Holiday hangover: You deserve a break today

-- Reuters does not endorse or recommend any of the companies or properties listed in this column. They have not been vetted by Reuters. This is merely a sampling of what is available for those interested in a health-focused vacation. Readers are encouraged to fully investigate each company before making any choices. --

By Terri Coles

TORONTO (Reuters) -- If your December celebrations involve some overindulgence along with a packed schedule, there are options out there that let you combine a break from it all with a chance to undo some of the mental and physical damage from office parties and family dinners.

Health Spas

Health spas often look like regular resorts, with beautiful grounds, luxurious rooms and breathtaking natural settings. But inside their doors, you'll find early morning wake-up calls and portion-controlled meals instead of afternoon siestas and all-you-can-eat buffets.

Some of these spas go out of their way to make exercising often and eating right as painless as possible. For example, the well-known Canyon Ranch spas in Arizona and Massachusetts combine traditional options like massages with annual check-ups and in-depth consultations with medical experts.

Other health resorts seem to consider their beautiful surroundings payoff enough for colon cleanses and meals consisting mostly of vegetation. At the Abundant Life Wellness Center in Alberta, Canada, a multi-day visit involves raw foods, cleansing drinks, fasting, blood-cell analysis and colonics.

Yoga Retreats

Yoga retreats, with accommodations ranging from austere to five-star, offer travelers the chance to focus on their yoga practice away from distractions and responsibilities. Yogis can rent a small beach hut at Solstice Yoga and Vacations in Mexico, or practice at any of a variety of high-end resorts, whether they focus on yoga specifically or offer classes as part of their wider fitness options. Your choice for a yoga vacation destination can depend largely on your preferred technique; a more Westernized approach may lead you to a spot in the United States or the Caribbean, while a desire to get to yoga's roots could send you packing for its birthplace, India, and its more traditional approaches.

Learn A Sport

Do you want to brush up on your tennis skills? Have you always wanted to try scuba diving? A variety of resorts cater to beginners interested in learning a new sport or recreational activity, combining your usual vacation with lessons with experts and the chance to immerse yourself in practice.

At Club Med resorts, visitors can spend their vacation improving their tennis game or their form on the slopes. Vacationers can take group lessons or enroll in more intensive three-day programs. If you've always wanted to learn to ride the waves, look into visiting Costa Rica - Del Mar Surf Camp offers instructional surfing sessions along with hikes and horseback riding, and Surf Camp has a teen-specific surfing program.

Travel with Body Power

There are a lot of ways to see the world - plane, train, automobile. But by using your own physical power to tour, you can easily combine sightseeing and fitness.

Europe offers many opportunities to see the continent on two wheels, from one-day bike tours of its famous cities to longer treks that could take you and your cycle across several countries. DuVine Adventures and Ciclismo Classico are two examples of the many vacation companies offering biking tours in Europe for people at a variety of fitness levels.

And perhaps you'll find a famous natural destination more rewarding if you climb, paddle or hike there yourself. Canada's Rocky Mountains offer opportunities for backpacking, hiking and walking vacations and tours, and Distant Journeys runs eight-day cross-country skiing trips through Austria's peaks.

Medical Tourism

Medical tourism is a small but growing industry. South American countries like Brazil have long been a destination for cosmetic surgery-seekers, but North American tourists faced with high costs and long wait times are increasingly looking into international destinations for surgeries like organ transplants and hip replacements.

At the start of 2009, Wisconsin-based Serigraph will waive copays and coinsurance for their employees for certain medical procedures, if the employee is willing to fly to India to receive them. Procedures like knee replacements are so much less there that Serigraph can pay for the surgery and put the employee up at a nice Indian hotel and still come out ahead on the math. Health insurers are looking into taking this option wider, due to the significant savings it offers.

Regardless, of the 60,000 to 85,000 people who go to a foreign country for medical care, only 13 percent do it to save money, and 15 percent to cut waiting times, according to a recent McKinsey & Co. report on medical travel. Though the report predicted that the number of Americans going overseas for medical care will grow - perhaps as high as 700,000 procedures annually - the large majority of patients traveling for care are wealthier residents of developing countries who come to Europe and the United States, not the reverse.

Do you ever combine vacations and fitness? Tell us about your plans: HealthMatters@reuters.com