Best Wellness Retreats In 2021 (For Fitness & Weight Loss) B.C. & USA

Where to go, if West Coast Fitness Vacations isn’t your jam

Looking for the best wellness retreats in 2021 to whip yourself back into shape?

There’s no question that traveling somewhere to escape the everyday and focus on self-care is a valuable investment. Home routines can get, well… pretty ‘routine’ sometimes! Top wellness retreats support you in ways that you perhaps didn’t realize you needed to be supported in. Hopefully, they’re located in a serene setting, so you have somewhere pretty to enjoy in your downtime. You’ll wake up early, workout like a champion, eat delicious meals and get healthy with experts.

West Coast Fitness Vacations is a wellness retreat travel company in B.C., Canada, specializing in 100 lb weight loss and outdoor fitness. We offer beginner fitness, small group and solo adventures with immersive personal coaching, hiking & life skills. Join us 1-4 months in Vancouver Island! Exclusively for plus size women age 35 and over, we’re Canada’s most personalized weight loss camp.

Whether you’re traveling solo, with friends or with your spouse – there’s a health retreat for everyone’s trip style.

Stumbled across this article and want to connect? We’re no longer on social but subscribe here to my Sunday email – I’d love to have you! Below is our feature presentation for Whistler Fitness Vacations – our signature retreat that ran from 2008-2019, over 430 weeks. It’s a 30 minute video and showcases some of the many highlights that a stay with our company can offer.

VANCOUVER ISLAND RESIDENTIAL WEIGHT LOSS CAMP (BIGGEST LOSER STYLE) – 1-4 MONTHS

British Columbia’s Big Backyard

At the time of writing this post, there remain travel advisories to stay as local as you can. The U.S. borders are closed and most interprovincial travel isn’t recommended unless you really need to. Our weight loss camp in B.C. is open to Canadians who can travel to us by private car. British Columbia is a place of incredible natural beauty with so many spectacular places to explore. We hike pretty much every day here, and that’s fantastic for mental and emotional wellbeing – plus weight loss and endurance.

West Coast Fitness Vacations has the best wellness retreats in 2021 if you’re looking for fitness, boot camp style of workouts and a coach to lead your experience. We’re located central Vancouver Island: steps from the ocean. Our workout classes are all outdoors, even in winter. It stays mild here, year round and is often referred to as Canada’s Hawaii!

Parksville is known for its beautiful beaches. Rathtrevor Beach is the perfect spot for kite-flying, having a picnic, and playing on the sand flats when the tide is way out. It was so nice to hear the sea breeze before bed and see the sunrise in the morning. – Yvonna Chow (follow her itinerary here)

Fun fact; I’ve been told that WFV and Sparkling Hill are the only established fitness focused wellness retreats operating in B.C. right now. That makes me feel both resilient and proud! Signing up with us instead of heading down to the States really is a big support to our business, and makes a huge impact to our longevity in the industry.

WEIGHT LOSS CAMPS ARE PREDICTED TO BE 2021’S HOTTEST TRAVEL TREND. HERE’S WHY.

8 Best Wellness Retreats In 2021 (For Fitness & Weight Loss)

Yesterday I did a ‘competitor analysis’ of similar health retreats to West Coast Fitness Vacations that focus on fitness and weight loss transformation. Here’s my list of recommendations:

For reference, this is WFV’s program that we’re comparing the other 7 best wellness retreats to:

🇨🇦 Vancouver Island, Residential Weight Loss Camp (Biggest Loser Style) 1-4 Months

🇨🇦Mountain Trek, Nelson B.C. – ($7300/week) less coaching focused than us, we have more one-on-one style than them. This hiking focused wellness retreat in B.C. has excellent trails, fitness classes, lodging, food, facility & team. Tons of respect for these guys. We’ve shared many customers and everyone raves about their time there.

🇨🇦Sparkling Hill, Vernon B.C. – ($3283/week) nice facility and workout schedule – but it’s not a fitness retreat with a dedicated coach leading your stay. I don’t know anyone whose been to this health retreat. Have you? Fill me in!

🇩🇴Cabarete Fitness Camp. This made my list of the best wellness retreats for 2021 when it comes to fitness. Even though it’s not in USA or Canada! It’s almost exactly the same price as us, with similar programming and especially suitable for intermediate to expert exercisers.

In The States….

🇺🇸The Ranch Wellness Retreat, Malibu – ($39,600 group, $48,800 private per month) it looks like an incredible luxury wellness retreat. We’ve got a similar workout schedule but that’s about all. Our Whistler program shared many of the same customers, so I’ve heard its simply amazing there – in another league to WFV! The Ranch is one of best wellness retreats in 2021 compared to anywhere in the world – very famous. It’s known as being the place where wealthy A-listers go to get in shape. 😍

🇺🇸Premiere Weight Loss Camp – I’m not sure of the rates for their residential wellness retreat (fitness retreat) but we’ve shared many customers and I’ve got a ton of respect for them and Unite. These two weight loss camps are most similar to WFV out of any other weight loss camp in North America.

 🇺🇸Unite Fitness Retreat $21,600 per month which is excellent value and I recommend both them and Premiere to anyone who wants a similar experience to what I offer, but in a larger group format with a team of coaches. Great for those of you ready to really move your body and push yourself physically. Thats what our weight loss camp is all about too. Plus you can book your own room if you’re a Bonvoy member, giving even more savings. That’s something we weren’t able to offer in Whistler.

 🇺🇸Pritikin Health Resort Unsure of the cost, but many Whistler clients have enjoyed their time here. It’s especially good for addressing specific health issues. Like The Ranch, it’s in Malibu. Pritikin’s health resort is situated in a gorgeous 650 acres of tropical paradise in Miami. They’ve got wonderful swimming pools, golf courses and tennis courts. On staff they have board certified physicians, exercise physiologists, nutritionists & more.

HOW TO FIND YOUR PERFECT WEIGHT LOSS CAMP IN CANADA (ASK THESE 10 QUESTIONS)

Pro’s & Cons Of WFV

I was encouraged to see that we’re still leading the way in fitness focused weight loss camps, compared to similar companies. Key benefits (or downfalls, depending how you look at it) of our weight loss camp include the following:

• Guests cook their own meals at West Coast Fitness Vacations. While we provide the ingredients, each guest has a giant private kitchen in their one-bedroom guest room. This component of our weight loss camp makes it truly a change-making experience. Yet if you want a break from cooking, you can either hire a private chef (might be trickier with COVID but still possible). Or perhaps the best wellness retreats in 2021 for you are one of the others mentioned, as food is prepared for you.
• We’re smaller and more personal. This coaching experience is often what is missing in our guests previous fitness retreats. Yet possibly you don’t want all the attention. If you want a wider variety of people and more opportunity to meet others, the best wellness retreat in 2021 might be somewhere else. However in saying that, we get incredible results with the personal attention that we’re able to provide. Like being a celebrity!

My team and I have truly made a beautiful program that gives both value and sustainable change while also being one of the most affordable.

10 WAYS TO GET THE BENEFITS OF A WELLNESS RETREAT (WITHOUT ACTUALLY GOING)

Unique To Our Wellness Retreat

In both USA and Canada, West Coast Fitness Vacations is the only wellness retreat with:

1. All-woman programming that has year round intake
2. Specialty fitness weight loss retreat offering personalized and structured coaching for beginners outside of healthy weight range.
3. No upper age limit, or upper weight limit which I’m told is unusual.
4. It’s also unique that we are 35+ age group. This was inspired by Kontiki Tours being 18-35 and some YOLO trips with G Adventures. I thought, why not do the same in reverse!
5. Guests cooking their own meals. This element of the program takes a ton more work with grocery shopping, planning, and organizing. Yet it’s our secret weapon as we’re a residential weight loss camp. Cooking while at the wellness retreat gets you into an excellent routine to continue at home.

I keep on top of research every year to ensure that we’re offering the best wellness retreats in value, results, quality of care and personalization as other fitness retreats in the market. I always want my clients to have access to the best possible option and make informed decisions for their health, even if it’s not with me. We’re for a very select niche market (women over 35 of beginner fitness levels who are outside of healthy weight range) so that excludes several thousands of visitors to my site each year!

VANCOUVER ISLAND RESIDENTIAL WEIGHT LOSS CAMP (BIGGEST LOSER STYLE) – 1-4 MONTHS

Why Fitness Retreats Are The Future Of Travel

People really want to travel and experience the lifestyle of focusing on their fitness. They want to stay fit while traveling and the best wellness retreats in 2021 will be located in a place worth traveling to!

Spending time to focus on your wellness is very enticing. Sometimes keeping a healthy food and exercise plan going can be daunting, to say the least! With all the stresses of your life and other commitments, it’s hard to reel things in and focus on self-care. Yet as a trainer, I know that my clients want to enjoy their workouts, just like they want to see results. Wellness retreats that focus on fitness and weight loss, like West Coast Fitness Vacations, give you all of that.

Combining health goals with an opportunity to getaway on a trip that is close to home (in case you need it) is a unique privilege. Let us support you in strengthening your mind-body connection, teaching you ways to stay healthy. Spend time training without the use of the gym – equipment that fits into your living room or garage. Here at WFV we teach you how to live better at home.

WHY THIS WELLNESS RETREAT IN CANADA MUST BE ON YOUR BUCKET LIST

What Our Wellness Retreats In B.C. Include

With pricing from $12,775/month CAD including tax, we’re truly top value:

• Lodging in a one bedroom luxury vacation rental, steps from the beach.
• Team grocery shop each week with ingredients paid by WFV. You cook your own meals, in your private room, just like at home. Can adapt to your tastes and preferences.
• 5 hours per day coaching schedule with all the activities you need to manage your weight loss goals. This might include nature walks, boot camp on the beach, or restorative workouts, fitness classes, guided nutrition and pep-talks!
• Me (Cat Smiley) as your all-in-one coach. I’m a wellness retreat warrior!!! Done this a few times before. Like, 430 weeks to be exact. My average time to take off 100lbs is 7 months and 2 weeks. Until last year, I averaged about 8 x 100lb weight loss projects per year. My biggest year in retreats was 2017, when i lead 224 weeks total, with 10-16 women per week over the summer in Whistler. Basically, weight loss camps is what I do and I completely trust myself to do a really great job with you. Evidence based fitness and nutrition plans. Many medical professionals have endorsed my methods.

Enhance or upgrade a stay with West Coast Fitness Vacations, by booking massage in town (there’s an amazing spa next door to the retreat lodging), doing yoga classes in the evening… heck you could even hire a personal chef while at our program. Some guests are using up all their Extended Health benefits while here, such as physio, RMTs, acupuncture etc that they haven’t had time to do so far this year at home.

WHY WELLNESS RETREATS IN B.C. ARE WORTH STAYING LOCAL FOR

Summary

So to summarize, Mountain Trek was most similar to Whistler Fitness Vacations. Sparkling Hill is perhaps the Canadian version of The Ranch and Pritikin? I’m not sure… just guessing. The 3 best wellness retreats in 2021 for facilitating change through focused training, similar to what we offer at West Coast Fitness Vacations (new program) are Premiere, Unite and Cabarete.

Rest assured, if my program is on your list of ‘maybe’s’ I’d really love to earn your business.

VANCOUVER ISLAND RESIDENTIAL WEIGHT LOSS CAMP (BIGGEST LOSER STYLE) – 1-4 MONTHS

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