Our Cycling Studio Owners will want to check this out ASAP…
For years we've promoted Working Fitness Vacations – where you, the Instructor, teache a few fitness classes in exchange for a very low cost, Caribbean vacation. Hundreds of Instructors have followed our recommendations and have really enjoyed their all inclusive vacations.
Now there's TripTribe.com. They specialize in assisting fitness professionals who want to take a group of clients (your tribe) on a fitness retreat. For leading these trips you, the Instructor, will be paid as the Trip Tribe Ambassador!
To learn the actual scoop on these trips, I asked the marketing representative at Trip Tribe if she'd connect me with an Ambassador that I could interview…
Coach Kelly McCormack owns Club Inhale Exhale in Billerica, Massachusetts. This past May she traveled with a group of her clients to a ranch in the mountains of Costa Rica. It sounds like everyone had a great time and best of all, the check TripTribe.com sent her at the conclusion of the trip paid all of her expenses🙂
Listen to my interview with Kelly to learn if this would be something you could do with your tribe.
TripTribe.com offers dozens of exotic locations across the world, in a wide range of pricing, including;
Go here and create a free profile. Spend some time working with their retreat planning wizard to get an understanding of the possibilities. Then I'd encourage you to call and discuss your ideas for a group trip with one of their advisors.
This Podcast is was last published on June 7, 2017, I have updated it with our new Podcast host information and I am representing it now. I hope you enjoy it, Joey
This year is going to be different!
You see for years Amy and I have traveled with FitBodies Inc. to teach fitness at beautiful resorts in the Caribbean.
We could only because Amy is an ACE Certified Group Fitness Instructor, which is the primary requirement to participating in this fabulous program: teach a few Group Fitness classes each day in exchange for a free stay at an All Inclusive resort in the Caribbean.
Everything changed when Suzelle Snowden, the owner of FitBodies, Inc send me an email that said they now have openings for Indoor Cycling Instructors!
Suzelle's email happened to come on September 23rd, which was our 21st anniversary, and I wasted no time booking a trip to Couples Tower Isle for the first week in November. I will be the Instructor that week and for the first time, Amy will get to choose when and where she works out 😉
There are many weeks available. Listen to the Podcast for more details and then visit http://www.fitnessprotravel.com to register - It's free. You only pay a booking fee once you decide what week you will be taking your working vacation.
UPDATE: 7/4/2013 - hundreds of Instructors have acted on our recommendation and enjoyed a low cost, romantic Caribbean vacation. Is it your turn to teach on a beach in Jamaica this winter?
Listen to the Podcast below or subscribe for free using iTunes or Zune.
Back when we lived in Minnesota with serious winter storms and consistent below zero (F) temps, Amy and I are were to spend a week on a warm beach. The video below shows the resort, Secrets Wild Orchid in Montego Bay Jamaica, where we went.
As I have said before, Amy and I aren't rich people. We can only afford to go because we teach Group and Indoor Cycling classes in exchange for our all-inclusive stay at this or one of dozens of other Caribbean resorts. Save your frequent flier miles and you can spend a week here for around $500.00 total. Check out our other website where we teach you most of everything you need to take your working fitness vacation. Or you can go here to see if you qualify.
For me, the biggest “perk” to being a Fitness Instructor has been teaching for a week at a beautiful, all-inclusive, resort in Jamaica or some other exotic Caribbean location! Amy and I call these very special trips our “marriage enrichment weeks” and we've gone on at least one trip every winter of the past 20 years! Most years we left our two girls at home… although on occasion we brought them along too.
Feeling the need to get a teaching vacation trip on our calendar for 2016, got me thinking that I should post some information for all of the new members and visitors to ICI/PRO. I asked long time friend and President of FitBodies, Inc. Suzelle Snowden to submit a guest post to help you understand all of the wonderful opportunities available to you!
Teaching vacations are often and by far the most economical way to take a luxury, all-inclusive resort vacation.
Instructors of fitness, yoga, pilates, Zumba, indoor cycle (Spin), tennis and golf can offer their teaching specialty in exchange for the resort accommodations and amenities. The instructors and companion(s) are treated like paying guests of the hotel while offering 1-2 sessions each day, teaching to the resort guests of the hotel. It’s a pretty sweet deal for the instructor who simply loves to share fitness, and vacation.
Fit Bodies, Inc. has been making these teaching vacations happen for over 20 years. Their booking site, FitnessProTravel.com, offers all members the 24/7 ability to view teaching vacation opportunities based on real time availability. Approved members search when they want to teach, or where they want to go or what formats they want to teach. With over 65 resorts through five countries, Fit Bodies, Inc. offers the ability to book for last minute, or up to 14 months in advance. So there is something for everyone!
Indoor cycle and Spin instructors have some extraordinary studios to teach from! For the indoor cycle instructor who teaches additional formats there are some exceptional locations to mention:
Couples Tower Isle, in Ocho Rios and Couples Swept Away, in Negril, Jamaica. Even ground transportation is included for the instructor and their companion at this ‘no tipping allowed’ resort chain. Couples Resorts makes fitness a priority for their guests with excellent, healthy cuisine and juice bars on property.
Sticking in Jamaica for a moment, there is Hedonism II in Negril, Jamaica. The president and founder of Fit Bodies, Inc. designed this gym with a lovely indoor and air-conditioned space for the Spin or indoor cycle instructor who offers other fitness formats.
Hilton Rose Hall is a family resort accepting the instructor, an adult companion and up to two children 17 or younger! What a great deal for a family trip! Offer another land cardio format to ideally qualify for this Jamaica position. John's note: our family has vacationed here four times and the place is awesome!
Moving over to Cancun, Secrets The Vine is ideal for the Cancun bound indoor cycle instructor who also offers another format, like yoga. With a great schedule of 8:30 yoga and 9:30 A.M. indoor cycle from a studio overlooking the pool, beach and ocean. Amazing.
Dreams Riviera Cancun is another family location. Take an adult companion along and up to two kids 12 or younger to this world-class luxurious family destination. From Explorer’s Club for kids 3-12 and 24-hour room service, this family resort only requires you to teach one format and indoor cycle is perfect!
If you are not yet a member on FitnessProTravel.com, it’s time to think about teaching abroad and enjoying great benefits. Signing up never carries a travel obligation as even the Basic (free) members of the site have access to view everything available to book, and read the details for each position. When you decide to place a booking, it’s confirmed the same day so you have permission to handle your own flights. Instructor expenses include a weekly booking fee and gift fund contribution totaling $525-650 and covers instructor and included companions for Sunday-Sunday travel (teaching on non-travel days). Flights are instructors’ responsibility, as it ground transportation to and from the resort.
The biggest benefit of this program is touching resort guests in ways you cannot imagine. “You never know who you are going to impact, and empower.”
-Suzelle Snowden, President and founder of Fit Bodies, Inc.
Fit Bodies, Inc. is headquartered in Covington, KY.
Here's Amy's advice for what happens if no one shows for your class, which is common and totally OK!
I know it's summer. I also know that this warm, beautiful weather is going to end long before I'm ready. When it does I'll want to escape to a warm beach, even if only for a week. Past experience tells me that there are limited opportunities to travel where Amy and I can teach fitness, in exchange for an all-inclusive vacation at a resort in the Caribbean.
This morning, Amy and I booked our week in the sun! We're traveling the week of December 7th – 14th and we'll be teaching at the Secrets St James resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica 🙂
We were there a few years ago. This resort is awesome and only a 15 minute cab ride (on the wrong side of the road) from MBJ – the Montego Bay, Jamaica airport. Here's a short video we made explaining what happens when no one shows up for your class – which is not uncommon and is nothing to be concerned about.
Teaching opportunities at Secrets are for Group Fitness and Mind Body certified Instructors = this will be an easy week for me as I'm neither. But I will help out. Many resorts schedule an early AM fitness walk, which I'll do, so Amy can sleep in.
Amy's teaching schedule will include a couple of Pilates classes each day. That's it, unless we work a trade with the other Instructor to cover each other's their classes one day, so we both have a full day off to explore Jamaica if we choose.
The company that makes these trips possible is FitBodiesInc. Amy and I have traveled with them for close to 20 years (has it really been that long?) and we have always enjoyed working with their president Suzelle Snowden. Suzelle was actually my very first guest on the Podcast and we have encouraged hundreds of other instructors over the years to take advantage of these very low cost vacations.
Suzelle and I recorded an interview back in 2009 that explains everything and how they added a few resorts where you can teach if you're not a Group Fitness/Mind Body Instructor – you're only certified as an Indoor Cycling Instructor.
