From hotel amenities to airport exercise options, plenty of alternatives abound to keep you on the healthy track while you travel.
Travel expands your mind and broadens your horizons—and after dining on rich meals, lounging around hotel rooms, and getting stuck in airports, travel can also expand your waistline. Recent travel trends, however, can help you shape up when you ship out. In fact, in the past three years, about 25 million Americans—more than one-fourth of U.S. travelers—used a fitness center or gym while traveling. If you want to join the sweat set, here’s what to look for:
En Route
Find a gym. Some airports have fitness facilities in the terminals. One example is 24 Hour Fitness, in the Las Vegas/McCarran International Airport. Even if there’s not a cardio machine anywhere near the concourse, you can still track down a gym near the airport. Check out www.airportgyms.com, a huge database of fitness facilities.
Relieve stress. Spas and massage chairs are increasing in terminals throughout the country. Services vary from full hour massages to spa pedicures, available at places such as Newark International and Orlando International airports. Or you can kick back and breathe in some pure oxygen at OraOxygen, in Calgary International Airport. Check out www.departurespa.com and www.oraoxygen.com.
Eat smart on the fly. Restaurants and even quick-grab concessions in airports are offering better fare, so take a minute to compare menus. Look for a variety of salad, fruit, and vegetable choices that you wouldn’t have seen in an airport 20 years ago.
Where You Stay
Take advantage of gym access. Three-quarters of all hotels have some type of exercise facility, and most of those facilities are free to guests. In hotels of 130 rooms or larger, 93% offer exercise facilities, and of all hotels, 83% have fitness centers, according to a survey of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
Select from better menus. Breakfast and late-night room service (the most popular meals at hotels) are becoming healthier. Hyatt hotels, for example, are offering more cereals, yogurt, and fruits on their menus. Hotels with vegetarian menu options also continue to increase; about one-third of all hotels have such choices.
Customize workouts. Some Starwood hotels offer in-room exercise equipment, such as bikes or treadmills. And television can be for more than catching up on movies you missed in the theater: Several hotel chains have on-demand workouts, such as yoga, that you can follow along in the privacy of your room. Still other hotels will take orders for workout clothes or gear. At Hyatt hotels, you can use a GPS device to monitor your heart rate and help guide you back to the hotel if you’re out for a run. For the ultimate in workout convenience and motivation, look for a resort with a personal trainer on staff. At Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa in Stowe, Vermont, personal trainers can help design workouts and incorporate activities such as mountain biking and hiking into your stay.
