With practice, you can definitely do this!
Free. Travel. Two words that when paired together make me immediately run to my computer to see where I’ll go next! The amazing thing is that depending on what your skills are, there may actually be a way for you to travel for free.
There are so many resorts and hotels that offer fitness classes, retreats, and gyms to their guests. People teach Pilates on the beaches of the Caribbean, or yoga retreats in the mountains of the US and tons of other places allover the world from resorts that hire fitness professionals to do this for their guests. Many of these resorts will supply free lodging, some will include transportation to get there (airfare may or may not be included so you have to do your research), let you bring a guest and you eat for free. Some may even pay you in addition.
Typically, the way to get into this type of work exchange is to find an agency that resorts use to work with fitness professionals. If you do an Internet search for some agencies like this, you can quickly find a few. Do your research and find one that makes sense for what your expertise is in and works for how you like to travel. The best thing about it is that some of the offers will allow for you to bring a guest, are only a couple of weeks long, and once your commitment of teaching is over (typically only a few classes per day or week), the rest of your time is truly yours; leaving you plenty of time to explore the beautiful new country that you’re in.
So what’s the catch? The main thing is that you of course need to be a fitness professional. If this is something you already do and need a getaway and don’t want to spend alot of money on it, this is ideal for you. This is also a great opportunity for someone that aspires to work in the fitness industry and maybe just needed an additional incentive to take the plunge. You may have to pay your own airfare, but many of the placement agencies will offer discounts toward your airfare to help getting you there.
Like anything there are some guidelines; most of the resorts will require a minimum stay and have a maximum stay. You’re looking at 7-14 days of commitment and they typically don’t make you work on the days you’re traveling into our out of their resort.
Also keep in mind that if you’re traveling to a foreign country, while the resort may speak English, the guests may not and you’ll need to be able to lead a group of diverse individuals through your lessons. With practice, you can definitely do this, enjoy some free or reduced cost travel and have so much fun teaching what you love!
