Life & Style | Travel

Pick of the best bootcamps abroad

Whether you're looking to fight flab, get fit or feel good, kickstart your New Year 'look good and feel fabulous' regime with these healthy holidays

  • By Kate Birch, Editor, Aquarius
  • Published: 00:00 January 1, 2012
  • Aquarius

  • Image Credit: Camera Press
  • Created some 30 years ago by a super-fit Swedish duo, the masochistic bootcamp combines physical challenges with personal contemplation.

THE LUXURY BOOTCAMP
Camp Biche, France

Ideal for… Foodies

What? Based on the premise that you can be slim and healthy by following the French way of life, this week-long bootcamp in southwest France helps you lose weight and get fit without denying yourself. Set up by self-confessed ‘Type A: over-achiever' Libby Pratt, it's a foodie spin on a bootcamp with some simple rules: ‘Eat fresh, small portions, avoid snacking, come to dinner hungry, leave satiated, and enjoy food.'

"I want to teach people that food is not the enemy," says Libby, who claims that her clients lose between 8 to 30 per cent of their total body fat and several inches off their waistline. All this while having fun, eating delicious food and drinking wine.

Fitness: Each day begins with an intensive abs reduction class, before a fat-burning three-hour hike through the French countryside. After lunch, there's pool gym, yoga, Pilates, circuit training, boxing and aerobics.

Food: You eat three gourmet meals a day - think cappuccino-style chickpea mousse with a slab of foie gras - but portions are small, and you don't get to snack.

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Extras: You enjoy six hours of massage throughout the week, and can spend free time in the outdoor pool and hot tub.

We love… The fact it's set in a gorgeous 13th-century château in a medieval hilltop village, with individually designed rooms. Trés chic.

Details: Camp Biche offers a seven-night Signature Kickstart Programme for €3,920 (Dh18,700), excluding flights, but transport is arranged for you from Toulouse airport (www.campbiche.com).

THE MASOCHISTIC BOOTCAMP

The Ashram, USA; Spain

Ideal for… Hardcore bootcampers

What? Created some 30 years ago by a super-fit Swedish duo, this Californian health and fitness programme, which combines physical challenges with personal contemplation, kickstarted the whole bootcamp craze. Tucked away in the stunning Santa Monica mountains, this no-nonsense bootcamp - think gruelling hikes, basic facilities and wholesome food - has a mean reputation, but delivers results: the Ashram claims you can lose six to 12 pounds in a week, and that after seven days, your ‘body is toned, your mind purged, and your spirit soaring'.

Fitness: The day begins with a 5.30am yoga session, before a 15km mountain hike. In the afternoon, there's water exercises, weights and resistance training and special sessions like Barre Class, Core Work and Qi Gong, with another yoga session in the evening. By the end of the seven days, you will have hiked up to 70 miles.

Food: Based on a 1,000-calorie-a-day diet, the food is vegetarian, wholesome and nutritious, with most veggies grown in their own organic garden.

Extras: The Ashram offers new-age components like chakra balancing and meditation moments, while massages are delivered daily.

We love… The fact that a long line of super-healthy, disciplined celebrity women have visited - Ashram alumni include Oprah Winfrey, Shirley MacLaine, Cindy Crawford, Jane Fonda and Faye Dunaway.

Details: The Ashram (www.theashram.com) offers all-inclusive (except flights and transfers) seven-night programmes from $US4,500 (Dh16,500) as well as a seasonal programme in Mallorca, Spain.

THE BACK-TO-NATURE
Wildfitness, Greece; Kenya

Ideal for… Competitive spirits

What? Based on the philosophy of returning to our hunger-gatherer instincts and using everything found in nature to keep us agile, fast, lean and strong, this out-in-the-wilderness bootcamp promises not only to transform your body, but also to change your outlook on how to be healthy. They offer a nine-day Kick Start Programme in both Kenya and Greece.

Fitness: Known as ‘Wild Moving' - learning to move with skill and harnessing natural forces to develop a lean, strong, flexible body - the fitness schedule focuses on ‘natural movement', from walking and jumping to crawling and throwing. You re-learn to run effectively (known as ‘wild running') and participate in activities such as boogie-boarding, boxing, swimming and yoga, which are all held outdoors.

Food: Focused on ‘Wild Eating', this bootcamp offers an ‘evolutionary diet' of fruit, veggies, meat, fish, seafood, nuts, seeds and ancient grains and pulses: natural foods that promise to make you feel light, satisfied and energised.

Extras: On the Kick Start course, you also get seven workshops covering movement, metabolism and nutrition, as well as entry to local nature reserves and up to four massages.

We love… That this programme is sustainable: on the bootcamp, you're taught how you can continue what you've learned when you return home.

Details: Wildfitness (www.wildfitness.com) offers courses from three days to two-and-a-half weeks. The nine-day Kick Start course in Kenya costs £2,250 (Dh12,800) with the next one starting February 4; while the one-week Boost course in Crete, Greece, costs £1,800 (Dh10,200), with the next one starting May 22. Prices exclude flights, but includes transfers.

THE MOTHER-AND-BABY

BabyComes2Bootcamp, Italy

Ideal for… New mums

What? Based in her very own 17th-century farmhouse in Tuscany, mum-of-one and experienced tour guide Rita Kobrak's mum-and-baby bootcamp delivers a holiday experience with a serious get-fit message. Though based on a flexible structure due to baby routines, Fit Chicks trainer Alessia de Magistris gets new mums trimmed and toned (Rita says, "Every mum who comes here loses inches and weight,") while their kids (aged up to three years) are being giving tons of TLC.

Fitness: There are four classes a day, including Fusion (a mix of tai chi, yoga and Pilates), cardio, circuits, aqua aerobics, Pilates and Fighting Fit (Alessia's version of kick-boxing). Alessia also provides one-on-one advice, and there's a pool for swimming.

Food: Based on a low GI diet, all food uses locally sourced ingredients and is cooked from scratch, with three small, healthy meals a day - think fresh smoothies and homemade muesli for breakfast. Rules include, ‘no snacking, no second helpings and no alcohol.'

Extras: All baby booty (from cots and high chairs to car seats and sterilizers) is supplied, meaning you can travel light. During the stay, you get a group trip to the medieval, walled town of Anghiari, and upon request, you can have relaxing massages, beauty treatments, or even horse-riding lessons.

We love… That your child is not simply ‘looked after' (Fernanda, the Italian childminder has been dubbed ‘the baby whisperer' by guests), but is entertained and stimulated with baby Italian lessons, seed planting as well as singing and dancing sessions.

Details: Babycomes2bootcamp (www.mum-and-baby-experience.co.uk) offers a five-night, six-day break for £800 (Dh4,600), which includes full-board for you and baby and pick-up from Perugia airport. 2012 dates include May 6-11, 13-18 and September 2-7. A

 

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