Club. Another club. Shots. Bottle service. Then room service. Lying in bed till noon the next day, breakfast at 2 pm, lounge by the pool, then by the beach. And as the sun sets, repeat. You have probably lived some version of this on a holiday. Maybe the shots were replaced by a buffet of desserts. Maybe the beach was skipped for a no-holds-barred shopping escapade. But on vacation, all sense of control and regulations collapses. Gluttony and hedonism hang heavy in the air and a say-yes mood takes over.
Or at least, such was the norm of the past. Today, the allure of a holiday is no longer blind lawlessness. There is still pleasure to be sought, of course, but the source is now different, much healthier. “Fitness is my favourite thing to do in the whole world, so I love going on holidays that are centred around training,” Sanika Vaid, the founder of sustainable health platform SAVA Fitness, shares.
The 30-year-old from Mumbai hops on a plane to Phuket every alternate year, skipping the buzzy streets laced with buzzier little bars to put on her Alo tights and work out. Over 10 days, Vaid tucks in two or three daily sessions across nine gyms, including the popular Unit 27. One day could be Muay Thai and yoga by the beach, the other could be about boxing followed by strength training at an indoor playground.
The luxury of choice remains attractive on holiday. Only, now it’s shifted from rooftop bars to open-air workout stations. A 2025 International Luxury Travel Market report reveals that 49 per cent of premium travellers seek rarified fitness treatments on vacation. Meanwhile, 40 per cent crave tailored data-driven health and nutrition plans from resorts. This rise in physically challenging holidays aligns with other trends du jour.
In the recent past, young people have been screaming about how alcohol doesn’t pander to them the way it once did. Look around and no one wants a limited-edition bottle of Scotch any longer; they’d much rather optimise sleep, strain, and recovery through a Whoop band. See also (the now cringe but once cool) coffee raves, where run clubs finish their 10k with a shot of espresso and a side of techno. Cities all over are introducing their own fitness festivals to ride this wave: Los Angeles has the annual Fit Expo, Antarctica has the Wonder Summit complete with kayaking in icy water, and Bengaluru’s luxe gym HyFit hosted its first fitness festival on September 14.
Health is being established as a certified marker of pride, where luxury isn’t about the watch on your wrist but the sleep score it detects. And this bent towards better living and better being is equally shaping how people take time off on holidays. Delhi-based stock trader Abhinav Mishra is returning to work fresh from a Spanish summer. “My wife and I love fitness, and our latest active recovery sport is padel. So, we flew to Marbella because it has the most picturesque courts in the world,” the 31-year-old says, adding that they also played at Dubai’s Instagram-famous floating padel court in June.
But that’s not the only fitness-driven vacation that Mishra and his wife have taken. In 2024, the couple took an impulsive flight to London to immerse themselves in a week of training sessions at the city’s luxury gym facilities, such as Third Space and Equinox. “We would go open-water swimming and rowing over the weekend,” he adds. Next on their bucket list is Indonesia’s NIHI Sumba, where active wellness programmes include equestrian retreats, guided hikes through the jungle, beachside workouts, in-house padel courts, and a renowned surfing programme.
With people more willing to invest in premium fitness-first holidays, luxury houses are also taking note. “The future of fashion isn’t in your closet anymore; it’s in your routine, your wellness performances, and the spaces you move through to live your best life,” trend forecaster Ahaana Khosla shared in a recent video, citing as example the freshly launched Kith Ivy in New York. The members-only padel club attracts a global clientele intrigued by the adaptogenic smoothies from Erewhon and a recovery system curated by Armani.
Similarly, global resorts are tailoring health-driven experiences that focus on workouts as a form of healing. For instance, Phuket’s Amanpuri resort is paradise for biohackers, with programmes targeting strength, cognitive health, and regenerative recovery. Greece’s Euphoria Retreat combines cardio with elemental nutrition, while California’s The Ranch offers high-performance cleanses and training sessions.
These fitness holidays embody the new codes of wealth, where vacations aren’t to vegetate and lie still but to actively create time to invest in your wellbeing. “Daily life can get so packed with work and responsibilities that carving out uninterrupted time for health and fitness is luxury,” says Pareesha Ruia, 33. The wellness coach has jetted to Crete, Mykonos, Phuket, Los Angeles, and Dubai to get a dopamine reset through hardcore workouts.
The promise of community is also a big draw for Ruia. “Meeting like-minded people makes these trips special. When you train, eat clean, and grow stronger together, it’s deeply energising. That sense of rejuvenation is addictive,” she shares. At a time when every hobby—running, crafting, cooking, singing—is a means to squash isolation, holidays with the opportunity to bond with strangers by hyping each other to do that one last pull-up or hold that headstand for 10 seconds longer, is undeniably special.
Just as they always were, vacations today are about rest, relaxation, indulgence, even socialisation. But the look and feel of these holidays is getting a supple, healthy facelift. Ring for the butler, yes, but this time he may hand you a set of dumbbells instead of a chilled can of beer.
