Travelogger

We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

Travel for Health and Wellness

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Did you know that travel is now commonly advised for people who need to achieve health and wellness?  Aside for the usual reason of seeing unusual sights and destinations, many leisure travel packages now include services that will ensure maximum relaxation, healthy culinary activities, detoxification treatments, and other activities that will provide suitable physical and mental exercise.

Although these activities can be done in facilities nearer to home, leisure travel provides additional benefits as provided by a new environment.  Sometimes, people just need to find that zest to do something good for themselves again and they often find it away from home in a place that encourages renewal of mind and body.  Of course,  travel only aims to initiate completion of health and wellness goals.  People will have to find a way to sustain the interest once they are back home.

In the hustle and bustle of life, people often lose their sense of balance which results to poor health.  Balance pertains to providing equal time to work, play, stress, relaxation, and all the other things that affect human lives on a daily basis.  Once time is skewed towards one more than the others, the body and mind cannot achieve wellness.

The most common travel health and wellness destinations consist of spa resorts, wellness cruises, and yoga retreats.  It may also include hospitals and clinics offering weight reduction programs and surgical procedures in relation to body and facial aesthetics .  Many specific cities in different countries are fast becoming known as tourist destinations for this purpose.

Health and wellness tourism is very much alive in select places spawning an industry never before known to exist.  Patients seeking healing therapies will travel to great lengths to get the services which they think can help them in their condition.  Spas offering family-oriented activities are fast increasing in number, making travel for health and wellness a family affair as well.

Ideas For A Great Stay-cation

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In the previous post, we were introduced to the idea of a stay-cation – at least I was. Anyhow, I got into this whole stay-cation mode and did some thinking to come up with some ideas for a great stay-cation. Here are some of those things.

Create a home spa
If you have lots of girls in the home, then this would be a perfect thing to do. Trust me, even fathers would love the idea once they have experienced pampering. So anyway, you could set up a home spa in one room in the house. Build up the mood and ambiance by decorating the room. Get some cheap scented candles and oil burners, put on nice relaxing music. You can give each other foot scrubs and massages. Of course, you might want to take turns as it can be tiring after a while.

Have a Wii tournament
We are so into our Wii right now and we are loving it so much. We have had a couple of friends come over and play with us and everyone enjoyed the experience. If you are going on a stay-cation, why not organize a Wii tournament? With Wii Sports, you can have tennis tournaments – singles and doubles, bowling tournaments, and even boxing tournaments! At the end of the tournament, you can all go out for ice cream or some other similar treat.

Have a casual dinner party
If you have other friends who are stay-cationing, you can take turns holding a dinner party. You can have cocktails for the adults and something else for the kids. Prepare something simple for dinner or even better yet, make it potluck!

Yoga In Ko Samui

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The island of Koh Samui in Thailand is perhaps known more for its party atmosphere, large resorts, and action activites galore, but beneath the lively exterior are places where people can find some real mind and body relaxation – through yoga.

Whether you practice yoga at an advanced level, are just a beginner, or want to get your children to give it go, the island has what you need. Here are some worthwhile places to check out:

New Body and Mind Retreats

Located on Lipa Noi beach, this center offers yoga as well as a variety of health and rejuvenation treatments and activites such as meditation, breathing exercises, herbal cleansing, shiatsu massage, Thai herbal steams, dietary education, fasting, colonic irrigation, colon cleansing and other extensive workshops.

Yoga Thailand

This is the largest yoga center on the island, and one of the largest in Thailand. Located in quiet Ban Tai, on Bang Po beach north west of the island, it offers yoga classes, retreats, training courses, vegetarian food and accomodation.

Tamarind Retreat

Yoga and other holistic treatments like acupuncture, hypnotherapy, reflexology, reiki and myotherapy are offered at this luxurious spa/resort. However, it is NOT available all year round, so call ahead and ask.

Health Oasis Resort

Offers classes for families and kids, as well as other treatments and training courses on vortex astrology meditation, reiki, tarot and reflexology. Huge selection of health products and vegetarian cuisine. Budget rooms available.

Banyan Tree Ringha’s Lost Horizon

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Like the Aman-junkies (devoted Aman resort followers who langorously troupe from one luxury Aman resort to another), Banyan-junkies are now flocking to the latest Banyan Tree hotel high up in the mountains of Yunnan, China which opened this month.

Amid a Tibetan-style atmosphere of meditative Buddhist temples, prayer flags and gorgeous mountain views, the hotel is located a gasping (literally) 10,500 feet above sea level in a beautiful part of Sothwestern China in between Tibet, Myanmar and China’s Sichuan province.

The rooms are massive and decorated rather somberly with dark woods and large splashes of Chinese red lacquer and quilted curtains teeming with Tibetan flavour. The smallest room of the hotel, the Tibetan suite sprawls at 2,200 square feet and all the other rooms of the hotel are likewise on two floors.

The bathrooms are equally grand and spa-like in size, with more lacquer and tubs so large that one guest reported that his actually took over an hour to fill. To be expected are the mod cons easily found in most top hotels and resorts these days – the dvd and cd players, satellite television and high-speed internet to perhaps keep up with your blogging away from home.

There are two restaurants and a tea house to choose from, serving Chinese, Tibetan and Western cuisine. Of course, you could also choose the in-room dining option which is served until late in your room or in the romantic privacy of your courtyard garden.

The reason why this resort is so special (and near the top of my list of hotels to visit) is not its opulent comforts, but in its location, location, location. For the Banyan Tree Ringha is set in what James Hilton so wonderfully described in one of my favourite novels, “Lost Horizon” – reportedly Shangri La itself.

And after a hard day’s trekking and exploring (by four-wheel-drive) with one of the hotel’s expert guides, you can then treat yourself to a gloriously exotic-sounding treatment at the resort spa – perhaps a rice wine bath followed by a black sesame scrub to prepare you for another day in the Himalayan paradise.

Refreshing New Jersey

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colonaddeNew Jersey is known to have one of the most culturally diverse population in the whole US. People of different nationalities setting up shop creating a unique mix of food, culture, history and hospitality like a basket of fruits that all taste good. From the wonderfully relaxing beaches to the many leisure activities that can be enjoyed day and night comes the time when you need a bit of rest form all the exciting offerings the state has to offer.
from the Sea Isles to the other wonderful beaches many hotels and local inns abound to give tired souls a place to relax and recharge for another days adventure. Some of the best Jersey Shore hotels can be found near the wonderful beaches making it ideal for beach lovers and their families to have a relaxing night in peace. Wake up to the beautiful sunrise on the beach when the seas are calm and the atmosphere is surreal, kinda’ feels you’re in a different place far from the shores of New Jersey.