By Mike Manning
Guest writer

Traveling can be very stressful for anyone, especially if you need to change flights or drive for hours on end. Because of the stress involved and the probability of eating higher-calorie foods, exercising can help you tremendously while on vacation. Implementing exercise into your travel plans doesn’t have to be as difficult as you think it might. Even a half hour each morning on the hotel’s treadmill will help you to feel healthier and make it easier for you to get back into your routine once you head back home.

Before you actually go on vacation, it is up to you to find a hotel that offers the fitness amenities that you want. Not all hotels have gyms, so it pays to look for one that does so that you can use it while you’re there. Typically when I go on vacation, I make sure to research the hotel I’m staying in beforehand. On my most recent trip to California, I found a travel review site where I could look at the top hotels in San Francisco and decide which one had the best amenities for me. I ended up choosing a hotel with a 24-hour gym so that I could work out at any time. Some hotels even have pools and saunas for guests who are looking to get in a good workout and sweat off the water weight afterward. You might even want to look for walking or hiking trails near the area you’re staying if your hotel does not have a gym or pool that you will be able to use while there.

A lot of bigger chain hotels are noticing how important fitness is to their guests and they are making changes accordingly. Many are improving the condition of their gyms so that there is more equipment available and a lot more activities that they can do while there. Some hotels even have daily or weekly fitness classes that you will be able to take if you are a paying guest. Be sure to ask your hotel’s receptionist about these amenities and how you can make use of them if you are going to be staying there for a while. Even if you don’t have access to a gym or fitness facility, you can easily find a place in your hotel room to do some simple yoga exercises or some body weight training.

You might even notice that a lot of the larger airports have fitness amenities to their traveling guests. The San Francisco International Airport has yoga and Zen room while the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport features a number of amazing walking paths that you can take if you’re in between flights. Even if your flight is going to be delayed, this can be a great time to work in some fitness and really help to get your body moving. Even though your vacation can be a great time to just be lazy, it can make it difficult to get back into a routine once you drive or fly back home.