Wellness travel. . . What the heck is it?
I think that when most people think of "wellness travel", they envision people lounging around spas with volcanic mud masks detoxifying their skin after they just spent 2 hours sweating in a Bikram yoga class. Wellness travel is not all about spas and yoga. If you think about it, everyone has their own sense of what wellness means to them.
According to some travel experts, myself included, wellness travel consists of these five tenets:
1.) Physical activity
2.) Stress reduction
3.) Spiritual connectedness
4.) Food education
5.) Cultural involvement
When we are ready for "more"out of life and out of our vacations, we tend to "do" more on our vacations. In my travels, I've met several people who are in the doing mode of travel ~ they are snowboarding, they are volunteering on horse farms, they are teaching abroad, and they are getting their hands filled with the countries cultural richness, they are partaking in culinary classes and they are finding that their travels are contributing to their overall sense of "wellness." You see, the five tenets above are what people who crave a well lived life are looking for and those who are living a life well lived are doing.
Let me highlight some ideas that help create a vision for what wellness travel looks like. Imagine you are a runner and have always wanted to run a marathon in another country, experience new terrain and feel the thrill of running a marathon in a new land.Why not try your hands at the International Peace Marathon in Kigali, Rwanda? Okay, so maybe that's too far fetched for you. How about attending a surfing and adventure glamping experience in Costa Rica where you will either learn to surf or practice your already killer surfing moves? Creating a vacation focused on physical activity really has endless opportunities. Hikes around volcanos, white water rafting, scuba diving, mountain climbing, salsa dancing trips and bicycling all fall under the category of wellness travel as it really does improve your overall mental and physical well being. To piggy back on #2 on this list, adding physical activities to your travels is an immediate stress reducer.
More often than not, in this fast paced world of ours, we find ourselves lost in terms of spiritual connectedness. In our day to day lives, we can easily lose sight of what matters to us and crave a deeper connection to the world around us. Sometimes, we need to physically remove ourselves from our natural surroundings to find that connectedness. Julia Roberts portrayed a woman in the movie, "Eat, Pray, Love" of a woman needing MORE out of her life. She traveled around the globe in search of enlightenment and purpose and ultimately found what she was looking for. For the traveler searching for connectedness, it may come in the form of a hike to the summit of a mountain, it may come on a religious tour to the Holy land or it may come from meditating in an ashram in India. This connectedness that I speak of may very well come to you on a trip you take with your family to Florida. One never knows when one can or will "feel" the connectedness but the best way to find out is to start traveling.
A well fed soul is a happy soul. That being said, culinary tours and travels to other lands to explore the destination's cuisine and culture all contribute to a persons well being. Foodies will appreciate knowing how to make different kinds of moles in the Mole capitol of Mexico ~Oaxaca. They will return home with a renewed can-do attitude in the kitchen, bound to please all involved! Understanding the intricacies of another cultures culinary crafts is enriching and empowering; in many countries, some of these skills have taken people ages to master and travelers taking part in such classes are richer for their experience. This is also wellness travel.
Again, wellness travel really is a way to feed our souls. For some travelers, myself included, diving head first into the destinations culture leaves me a better person. Giving back to a community that has little in the material sense
but offers much in terms of happiness, contentment and gratitude is humbling and thought provoking at best. Learning a new language, attending cultural festivals and religious celebrations around any country will open your eyes to a whole new world that you never knew existed, thus, making you better for it. This is wellness travel.
Often times, we don't know what we "need" out of our travels but we stumble upon our moments of bliss by accident craving more of these moments but unsure of how to get them back. If these are the moments you pine for in life, the amount of opportunities for you to grab them are endless ~ the hard part is deciding just where to start. This is why we have travel agents like myself. I "get" wellness travel. I understand the need for "more" out of a vacation. I understand the need to live a life well lived, thus "Viva la Vida Travel" ( Spanish for Live Life Travel). Don't wait until your burnt out to seek a wellness travel vacation ~ do it now. Pursue a life well lived and filled with inspiration. This world needs people who have taken care of themselves through travel because it is through travel that we gain new insights, become more tolerant of others ( and ourselves), and grow to become better versions of ourselves every step of the journey. This my friend is wellness travel.
According to some travel experts, myself included, wellness travel consists of these five tenets:
1.) Physical activity
2.) Stress reduction
3.) Spiritual connectedness
4.) Food education
5.) Cultural involvement
When we are ready for "more"out of life and out of our vacations, we tend to "do" more on our vacations. In my travels, I've met several people who are in the doing mode of travel ~ they are snowboarding, they are volunteering on horse farms, they are teaching abroad, and they are getting their hands filled with the countries cultural richness, they are partaking in culinary classes and they are finding that their travels are contributing to their overall sense of "wellness." You see, the five tenets above are what people who crave a well lived life are looking for and those who are living a life well lived are doing.
Let me highlight some ideas that help create a vision for what wellness travel looks like. Imagine you are a runner and have always wanted to run a marathon in another country, experience new terrain and feel the thrill of running a marathon in a new land.Why not try your hands at the International Peace Marathon in Kigali, Rwanda? Okay, so maybe that's too far fetched for you. How about attending a surfing and adventure glamping experience in Costa Rica where you will either learn to surf or practice your already killer surfing moves? Creating a vacation focused on physical activity really has endless opportunities. Hikes around volcanos, white water rafting, scuba diving, mountain climbing, salsa dancing trips and bicycling all fall under the category of wellness travel as it really does improve your overall mental and physical well being. To piggy back on #2 on this list, adding physical activities to your travels is an immediate stress reducer.More often than not, in this fast paced world of ours, we find ourselves lost in terms of spiritual connectedness. In our day to day lives, we can easily lose sight of what matters to us and crave a deeper connection to the world around us. Sometimes, we need to physically remove ourselves from our natural surroundings to find that connectedness. Julia Roberts portrayed a woman in the movie, "Eat, Pray, Love" of a woman needing MORE out of her life. She traveled around the globe in search of enlightenment and purpose and ultimately found what she was looking for. For the traveler searching for connectedness, it may come in the form of a hike to the summit of a mountain, it may come on a religious tour to the Holy land or it may come from meditating in an ashram in India. This connectedness that I speak of may very well come to you on a trip you take with your family to Florida. One never knows when one can or will "feel" the connectedness but the best way to find out is to start traveling.A well fed soul is a happy soul. That being said, culinary tours and travels to other lands to explore the destination's cuisine and culture all contribute to a persons well being. Foodies will appreciate knowing how to make different kinds of moles in the Mole capitol of Mexico ~Oaxaca. They will return home with a renewed can-do attitude in the kitchen, bound to please all involved! Understanding the intricacies of another cultures culinary crafts is enriching and empowering; in many countries, some of these skills have taken people ages to master and travelers taking part in such classes are richer for their experience. This is also wellness travel.
Again, wellness travel really is a way to feed our souls. For some travelers, myself included, diving head first into the destinations culture leaves me a better person. Giving back to a community that has little in the material sense
Often times, we don't know what we "need" out of our travels but we stumble upon our moments of bliss by accident craving more of these moments but unsure of how to get them back. If these are the moments you pine for in life, the amount of opportunities for you to grab them are endless ~ the hard part is deciding just where to start. This is why we have travel agents like myself. I "get" wellness travel. I understand the need for "more" out of a vacation. I understand the need to live a life well lived, thus "Viva la Vida Travel" ( Spanish for Live Life Travel). Don't wait until your burnt out to seek a wellness travel vacation ~ do it now. Pursue a life well lived and filled with inspiration. This world needs people who have taken care of themselves through travel because it is through travel that we gain new insights, become more tolerant of others ( and ourselves), and grow to become better versions of ourselves every step of the journey. This my friend is wellness travel.
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