo any day, as long as the next day involves a visit to the cardio zone. Luckily, there’s a flourishing sub-culture of active travelers out there. And a growing list
of suppliers who are happy to swap trip directors for fitness coaches, replace apfel tortes with “clean” meals, and walking tours with workouts.
From boot camps and Club Med to Canyon Ranch and Miraval, the world is my exercise class. On the extreme end, places like Tulum’s Amansala Beach Body Camp offer intense sweat sessions with a view that promises to slim and tone in ways I didn’t think were possible. Peripatetic escapes like Ketanga Fitness Retreats mix it up with workouts, excursions, and dance parties in ever-changing locales.
Diving, snorkeling, cycling, and multisport tours are growing in popularity too, and not just with Gen Z. Of course, a cardiovascular boost with a hot stone massage on the side is nothing to sniff at either. I stumbled into The BodyHoliday in St. Lucia once and had the time of my life. When it ended, I opted out of the bus to the airport and took a helicopter instead. #worthit
