Spring Travel: Get Healthy in Miami
Workouts with a view. Photo via Carillon Miami Wellness Resort
Sure, Miami — a city arguably best known for its late-night partying and accompanying please-don’t-raise-the-blinds mornings — might not seem like the ideal place to kick-start a healthy lifestyle. But the Carillon Miami Wellness Resort, a towering 150-suite beachfront property nestled on the tamer north end of Miami Beach, doesn’t dish out typical South Florida debauchery. Instead, it offers an impressive 70,000-square-foot wellness facility — a veritable playground (complete with rock wall, spin room and juice bar) for guests seeking a Goop-like health and fitness overhaul.
The Disneyland-esque fitness arena comes with a jam-packed programming schedule (200 fitness classes per week) that makes skipping a workout inexcusable. But you won’t want to ditch, anyway: Class options span relaxing yoga sessions to Rockwall Bootcamp, a circuit workout that utilizes a two-story indoor rock wall designed to mimic the feel of an outdoor climb. For those who shudder at the thought of joining in on a fitness class solo, there’s plenty of hand-holding in the form of personal training, from the expected (pros are readily available to help you figure out, um, how to actually use all those gym machines) to the unusual (a private Gyrotonics session is a must for anyone who’s ever longed to feel, well, longer).
But perhaps the resort’s greatest feat is that it masterfully toes the line between indulgent and salubrious. Case in point: Steps from the gym is a luxe spa that doubles as a post-workout recovery haven. (Get the Thai Tension Melt, a massage inspired by ancient practices that soothed Thai warriors returning from battle. It works wonders for fitness warriors returning from Cardio Kickboxing, too, as warm poultices filled with anti-inflammatory herbs like turmeric and lemongrass knock tension out of sore muscles.) And sweaty days wind down with cocktails and bites overlooking the ocean. Of course, those cocktails are made with fresh-pressed wheatgrass and organic liquor, and that kale Caesar salad is sprinkled with “parmesan” made from macadamia nuts, but you won’t care. By now you’re a wellness warrior, armed with boosted energy, a revved-up metabolism, a wellness and fitness plan, and the motivation to keep it up long after you’ve boarded the plane home.
WHERE TO STAY: Carillon Miami Wellness Resort, 6801 Collins Avenue, Miami, Florida; starting at $370 per night.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE: Work your way through the spa’s nine-step Thermal Experience (complimentary with stay), which includes pit stops at both an indoor igloo and a crystal steam room.
BRING HOME WITH YOU: With the spa’s Wellness Compass service ($165), an in-house exercise physiologist assesses your current state of fitness and nutrition, then sends you home with a six-week tailored-to-you training plan.
Published as “The Purpose-Driven Traveler: Get Healthy” in the March 2017 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
