There are holidays where you spend seven days lying beside a pool.
Then there are holidays where you come home fitter than when you left.
A fitness holiday sits somewhere in the middle.
You still want Thailand.
You still want sunshine, good food, people around you and a week that actually feels like a holiday.
You just also want to train.
And not in a depressing hotel gym with one treadmill and a dumbbell rack that stops at 12kg.
That is why Phuket has become such a good destination for fitness travel.
There is an entire part of the island where people come specifically to train, eat, recover and basically live like an athlete for a week, a month or sometimes much longer.
And no, you do not need to be one.
If you've ever looked up Muay Thai training in Thailand, there is a very good chance you've already come across Soi Ta-Iad.
It is often called Fitness Street.
The whole area in Chalong is packed with Muay Thai gyms, strength facilities, conditioning classes, MMA, CrossFit-style training, HYROX sessions, yoga, healthy cafés, recovery spots and people walking around permanently carrying a protein shake.
It is kind of ridiculous.
In a good way.
You can wake up, train Muay Thai in the morning, do strength work later, eat somewhere built around people who actually care what is in their food, then hit an ice bath or massage afterwards.
For people who genuinely enjoy training, it is basically Disneyland.
That is the environment AWAKE Active is built around.
The current AWAKE Active + Songkran trip runs for eight days in Thailand and includes a structured daily training programme, access to more than 18 additional training options covering strength, conditioning, cardio, HYROX, MMA, yoga and mobility, plus training across several different facilities.
It can be.
But it does not have to be.
There are fitness retreats where every meal is controlled, alcohol disappears, everyone wakes up at 5am and the whole experience is basically a very beautiful military operation.
That works for some people.
AWAKE Active is not really that.
There is structure.
You are there to train.
The current programme includes three pre-selected crew training sessions each day, plus access to additional classes across different disciplines. There are also two private one-on-one Muay Thai sessions with Thai trainers and access to a separate weightlifting gym for the week.
But you are still in Thailand.
You are still an adult.
And the week still needs to be fun.
That balance is pretty much the whole point.
No.
This is probably one of the first things people worry about when they hear “fitness tour”.
They picture thirty shredded people casually running a 5K before breakfast while they're still wondering where the coffee is.
That is not the idea.
You need to be willing to train.
You do not need to arrive as the fittest person in the room.
Different classes can be scaled.
You can choose more strength work, more conditioning, more Muay Thai, more yoga or more recovery depending on what your body needs.
Some people will absolutely go hard.
Others will use the week to get back into training.
The common thing is simply that everybody actually wants to be there.
That makes training in a group much more fun than dragging yourself into a random gym alone on holiday.
This is where Phuket is hard to beat.
Muay Thai is the obvious one.
You're in Thailand.
You may as well learn from Thai trainers rather than doing one token pad session beside a resort pool.
AWAKE Active currently includes two private one-on-one Muay Thai PT sessions per person.
Then there is strength training.
Conditioning.
Cardio.
HYROX-style work.
MMA.
Yoga.
Mobility.
Beach sessions.
The current AWAKE itinerary also includes a sunrise beach workout and the Big Buddha Run as part of the training week.
So you are not repeating the same circuit class every morning until you start hating burpees and everybody around you.
You can actually move between different styles of training.
One thing people get wrong with fitness holidays is thinking more training automatically means a better trip.
Not really.
If you're suddenly training two or three times a day when your body normally trains four times a week, recovery becomes pretty important.
The current AWAKE Active programme builds recovery into the week with steam, recovery sessions, mobility and a pre-booked massage for every traveller.
That is much smarter than spending seven days absolutely destroying yourself and limping onto the plane home.
You want to feel good by the end.
Not require assistance boarding.
Yes.
Honestly, this type of trip makes a lot of sense solo.
Training already gives people something to do together.
There is none of that weird pressure where everyone has to instantly become best friends over a welcome drink.
You go to class.
You train beside someone.
You eat afterwards.
Then suddenly you know half the group.
AWAKE trips are built for travellers aged 18 to 39 and solo travellers are a huge part of the AWAKE crowd generally.
So you do not need to convince your friends to spend their annual leave doing Muay Thai in Phuket.
If they would rather sit at home, leave them there.
This is the bit that turns it from fitness retreat into a proper AWAKE trip.
The 2027 AWAKE Active week runs from 11 to 18 April, which puts you in Thailand for Songkran, the Thai New Year celebration.
Songkran is famous for the enormous water fights that take over streets across Thailand.
It is chaotic.
Everybody gets soaked.
There are water guns everywhere.
And for a few days, trying to stay dry is basically pointless.
Traditionally, the water represents cleansing and washing away the old year, although the modern celebration has become one of the biggest street parties in Thailand.
So your fitness holiday also happens to land during one of the best times of year to experience Thailand.
Very convenient.
Yes.
Because otherwise you're really just going to the gym in another country.
AWAKE Active includes a welcome dinner and group meetup, and there are optional cultural and adventure experiences during the week. The current tour page mentions activities including an elephant sanctuary and ATV experience.
Then the final day goes in a completely different direction.
The group finishes at YONA Beach Club, Phuket's floating beach club, for the closing celebration.
Train all week.
Spend the final day on a floating beach club.
That feels about right.
I actually think there is a difference.
A fitness retreat usually sounds like the retreat itself is the destination.
You go somewhere specifically to follow a programme, eat a certain way, disconnect and focus on wellness.
A fitness holiday feels more like travel.
You're still exploring somewhere.
You still have nights out if you want them.
There are things happening outside the programme.
You just happen to be somewhere where training is a major part of the week.
AWAKE Active is much closer to that second category.
It's a fitness holiday for people who want to train properly without pretending that fun and discipline cannot exist in the same week.
Location matters.
A lot.
If you're training multiple times per day, you do not want to stay forty minutes away because you found a slightly nicer resort by the beach.
You will spend your entire holiday in taxis.
AWAKE Active uses four-star hotel accommodation with twin-share or private-room options and builds the week around the training locations.
If you're organising Phuket yourself, I would do the same thing.
Choose your gym first.
Then choose your hotel.
Not the other way around.
If the main reason for the trip is training, being able to walk or easily transfer between your hotel, gym, food and recovery spots will make a much bigger difference than an infinity pool you use twice.
Very.
Particularly somewhere like Phuket where people already travel specifically for training.
There is a constant flow of people arriving alone.
Some are doing Muay Thai camps.
Some are training for fights.
Some are working remotely and training every day.
Some are just there because they want a healthier holiday than seven days of cocktails.
That gives the area a social feel without needing nightlife to do all the work.
You already have something to talk about.
Usually whatever terrible thing the coach just made you do.
The current 2027 package includes eight days in Thailand with four-star accommodation, structured daily training, more than 18 extra training options each day, two private Muay Thai sessions, weightlifting-gym access, recovery sessions, a massage, yoga and stretch options, a welcome dinner, beach training, the Big Buddha Run and the closing day at YONA Beach Club. Optional cultural experiences and transfers to listed activities are also part of the week.
That is a lot of training.
It is also still Thailand.
Which is exactly what a fitness holiday should be.
If you just want to lie beside a pool for seven days, there are approximately eight million resorts that can help you.
If you want to come home with sore legs, new mates, a Muay Thai obsession and several hundred photos from Songkran, this is probably more your speed.
