Fitness Vacation – We take a look at the sports offerings at sustainable accommodations

According to a survey by Marriott Bonvoy (the bonus program of the Marriott Hotel Group), two-thirds of Germans pay attention to health and fitness while on vacation. That’s even though only 26 percent of the more than 2,000 people surveyed exercise regularly at home. Do you feel the same way? The reason is simple: on vacation, you want to do something good for yourself. And it’s easier to adopt new (exercise) routines away from the daily grind. In this blog post, you’ll find out which hotels and resorts offer fitness vacations with gyms, pools and personal trainers, where you can find daily yoga classes, where the fit-on-vacation trend is taking place in the great outdoors, and how you can make your exercise program sustainable.

Sport on vacation increases well-being

Do you also get the feeling of satisfaction after an early morning run or yoga class? Many of the respondents to the Marriott Bonvoy study also believe that fitness on vacation has a positive effect on mental well-being! The most popular vacation sports are

• Swimming (53%)
• Working out at the hotel gym (41%)
• Yoga (23%)

Sustainable Fitness Vacations: Top Hotels with Gyms & Pools

If you are looking for a hotel with both a pool and an indoor gym with professional equipment, we have the following recommendations for you. What’s special? hotels also pay attention to sustainability.

Casa León Royal Retreat in Gran Canaria

Casa León Royal Retreat is a small boutique hotel with just 25 rooms on the island of Gran Canaria. The hotel has a large pool where aqua fitness classes are held. Otherwise, you can choose to do your laps before or after your workout in the gym. The special thing about the hotel’s fitness center is that it is practically completely open on one side, as the large doors to the garden can be opened completely. This gives the gym natural light and eliminates the need for fans or air-condition.

ADLER Spa Resort SICILIA on the Mediterranean Sea

On the Italian island of Sicily, the ADLER Spa Resort SICILIA also offers wonderful sports facilities in a magnificent vacation landscape. In addition to direct access to the beach (which, by the way, is a WWF nature reserve), there is an indoor and an outdoor pool, as well as a fitness room with high-tech equipment. From the cardio machines you can see the nature and the Mediterranean Sea. And well, yoga on the beach has its own charm anyway…

Getting fit on vacation at Keemala in Thailand

At the sustainable luxury resort Keemala in Phuket, Thailand, you’ll also find state-of-the-art exercise equipment. The treadmills and cardio machines overlook the tropical forest. Swim in the infinity pool fed by a waterfall. Walking through the resort, you can discover more waterfalls.

Fitness Vacation in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

If you prefer a vacation in an alpine landscape, we can recommend wonderful hotels with fitness facilities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Klosterhof Alpine Hideaway & Spa in Bayerisch Gmain, Germany

For the health conscious, Klosterhof Alpine Hideaway & Spa is a great place to stay. Not only does the hotel have a huge spa area with a heated outdoor and indoor pool, but it also houses the Artemacur Health Center, run by Dr. Andreas Färber, the hotel’s owner. The health center takes a holistic approach, and they’ll be happy to advise you on how to improve your health, both mentally and physically. The hotel has a fitness room with top-of-the-line cardio equipment to help you put your resolutions into practice.

Sports, Wellness and TCM at the LIFESTYLE Resort zum Kurfürsten

The gym at the LIFESTYLE Resort zum Kurfürsten on the Mosel River is equipped with high-quality Life Fitness cardio equipment. Life Fitness is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of professional fitness-gear. It is also the perfect place to combine your personal exercise program with wellness. The sustainable hotel has a 4,000-quare-meter wellness area with a heated outdoor pool, a Kneipp pool and a sauna area. There is also a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practice in the hotel, where you can receive various treatments and consultations.

YOUNIQUE Activity Room at Hotel Klosterbräu in Tyrol

Many hotels offer a fitness room with a glass front and a panoramic view. But the YOUNIQUE activity room at the Hotel Klosterbräu in Seefeld has another special feature: it is housed in the former monks’ choir. The Hotel Klosterbräu was built on a 500-year-old monastery wall. The church is just behind the stone wall.

Sustainability in the gym

Instead of paper towels, athletes at the Hotel Klosterbräu are provided with towels that are washed and reused by the hotel. In addition, there are water bottles made of organic plastic and reusable hard plastic cups in the sports area. Tap water in Tyrol is of excellent drinking quality.

24-Hour Fitness at the SCHWARZWALD PANORAMA

The Fitness Suite at the SCHWARZWALD PANORAMA in Bad Herrenalb is open 24/7. You can work out early in the morning or late at night. Just when you feel like it. Modern equipment such as weights, benches, bikes and treadmills are available. If you prefer to go outside, there is a jogging track right outside the hotel waiting for you.

New fitness area at the HUBERTUS

Mountain Refugio Allgäu

The HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio Allgäu in the German region of the alps opened a new spa and fitness area in 2021. The indoor fitness room “Mountain Move” is equipped with modern, high-quality and durable equipment, partly made of natural materials, in line with the hotel’s overall sustainable concept. In the summer, the outdoor yoga area awaits the guests daily for Yoga classes, as well as Tai Chi and Qi Gong.

The new Mountain Move Gym with professional PRECORE equipment

Fitness with a personal trainer at CERVO Mountain Resort Zermatt

The fitness room at the CERVO Mountain Resort in Zermatt, Switzerland (like the entire interior of the hotel) is built with sustainable natural materials. Most of the exercise equipment is made of wood and leather, and you can enjoy views of the Matterhorn from the gym. You can also book a personal trainer to get the best out of your exercise time.

Bike-Fitness on the roof terrace of the Lifestylehotel SAND at the Baltic Sea

The Lifestylehotel SAND at the Baltic Sea had an original idea: on the roof terrace there are two my Boo standing bikes. The hotel has been renting out my Boo bamboo bikes to its guests for some time now, but if you’d rather stay at the hotel, you can now hop on a stationary bike!

The German start-up’s bamboo bikes are not only made from the fast-growing and robust raw material bamboo, but each bike also supports the community in Ghana where the bikes are produced. In this way, my Boo has already funded 300 school scholarships.

Fit on vacation with daily yoga

Yoga combines physical exertion with mental relaxation. Movement, concentration and conscious breathing helps you to forget about everyday stress and increase your well-being. Yoga also improves flexibility and stability.

Yoga originated in India and is a spiritual (Hindu) path to self-knowledge. Many yoga teachers also teach these spiritual values in the West, although usually in a watered-down form. Nevertheless, in almost all the courses offered by the partners, an inner experience of consciousness is part of the practice.

Sustainable training at the OCÉANO Health Spa Hotel, Tenerife

If you want to combine a fitness vacation with yoga, the OCÉANO Health Spa Hotel on the Canary Island of Tenerife is the place to be! The hotel’s “Center of Healty Motion” features a beautiful, light-filled fitness area with ocean views, a huge space for yoga and mental relaxation, and an outdoor yoga area on the rooftop terrace. To avoid plastic, you can fill an OCÉANO water bottle at the water dispensers. There is no need for air-conditioning, instead you enjoy the fresh sea air while doing yoga.

Yoga 3 times daily at Paradiso Pure.Living on the Alpe di Siusi

If you really want to focus on yourself during your vacation, we recommend taking some time out on the Alpe di Siusi in South Tyrol, Italy. The Paradiso Pure.Living is the first purely vegetarian-vegan hotel in the Dolomites and offers yoga classes three times a day led by professional yoga instructors. There is an indoor yoga room and an outdoor yoga terrace for the summer. You can practice a variety of yoga techniques at different levels of difficulty. In winter, yoga is often combined with a ski vacation.

Yoga and calisthenics at STURM, Germany

STURM in the Biosphere Reserve Rhön offers its guests a daily yoga program. In addition to the guided classes, you can use the yoga room around the clock and find mats, pillows, blankets and yoga blocks for your personal practice. In addition to yoga, the room is also used for calisthenics. This is a full-body-workout using your own body weight. If you have any questions, you can book a personal training session at STURM to work out an individual training plan. The best thing about calisthenics is that you do not need any equipment, so you can easily continue your workout at home after your vacation and benefit even more from your stay.

Yoga at Biohotel Grafenast in Tyrol, Austria

As another yoga destination, we would like to introduce you to the Biohotel Grafenast. The hotel is located above the Tyrolean Inn Valley at an altitude of 1,330 meters and offers a beautiful natural setting. In addition to the many outdoor activities which you can start right outside the hotel door, there is the Red Room, where you can greet each other with the yoga greeting “Namaste”. The hotel offers classes for both beginners and advanced students. Yoga classes include asanas (postures), pranayama (breathing exercises) and meditation sessions. Currently, the Biohotel Grafenast also offers the course “Yoga and Writing”: a combination of yoga exercises and creative writing.

On vacation, we generally want to do many things “better” than in our everyday lives. If you are one of those who would like to get more exercise and fitness, we hope we have given you some ideas on where you can do it on vacation and how to find the right facilities and trainers. And once you have established a fitness routine on vacation, it will be easier to implement it in everyday life.