Travel to Red Mountain Resort

St George, Utah, has a brand new airport with two, yes 2, gates.  You can get to SGU with a connection through Salt Lake City or a direct flight from Los Angeles.  Red Mountain will pick you up if you let them know when your flight arrives.  It's free except for a tip to the driver.  An alternative is to fly into Las Vegas and arrange for a shuttle to St. George.  There are several every day and they drop you right at the resort.  I prefer getting frequent flyer miles so I have flown into SGU on both of my visits to Red Mountain.

Getaway Get Fit in St George Utah

View from restaurant

     Red Mountain Resort near St. George, Utah, is aptly named.  It is surrounded by beautiful red rock formed centuries ago into eye-catching cliffs and canyons.  The buildings of the resort were designed to blend in perfectly with the surrounding scenery.  This is one of the more affordable places in the U.S. to getaway to get fit, especially if you sign up for email notifications and wait for a special.  You can go on an all-inclusive package or ala carte.  The package is almost always a good deal, even though it doesn't include spa treatments like Champneys does (see previous post).  If you are a returning customer you get a discount on spa treatments.
 

Fitness center garden

      The fitness focus here is hiking which is at the bottom of my list.  If I wasn't afraid of heights and didn't have bad feet, I would love to walk in these stunning mountains.  Other than hiking, there aren't many choices for exercise before lunch.  The afternoons, however, have a full range of aerobic, strength and yoga classes.  Water aerobics, at the top of my list, is only offered two or three times a week, so I have to plan the timing of my visit carefully.  They do have one easy hike that is also fun.  It's the Pound Puppy Hike--where you take dogs from the local shelter on a one hour walk over level terrain.  It looks like they have added some other hikes since I was last there, so I may need to check them out.
     You can eat healthy if you have willpower.  The breakfast and lunch buffets have good choices.  Once again, I gained weight--no willpower--especially with the very tasty three course dinners.  They have an interesting choice of entrees including vegetarian, elk, and venison as well as the standard beef, pork, chicken or lamb.  The menu changes regularly so you won't get bored no matter what you choose.  And you can buy a reasonably priced glass of wine (or two!)

Travel to Champney Springs

I flew into Birmingham via Amsterdam and then grabbed a taxi outside the airport.  When I researched cab rides it said I could use a credit card.  Unfortunately that is only if you have the "chip and pin" style, which the US has not yet developed.  Luckily I had just enough cash to pay for the trip (£65 or $110).  Next time I will probably fly to London, spend the night, and take a train to Tamworth which is just 20 minutes away from the resort.  This should be a much cheaper taxi fare.
Note:  the resort is not within walking distance of any town, so be sure to pick up cash at an ATM before getting to Champney Springs.  You won't need much because you can charge extras to your room.  Just enough for an occasional tip.