15 Reasons Why Your Vacation Can Be Healthy

Going away on a vacation brings numerous benefits. It refreshes our enthusiasm, helps us to know ourselves a little better, and makes us, upon our return home, happier, healthier, and much more effective in coping with stress.
The key to reaping the benefits of traveling is in the going away. Hardly anyone reaps a benefit from spending a vacation at home to work around the house.
Here are fifteen reasons to go away on vacation:
* 1. Relaxation: Vacations break our day-to-day routine.
* 2. Stimulation of new sights: New sights give us new insights.
* 3. Meeting new people: Seeing how other people live broadens our perspective on our own live.
* 4. Fellowship and camaraderie: Shared hardships and good times form long-lasting bonds of love and friendship.
* 5. Education: We learn new skills and activities. Remember when you picked your first farm-fresh fruit or vegetable, climbed a mountain, learned a new language?
* 6. Adventure: Travel returns a sense of adventure to our life and improves our self-esteem when we accept and conquer challenges that don't exist in our routine life.
* 7. Surprise: It is the unexpected surprises in life that give us some of our fondest memories.
* 8. Beauty: When we open our eyes and take in new sights, we begin to tune into the majesty of nature.
* 9. Anticipation: The planning and preparation give us some of the most pleasurable experiences we can recall.
* 10. Memories: We'll always have the joy of reflecting on our pleasant memories.
* 11. Freedom: A vacation gives us the freedom to do what we want to do. Even if we are generally satisfied, we may yearn for something more.
* 12. Self-discovery: In letting our soul talk to us, we develop our inner peace, creativity, and harmony.
* 13. Appreciation of things taken for granted: When we get home, we will get more out of life. We will notice the miracles where we live.
* 14. Time stands still: The best part is when we get completely lost in the moment.
* 15. Happiness: Constructive use of leisure time makes us happier people. The major goal of a vacation is happiness.
Now you have no excuse for not taking a vacation away from home. Or, do you? The choice is yours!

Staying Fit While on Vacation

As you travel for work and pleasure try to identify hotels that offer good fitness options. It's not easy! The state of the art fitness center is likely only a closet-sized room with old or broken equipment. Or, the lap pool is a short oval without lane lines. Or, the running routes consisted of a map provided by the concierge that directs guests to jog around the streets of the hotel 10 times. Here are some recommendation for the best places to stay for those who enjoy healthy living and staying fit.

If you are a couple looking for an ideal romantic getaway, also take into account the fitness facilities. Exercise not only helps boost your immunity system, lower stress, and improve your sleeping habits; it also helps your sex life. Studies have shown that healthy people have better sex and tend to be happier. Not necessarily an hour of hard-core running or lifting weights at the gym, but 20 minutes of brisk walking should be sufficient.

Romance/Fitness winning cities include:
San Francisco, complete with the bridge, the fog, the rain, the restaurants, and the cultural offerings.Hotel Rex is the best deal for the money. A small, intimate hotel property just steps from Union Square and China Town, Rex also provides guests with a discounted pass to a fantastic (but small) health club down the street, Club One.
Tuscon, where if money is no object, The Miraval Spa and Resort in Tucson is a marvelous getaway for couples looking to stay fit and be pampered. All meals are included as well as any type of exercise option you can imagine---horseback riding, lap swimming, rock climbing, etc.
Miami's South Beach hotels are filled with romance. The Shore Club, Delano, Ritz and National are all in the book, bestowing lots of love and liveliness to their guests.
Colorado Springs' Broadmoor Hotel is a breathtaking resort beset by serene lakes and mountain landscape. Broadmoor's Fitness Center and Spa is well-equipped with modern machines and a regulation lap pool. And, the nearby trails create fantastic jogging and mountain biking opportunities.
New York City can never be left off the romance list. Several properties make exceptional romantic destinations, but Le Parker Meridien, across the street from Central Park, tops my list. It's NYC, so expect small yet cozy hotel rooms. The Scandinavian flavor, tremendous views, and extensive on-site health club make it one of the best.

Exercising for only 20-30 minutes each day will allow you to start the day healthy and help you make better choices throughout the rest of the day. Then, enjoying small indulgences like your favorite piece of pie or a few cocktails or sitting around by the pool for six hours will not seem like a big deal. Don't forget about your improved "nightlife" too!

Before travel, research each property you are considering, the quantity of exercise machines, their condition, the brands, weight/strength options, pool dimensions, running routes, etc. Phone the concierge and ask him your specific questions. Sometimes it even helps to confirm with the maintenance workers.

To avoid the fully relaxed, but very out of shape, post-vacation common results make exercise part of your daily routine, just like showering or brushing your teeth. When you think about it, 20 minutes is not that much time at all. Especially while on a vacation, when you don't have to worry about going to work and all of the other hassles at home.

There is always a temptation to overeat when we are on vacation. How can we fight off this temptation while at the same time still enjoy ourselves? Exercise will allow you to not fret so much over what you're eating and drinking. You may end up taking in more calories, but being active and exercising should help to burn those off fairly easily.

Vacation is supposed to be a break from all that troubles and worries you. Eat the local food and experience the local customs without concerns about how many calories are in each meal. Knowing that you performed your daily workout reassures you that anything you eat will be worked off either that same day or the next. So, no, don't worry about avoiding certain foods---just make sure to get in a daily sweat. Of course, that doesn't mean that you can load up on fried twinkies and cheesecake, though. Sorry.

Airport Blackout Preparedness Tips

With the Christmas travel season around the corner, airports will be filled with families trying to visit relatives, and business travelers trying to get home. During this time, you may experience chaos and delay.
You walk up to the kiosk to get your boarding pass and punch the screen with no response. In fact, no one is moving. The power's out.
Like all experiences, there are lessons to be learned:
1. Carry a paper printout of your travel reservations. Because the computer systems were down, the airlines had no way of substantiating that you even had a reservation unless you had some kind of paper documentation with a reservation number on it. Even though you may be automatically booked on a later flight, you must show the printout to get your boarding pass. Save all my travel documents so it is easy to grab itineraries and related documents.
2. Travel with cash. Since cash machines and credit cards require electricity, your ability to buy food is directly related to the amount of cash you have available.
3. Keep your cell phone charged and a calling card handy. Despite sketchy service, without a battery you have no chance at all. Payphones worked intermittently, but many people scramble to borrow change to pay for the calls instead of when they had the chance.
4. Carry a flashlight.
5. Pack some protein. The day before stop in a nutrition store. I bought a whole box of protein bars if you have to.
6. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes. Keep in mind that temperatures vary widely - the airport is incredibly hot, but the airplane feels like a meat locker.
7. Carry wet wipes.
8. Keep physically fit. You will send a big "Thank You!" to your trainer every time you climbed the 2-story long escalator carrying your luggage. Passengers with checked luggage have to tote their own bags since luggage belts don’t function without the electricity.
9. Take an extra battery for your laptop. In spite of the chaos, you can manage to get some work done.
10. Carry a good book.
11. Be gracious. “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Getting upset doesn't solve any problems, and it always creates one more.
12. When you think you've got problems, look around. Other travelers are sick, elderly, physically or mentally handicapped, or traveling with children.

Dealing With Airport Stress

Your flights booked, and now it's airport time. Airport's can be stressful places nowadays, and these tips are designed for stress reduction...

Leave home early
Airport stress starts the moment you leave home. Don't sit in traffic watching minutes tick away. Aim to arrive at the airport two hours early (usually required for International flights). Then if there's traffic delays, you've still got plenty of time.

The check-in line
Now you've arrived, next step's check-in. Usually, there's multiple lines you can choose from. Which looks quickest ? Maybe the longest line is quickest ? Here's a couple tips. If you see lots of families and children in a line, avoid it. By the time they've found all their tickets, and sorted their luggage jumble, they've taken twice the time of a couple or single person. Look for a short check-in line that's not easy to see. Look at each end of the check-in aisles, and maybe there's a valid check-in hidden by a pillar, that few people see. It can cut off a half hour that you could spend otherwise.

How long to walk from lounge to gate ?
You can walk from 2 to 20 minutes after a call to your gate. Ask at check-in. It's an important question. When that screen flashes 'Go to Gate', it's much less stressful if you know how long you'll take to walk there. All your good work of stress-reduction goes down the tubes if you walk 5 minutes and then realize your gate is way the other side of the airport terminal. Sometimes you even have to go through more security, or another passport check, and find a line waiting there. This happens most often to international arrivals. A long passport control line stands between you and your gate, and departure is scheduled just 15 minutes later. If you find yourself far enough back in a security line, go to the front and explain the situation. No one should object to your passing through first. But try to avoid this unnecessary stress by checking in advance.

Invest in the Executive Lounge
If you travel often you might get free entry to an airport executive lounge. If not, you can often pay a small amount to use it. The ideal low-stress airport experience begins in the executive lounge. Away from all the airport hustle & bustle, relax with free drinks and nibbles. Read a newspaper or magazine and you're soon in just the right, relaxed frame of mind for your journey.

Are you nervous?
Don't feel embarrassed to be nervous. A lot of people are nervous of flying, but you know it's much safer than your car journey to the airport. If you can't use an executive lounge, then there's a couple other options to reduce your stress. Try shopping ! Retail therapy can actually help take your mind off your nervousness and stress. There is no need to buy anything. Just wander around looking.
 
Follow the above tips and you'll have a relaxed and stress free airport experience, all ready to enjoy your vacation or business trip.