Fitness Challenge: Magnolia Hotel Dallas

The Magnolia Hotel Dallas, a boutique hotel downtown, is next door to the flagship Neiman Marcus. If shopping isn't enough sport for you, there is a small fitness center. While the fitness room is bathed in sunlight, it has fairly creaky cardio machines, with only an overhead television. The free weights weren't much better - a limited range, in bad shape.

The rest of the hotel is fine, though, and I love that the included breakfast is so laid back - you can stop in for coffee and some fruit before you exercise, then eat more after, and no one is checking your room number. The hotel also offers a nightly evening reception with beer and wine, and room delivery of milk and cookies. So they really want you to work out. The hotel is a creative use of a historic building, the former headquarters of the Magnolia Petroleum Co. It has coffered ceilings and antique chandeliers in the lobby and the 24th floor has original glass transoms, ventilation grates, wood floors, paneling and marble.

Fitness Challenge: Dallas Omni

In Dallas, everything is large: the hair, the portion size, the gym at the Omni Dallas Hotel. To counteract the oversized margaritas and slabs of dessert on my recent trip to Dallas, I spent some serious time at the fitness center.

One of the nicest aspects (besides the shiny new equipment - the hotel is just a year old) of the gym is the view from the cardio machines. Ellipticals, stationary bikes and treadmills all faced the floor to ceiling windows. No dark, dank workout area here. There were also free weights, weighted balls, stability balls and strength machines. I thought about taking one of the cushy mats out to the pool deck, since I was inside most of the weekend for a convention. But the women next to me were telling a juicy story involving betrayal, drinking and lawsuits. And they weren't even discussing the new Dallas season. These were their actual lives. I turned down the volume on my iPod and eavesdropped.

Fitness Challenge, Day 95

Yoga on the beach is a wonderful vacation treat, but if you are traveling to a city, you can find outdoor yoga when it is warm out.

In New York City, Bryant Park has outdoor yoga in late spring through summer. And Prospect Park, in Brooklyn offers yoga on summer evenings. Even better than enjoying the opportunity to exercise in a park is that these yoga classes are free. Exhale Spa in the Gansevoort Hotel recently had a free yoga day that was not quite as relaxing; we were in an outdoor plaza, surrounded by traffic, trucks unloading and tourists snapping photos. I am looking forward to my upcoming trip to Dallas, for the Family Travel Conference, where the new Klyde Warren Park will have free yoga classes by The Dallas Yoga Center. Sun salutations to the actual sun. It doesn't get much better than that.

Fitness Challenge: Day 91

Shopping is a sport, though in New York, it can be more of a blood sport. If you want to work out, and shop, the Westin Galleria Dallas is close to the huge mall, and has a the signature Westin WORKOUT gym.

The hotel is actually considered part of the Galleria complex, though it is nearly impossible to walk from one to the other. We tried, but not only was it over 100 degrees, there was also nowhere towalk.

So we confined our aerobic exercise to the air conditioned gym. The smallish gym, overlooking the outdoor pool, had state of the art cardio machines, a bosu ball and stability ball and free weights.

I forgot my headphones, but a Westin employee offered to go the front desk and returned with headphones for me.