The Active Vacation Experience

If you’re planning a vacation getaway but are wondering how you can maintain the fitness level you’ve worked so hard for, why not make exercise your vacation? I love to travel and explore new places, but lazing around on a beach all day isn’t my cup of tea. So Charles and I were delighted to discover uTracks, one of several companies that specialize in planning active European vacations. Their self-guided walking trips looked just perfect for us – especially when we learned that luggage transfers between accommodations are included in the packages. Yay, no lugging giant backpacks around!

UTracks offers guided or self-guided cycling, walking and even snowshoeing trips for the fitness buffs with wanderlust (an awesome German word for which there is no equivalent in English!). Holidays are graded by intensity on a scale of 1 (easy) to 5 (strenuous), and most include accommodations, some meals and an emergency hotline service in case you get a flat tire on your bike or get lost on the trail. We were so pleased with our first self-guided walking holiday last year in Portugal’s Algarve region that this year, we decided to splurge on a self-guided hiking (and feasting!) excursion to Italy’s spectacular Amalfi Coast!

These active vacations allow you to experience a new place in a multi-sensory way; we viewed breathtaking vistas impossible to see by car or bus, inhaled the scent of lemon blossoms and jasmine, and tasted tart fresh lemonade served to us after climbing 1000 steps (!) to a monastery built in the 9th century. We felt the Mediterranean breeze cool our sweaty skin, and the smooth texture of the limestone cliffs we clung to. And best of all, we savoured all the legendary culinary flavours the Amalfi region has to offer, including pizza, pasta, gelato and much red wine, without gaining a single pound! Hooray for uTracks! If this all sounds more interesting to you than an all-inclusive resort, why not try uTracks, and make exercise your next vacation!