Tips for Escaping Winter Blahs

We all have our blah months, mine is February! And I go to Ixtapan Spa in Mexico (www.spamexico.com) for a budget spa deal.

Tips for choosing a fitness + fun vacation.

1. Make sure your hotel includes fitness and/or spa treatments in its prices. Do not be fooled by discounted room prices. Remember service charges on spa treatments are usually 20% more.

2. Ask what is walkable from the hotel. Why? Everyone wants to leave the confines of a resort, no matter how lovely and many destination resorts are remotely situated.

3. Shopping? Is there shopping nearby as well as in the hotel? Most hotels have ridiculously overpriced shops for guests who must scratch their shopping itch, however high the prices. If you like relaxed shopping, make sure there are fun places- hopefully walkable- but if not, taxi-near. Same with transfers to the resort from the airport.

 

4. Is there anything else to see and how do you get there? What a shame to visit a resort and not see a nearby cultural or historic site. Many locations only have pricey suburban taxi services making a day out expensive.

 

5. Check the single supplement cost; if you are doing a fitness and spa trip, treat yourself and look for a single deal.

6. Check the weather and altitude which effects temperature and air quality.

7. Ask about casualness of clothes and, if going alone, about dining for solos.

8. Is use of the spa area free? Or is there a resort charge also?

 

9. Ask for a week's worth of free activities like fitness classes.

 

10. Finally, check out the photos of women in the hotel site; do they look like you? If not, rethink your choice.

Phyllis Stoller has a BA from Tufts University, MA from New York University and a Finance Degree from the University of the South Bank, London England. Phyllis is as an expert in the needs of women travelers and has appeared on local and national TV including CNN, The Today Show and Lifetime Television for Women. She believes that travel is a life changing experience and that traveling with women is a privilege.