Content provided in partnership with
3 resolution solutions: choose the right vacation to help you reach your goal to lose weight, learn a new sport or rejuvenate your body and soul
Shape, Jan, 2005 by Suzanne Levy, Lorie A. Parch, Susanne R. Stoeckeler
About 60 percent of all New Year's vows involve fitness and weight loss, but on average, a mere 19 percent of us actually do what we pledge. Make this the year you get it right by booking one of the following three vacations where you can make your resolutions a reality!
Rates are per person/double occupancy and do not include taxes, airfare or ground transportation unless otherwise noted. All rates, package details and schedules are subject to change.
RESOLUTION:
Lose weight (and have fun doing it!)
Solution: Amansala Bikini Boot Camp, Tulum, Mexico
- Most Popular Articles in Health
- Fuel your workout: exercisers who eat before they work out have more energy ...
- Soothe a dry, itchy scalp: 5 easy expert solutions
- Cocktails and calories: Beer, wine and liquor calories can really add up. ...
- The sour truth about apple cider vinegar - evaluation of therapeutic use
- The, six best supplements you've never heard of: these secret weapons can ...
- More »
Set in a sensual tropical paradise (90 minutes south of Cancun International Airport), Amansala takes its name from the Sanskrit words for peace and water. Spend a week working out with a cadre of 14-20 enthusiastic and supportive women (and the occasional male cadet) at this 36,000-square-foot resort surrounded by Tulum's vast swaths of jungle and platinum Mayan Riviera beaches, and you're bound to shed a few pounds and adopt a more courageous, carpe diem attitude.
Workout Your daily drill is posted on a chalkboard in Amansala's lounge area. To help keep you on schedule, a bell rings 15 minutes prior to each activity session.
A typical day starts at 8 a.m. with a five-mile silent power walk led by one of the five female and male instructors/guides along the beach before breakfast. At 9:30 a.m., you might bike nine miles along dirt roads to the limestone cliffs guarding Tulum's Mayan ruins (dating back to A.D. 564) en route to the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve. More than 300 kinds of birds, four types of sea turtles and spider and howler monkeys call this precious 2,038-square-mile Caribbean coastal refuge home. You'll kayak between mangroves of a nearby freshwater lagoon to spy herons, kingfishers and iguanas before returning to shore and biking nine miles back to the resort for lunch.
Late-afternoon activities might include power-abs classes, Latin dance instruction, yoga and resistance workouts that utilize traditional and novelty gear ranging from stability balls to coconuts (tropical substitutes for free weights). An hour of meditation will calm your senses before your 7:30 p.m. dinner.
Cozy up Pretty seashell mobiles dance in the cooling ocean breezes that filter through your airy cabana. There you'll share a room (add $550 for a single) in comfortable mosquito-net-draped queen-sized beds fitted with luxurious 400-thread-count cotton sheets.
Mealtime Moderation, not deprivation, is the name of the game here. Three square meals offer up to 1,800 calories a day (increased for guests with specific needs). Breakfasts, lunches and candlelight dinners are served family style in a beachfront palapa, where you'll dine on fresh, locally harvested fruits, fish kebabs atop a sesame-ginger dressed salad and grilled chicken and soba noodles with red and green mole.
Downtime Take a class in African drumming or creative writing; both are included in your fee, as are complimentary beachside reflexology and clay body treatments.
Details $1,842 ($2,392 for private room) all-inclusive for six nights, includes accommodations, meals, yoga and meditation, exercise classes, four spa services, equipment, some off-property excursions and taxes (amansala.com)--Suzanne Levy
RESOLUTION:
Learn a new sport that blasts calories.
Solution: "First-Time Series," Beaver Creek, Colo.
Learning to ski or snowboard as an adult can be daunting, but not at Beaver Creek. About two hours west of Denver International Airport, this sister resort to voguish Vail dedicates one-third of the mountain to beginner-specific runs with lessons at 11,440 feet for unsurpassed views of the jagged ridges of the nearby Gore Range. With 11 lifts, long waits are rare. It's no wonder Vail visitors regularly traipse 10 miles southwest to Beaver Creek to eschew peak-period crowds. (Lift tickets at each resort are reciprocal.)
Workout Beaver Creek's "First Time Series" includes three days of lessons, a lunch on your first day (a deli sandwich, snack and a beverage), lift tickets, Salomon parabolic skis/Burton "Learn to Ride" snowboard rentals and a free pair of cozy SmartWool ski socks to the first 300 people who sign up (starting Jan. 1).
Daily sessions start at 9:45 a.m., and you'll spend 4 1/2 hours (breaking for lunch) with about seven other adult novices (a 50-50 ratio of men and women for the ski school versus 60-40 male to female snowboarders) mastering basics like stopping, turning and using the lifts, with patient encouragement from your instructor.
Cozy up For easy ski-in, ski-out access to Beaver Creek's slopes, a lodging and daily breakfast package for two people, book four nights at the Pines Lodge. The charming rooms feature Swiss-inspired interiors, a marble bath area stocked with Avanyu spa products, high-speed Internet access, a refrigerator, boot heaters and a balcony overlooking the ski hills.
Mealtime Your Pines Lodge package includes a free breakfast daily at the property's Grouse Mountain Grill--a hearty spread of made-to-order omelets, homemade sausages, fluffy biscuits, oatmeal, fresh fruit and yogurt.
Find Research Guides for:
Find Featured Titles for: Technology
Most Popular Articles in Health
- Fuel your workout: exercisers who eat before they work out have more energy ...
- Soothe a dry, itchy scalp: 5 easy expert solutions
- Cocktails and calories: Beer, wine and liquor calories can really add up. ...
- The sour truth about apple cider vinegar - evaluation of therapeutic use
- The, six best supplements you've never heard of: these secret weapons can ...
- More »