Top 10 holidays for improving fitness

Time to train and, just as importantly, time to recover, means that you can bring some real quality to your sessions and still return home refreshed and relaxed.

To help you choose a holiday that can improve your fitness and is matched to your fitness goals and current fitness levels, dip into this realbuzz guide, which includes:

• Fitness holiday ideas
• Fitness benefits from different holidays
• The best holidays for flexibility, CV training, strength, and coordination.

How to use this guide to fitness holidays
This guide covers a broad range of holidays, each of which is rated for its benefit in improving the following fitness components:

• Flexibility
• CV training
• Strength
• Coordination

The rating system runs from one to 10 stars, with one representing the fewest benefits and 10 the most. Simply browse through the ideas and select a holiday that both interests you and matches your fitness goals. And if you’re looking to take your fitness further, then check out ‘The next level’ category for each holiday – which will really challenge your fitness!

Top 10 fitness holidays

1. Skiing and snowboarding
   As well as being great fun, a holiday on the piste can be tailored to a wide range of fitness levels and brings about CV, strength and coordination benefits. Leg strength is particularly key, and a week on the slopes can really tone up your legs and buttocks.

realbuzz.com ratings
Flexibility
CV training
Strength
Coordination

The next level: Try cross-country skiing for a really challenging CV workout!

1. Windsurfing and sailing
   Of these two disciplines, windsurfing is usually the more challenging because you’re always standing up and heaving on the rig. Coordination and strength are the primary benefits – and the more wind, the better the workout!

realbuzz.com ratings
Flexibility
CV training
Strength
Coordination

The next level: Try offshore sailing on an ocean-going yacht, as this involves continual exercise that can test even the fittest person.

1. Walking and trekking
   Walking is one of the best exercise disciplines available and has numerous benefits, including building CV fitness, building strength, improving coordination and protecting against osteoporosis. Additionally, if you’re carrying even a small rucksack through the day, you will be adding an upper-body-strength component too.

realbuzz.com ratings
Flexibility
CV training
Strength
Coordination

The next level: Try backpacking with a full load each day to really boost your CV fitness and strength!

1. Cycling
   Spinning the wheels on a cycling vacation is a great opportunity to explore a new area, add CV exercise and build leg strength. Almost everyone can ride a bike – and cycling also brings a big dollop of fun as well! Some vacation companies will transport your luggage between daily destinations, but even if you travel unsupported, your bike can carry the load and you won’t need a great deal of gear.

realbuzz.com ratings
Flexibility
CV training
Strength
Coordination

The next level: Try a mountain biking vacation. Off-road riding is more challenging – even on the downhills – and will help your coordination too.

1. Relaxing at the beach
   Yes – believe it or not, a relaxing beach vacation can actually improve your fitness because if you’re a very frequent exerciser, the chances are that you rarely take any time off from training. This means that your body has precious little opportunity to recover from the cumulative stresses of your fitness routine. However, a relaxing week on the beach could allow you to ‘bounce back’ and return home mentally invigorated and raring to achieve new personal bests. Additionally, with all that lying around soaking up the sun, a beach vacation is an ideal opportunity to really work on your flexibility.

realbuzz.com ratings
Flexibility	Up to
CV training	No stars
Strength	No stars
Coordination	Up to

The next level: See ‘Surfing & bodyboarding’.

1. Surfing and bodyboarding
   If a relaxing week developing your flexibility on the beach is not your thing, then a more active sun, sea and sand vacation of surfing and bodyboarding will be much more fun and challenging. Both disciplines require good all-round fitness – with CV fitness, strength and coordination being the key components.

realbuzz.com ratings
Flexibility
CV training
Strength
Coordination

The next level: Kite surfing is an exciting fusion of white water surfing with a large, kite-like sail for extra lift. Try it – it’s seriously fun and challenging!

1. Golfing
   A very popular vacation activity – and also one that can easily be added to an existing break. A golfing vacation can be enjoyed by all ages – and although it’s a lower level fitness activity, it still brings about several opportunities to add to your fitness.

realbuzz.com ratings
Flexibility
CV training
Strength
Coordination

The next level: If you’re looking for something extra, try doing a completely different activity before or after your round of golf – and make sure it’s more challenging than your usual 18 holes!

1. Scuba diving
   A diving vacation is a fantastic experience where you can explore our generally unseen underwater world, and is an activity which requires a useful blend of CV fitness, strength, coordination and flexibility. A week or more diving every day can make noticeable improvements to your fitness – which could spin-off to your usual exercise routine once you return home.

realbuzz.com ratings
Flexibility
CV training
Strength
Coordination

The next level: Deep-sea diving is a very different discipline, requiring even greater fitness –so it’s not for the faint-hearted! But if you think you’ve got what it takes, then try it!

1. Horse riding
   If you’ve never tried equestrian sports before, you’ll be surprised at how fit you need to be to successfully control a horse. Whether it’s a horsemanship element of the sport such as dressage or a faster-paced discipline such as racing, a few days in the saddle can challenge muscles that you didn’t realise you had!

realbuzz.com ratings
Flexibility
CV training
Strength
Coordination

The next level: Try endurance riding – which covers distances from 15 to 100 miles, requiring excellent stamina and local muscular endurance.

1. A sports-specific holiday
   These days, many people are looking to either learn or improve in a new sport or activity, and so they select a vacation precisely to do just that. From running, cycling and triathlon training camps to alpine breaks where you can learn to paraglide, every conceivable activity is catered for.

realbuzz ratings:
The ratings depend upon the exact type of vacation that you choose, but as it’s a sports-specific break, each fitness discipline is likely to score highly.

The next level: How about going on a vacation that includes an event or a sporting competition? For example, you could go on a trip to compete in a foreign marathon or a similar event.

Fitness first
Whether it’s a niche market vacation that caters for a specific activity, or simply a vacation where you can combine R&R with regular exercise, you have plenty of choice when planning which fitness vacation to go on. If you’re looking to return home with something more than just a suntan, then why not try one of the realbuzz fitness vacation improvement ideas? By going on one of these holidays you’ll enjoy the usual benefits from your normal break plus gain more energy and have improved health and fitness on your return. Now that’s an excellent incentive to visit the travel agent!