By Jae-Ha Kim
Tribune Content Agency
January 5, 2016
If you ask celebrity fitness instructor, Adam Rosante, what his goal is he’ll say that it’s to help people live healthy lives. One way of keeping your life in balance is with travel, he says. “New Orleans is pure soul,” says Rosante, 36. “Next time you’re there, make sure you hook up with Confederacy of Cruisers. They’ll take you on an off-the-beaten-path tour of the city, all on a really comfy cruiser bike.”
The author of “The 30-Second Body: Eat Clean. Train Dirty. Live Hard.” (Zinc Ink, $17), Rosante splits his time between Manhattan and Amagansett (New York). For more information, check out his website or follow him on Twitter.
Q. What is your favorite vacation destination?
A. I love Oaxaca, Mexico, to unplug. Hotel Escondido is my favorite. It’s a smaller place with amazing food and impeccable service. It’s low key, but perfectly attentive. It feels like you’re with family, in the best possible way. Being able to surf and have a low-key beach day, then sleep in a ridiculously comfortable bed after a meal of freshly caught seafood and amazing wine is my idea of heaven.
Q. To someone who was going there for the first time, what would you recommend that they do during their visit?
A. Rent a car and drive over to Puerto Escondido for a surf lesson. Check the conditions based on your level, as the waves can get big. Then go back to the hotel to hang at your private plunge pool with an ice-cold bottle of rose and some fish tacos.
Q. What was the first trip you took as a child?
A. Dutch Wonderland in Pennsylvania. I loved it! We didn’t have a lot of money when I was little, so trips were pretty few and far between. They pretty much consisted of 10-minute drives to nearby relatives’ houses. I’m really close with my family, so I always loved those trips very much. When I was in maybe second grade, we went to Dutch Wonderland. It’s an amusement park near Lancaster. At the time, it felt like Disney World.
Q. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from your travels?
A. Connect with some locals. You’ll have the time of your life and experience things you wouldn’t have, otherwise.
Q. What are your favorite hotels?
A. Curtain Bluff in Antigua; Hotel Escondido in Oaxaca, Mexico; Palmilla in Cabos, Mexico; Thompson Hotel in Chicago and Miami; St. Regis in New York, for drinks at the King Cole Bar, and the Carlyle in New York, for drinks at Bemelmans Bar. It’s classic New York at its finest.
Q. What are some of your favorite cities?
A. New York. New Orleans. Paris. Chicago.
Q. Where would you like to go that you have never been to before?
A. Sicily. I’m going in June and actually doing a very small retreat. You’ll see just how simple it is to embrace a truly healthy lifestyle that focuses on fresh food, simple morning workouts and experiences that enrich and enliven your mind and soul. True health and happiness is life balance. That’s what this trip is all about.
Q. When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?
A. Sneakers. C9 workout tops and shorts — seriously the best workout gear around. (Rosante is a brand ambassador.) Resistance bands, because hotel gyms are often terrible, and fitness tune-up balls. They’re like a foam roller with near surgical precision and will change the way your body moves and feels. Also, a great book or two, Persol sunglasses and iPhone with fresh podcasts.
Q. What would be your dream trip?
A. The exact itinerary that we have planned for this retreat in Sicily with the Rocco Forte resort. It’s a week of cooking, eating, swimming in the sea, immersive cultural explorations and just living life like it was meant to be lived. My wife and I have talked about going to Sicily for years. The fact that we’re doing it like this feels like a dream.
Q. What is your guilty pleasure when you’re on the road?
A. I’m not being cute here, but I don’t have guilty pleasures. I have pleasures. Never deny yourself the things you love. All things in moderation and balance.
Q. What kind of research do you do before you go away on a trip?
A. I look at where to eat, drink and get outdoors. Whether it’s as mellow as a hike or as amped up as a rock-climbing or rafting excursion, it’s really important for me to get outside and explore. We just went to Seattle for the first time and trekked around , then had beers at this awesome little craft brewery called the Black Raven (in Redmond). One of the coolest things to me about the Pacific Northwest is that you can be in the middle of the city, drive only 30-minutes and be standing in the middle of a dense forest with cloud-scraping trees and mind-blowing waterfalls. You’re looking at a half-day’s drive minimum from New York City to get anywhere even remotely close to that.
Q. What is your worst vacation memory?
A. My brother getting carsick on a road trip down south. My parents were driving. He and I were crammed into the backseat with my sister when he, well, let’s just say this wasn’t the best vacation memory.
© 2016 JAE-HA KIM
DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
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