I’ve committed
to a regular exercise routine at home and I certainly did not want to give it
up just because I was traveling. Here
are some of the things that I’ve been doing and have done in the past:
I brought a set of exercise bands with me and have a 30 minute full body routine that I have been doing a few times per week.
While I’m back working in Canada, I run the stairs a couple of times per week at lunch time. Usually anywhere you go it is easy to find a set of stairs to do whether they are stairs in an apartment building you are staying at or stairs along a pathway. I make it a treasure hunt to find good stairs wherever I go. Follow my #stairsoftheworld on Instagram to see my workout stairs. You get a great workout from repeating sets of stairs!
Pink Stairs Portoferraio
I’m a member of an online workout program and it has lots of great workouts that you can do in 30 minutes or less. With their App, you can download them so you don’t have to worry about having an internet connection. I brought my IPad with predownloaded workouts (the programs that don’t require weights) and all I have to do is press play…super easy!
Find a local gym or yoga studio. Every town, city, hotel or resort will have a gym you can use.
These boots (well…shoes) were made for walking….we find when we travel we get a lot of walking in each day, sometimes up to 15km. This is great exercise for your body.
Make your travel into an active vacation. Our family loves to hike and bike so we look for these activities wherever we go. You are usually rewarded with a great view and get an excellent workout without really realizing it. See link to our Cinque Terre and Elba Island hikes.
The biggest tip is to not let your exercise get in the way of your travels. What I do is get up earlier than everyone else and get it done! It’s challenging to wake up, but once you do it’s such a great start to the day.
When I travel, I do want to experience the food and indulge a little but maintaining a healthy eating plan is important to me as it is so easy to get off track and go down the slippery slope of overindulging and feeling guilty about it. I put together 5 health tips that my family and I try to stick to while on the road.
Pack healthy snacks for the day and bring them in a day pack. We stocked up on raw nuts, fruit and granola bars for the kid.
Bring water bottles instead of having to buy sugary drinks while you are out and about. We brought Swell bottles that kept our water cool. In Asia, you will have to purchase bottled water as the tap water is not drinkable but in Europe the water is perfectly fine to drink.
Just like at home it is better to shop for groceries and prepare as many of your meals as you can instead of eating out. You can control your portions and what ingredients you are using. This is a big reason we go Airbnb most of the time as we prefer having a kitchen. You also save big $ too as eating out gets expensive. In fact, this is really helpful for the budget.
When you do eat out, share meals and snacks instead of ordering one for each person. It’s often the right portion size and you don’t have to worry about left overs that may not get eaten.
It’s okay to indulge a little here and there but don’t think because you are on “vacation” or traveling that you can eat whatever you want. We loved our cafe latte’s and also had the occasional Gelato and Italian Pizza because while in Italy…..uhmmm…how could we not?
We planned for 5 nights to hike the 5 Terre (a.k.a. Cinque Terre) and we stayed in a City called La Spezia. We booked an Airbnb close to the train station to make it easy to get around. The location was convenient but the area was a bit sketchy and our apartment was above a bar….#fail on this booking. The apartment was clean and modern but the loud music and people yelling all night was brutal. I will not be recommending this Airbnb. We were also told (after the fact), not to stay too close to the train stations as the area can be a little rougher.
Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre means “5 lands” and it is made up of 5 towns on a stunning hillside on the Italian Riviera. It is a very popular travel destination which is known for it’s hiking trails linking the towns. You can access the towns by train, bus or even boat. For us, the plan was to take the train to the first town and hike the towns. By train, it was only a 15 minute train ride to the first town. We lined up at the train station to buy a combo Park Pass (as it’s a National Park) + train. The cost was 42 euros per day for a family and we purchased two days. At the tourist office where you buy the tickets they give you a map and tell you if any trails are closed. Unfortunately the hike between the first two towns were closed (Riomaggiore to Manarola) so we stopped at the third town Corniglia. The train station is at the bottom so we had to climb 400 stairs just to get to the start of the hike. You can take a bus to the top but we decided to give it a go. At the top you are greeted with nice cafes and places to get fresh juices. Although expensive for Orange Juice (4 Euro), we couldn’t resist. We also splurged on our morning latte and a couple of treats for the kids before we set out.
Starting the 400 stair climb to the start of the trail
OMG our 6 hour Hike!
Yes this title is correct. We hiked from the 3rd town to the 5th town Monterosso as we heard it had an amazing sandy beach. We were determined to do the entire hike instead of taking the trains between the towns. Had we known how difficult the hike was, we would have only hiked one town. The total distance was only 7.5km but it was rocky with very steep stone pathways, huge stair climbs and narrow dangerous paths. The total 6 hours does include our stop in the 3rd town Vernazza for a quick break but the hike was crazy! Way harder than I expected. I have to admit that we did love every bit though. The views were unbelievable and the scenery was spectacular so well worth it. We were so proud of the kids! Our youngest lead the pack the entire way and had energy after….we think our hiking in the Canadian Rockies had to have helped.
Our favourite town by far was Monterosso. We arrived there about 5:30pm and were too exhausted to explore the town so we took the train back there the next day and spent the entire day at the beach under a beach umbrella.
Beautiful Monterosso
Adventure Campitelli Tips
It is extremely touristy here and expensive so you can save $ by staying outside of Cinque Terre such as La Spezia and take a short train ride in.
The food including the Gelato in the touristy part of the towns is not very good and it is very expensive. We ate breakfast at home, packed snacks and shared a small snack (Calamari) to get us through the day after we tried the food on Day 1.
Be prepared. Bring LOTS of water! There are fountains in each town to refill and in the heat you will drink a lot of water. Also pack good footwear…runners are fine. Bring snacks especially for kids. Don’t forget sunscreen and hats as the sun is very hot.
Follow the main trail which is called the “Blue Trail” or “SVA”. It is very well marked with red & white paint in spots all along the path.
If you love sandy beaches and want to spend time in the water make sure you save time for Monterosso, our personal favourite!
