Whether you are taking a luxurious cruise or traveling for work, it can be a challenge to maintain your regular fitness program. Long flights, lots of food, back-to-back meetings, and/or keeping your kids occupied during family activities, can leave little time to schedule exercise. Many people worry that their temptations will spiral out of control while on vacation, leading to overeating, being lazy, and exhausted. It’s important to realize, however, that it’s not a sin to skip exercising for several days. In a WebMD article, entitled “Traveling? Don’t Leave Your Workout at Home,” experts say that it takes weeks for the effects of a regular training program to begin to fade.

However, even if this does happen, it shouldn’t take as much effort to return to your training program as it did to get there in the first place. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should go over the deep end and drown yourself in excessive amounts of food and lounging around, becoming a self-proclaimed oompa-loompa. The key is to do everything in moderation and to try and make healthy food choices. However, exercise can do wonders for how you feel during a vacation by making you feel happier, relieving stress, increasing energy and reducing fatigue, and increasing your overall sense of well-being. The following are tips from the WebMD for those that want to keep fit and exercise when placed in an airport, on a plane, or in a hotel:

Exercise at the Airport:

Your flight is delayed or cancelled and you want to find the best energy-pumping way to pass the time; what should you do? Exercise!

• Many airports have gym facilities in their terminals that cater to travelers and you can rent or buy workout clothes if needed. Most charge $10-$15. The Web site Airport Gyms provides a complete listing of all airport gym facilities in the U.S. and Canada.
• Briskly walk the terminal.

Exercise On the Plane:

Being bored, tired, and sick of looking out the window into blue-and-white nothingness of the atmosphere, makes for the perfect exercise moment. Sitting for long periods of time impedes digestion, circulation, and increases fatigue.

• Jet Blue Airways and Crunch Fitness have teamed up to create Airplane Yoga and Pilates Cards that illustrate activities you can do without leaving your seat. You can also find yoga classes from yogi2go as downloadable MP3s and transfer them to your iPod so you can do yoga anytime, anyplace - evenwhile flying 35,000 feet in the air.These MP3s come in two versions, pre-flight and in-flight.
• Get up, stretch, and take a walk down aisle.

Exercise at the Hotel:

• Stay at a hotel that has a fitness center facility or pool. Lisa Lanucci, author of Healthy Travel, says there is a trend in the hospitality industry to upgrade fitness centers and pamper guests. It is important to research the hotel and what it has to offer. Some hotels provide “fitness kits” for yoga, strength training, or Pilates and some even have a fitness concierge who creates workshops and exercise classes for guests.
• Research the area to find an area health club. Locate a gym near your destination. If you are a gym member, see if you can get free access to gyms in other cities. Many gyms issue day passes for free. The International Health, Racquet, and Sports Club Association has a health club locator Web site that lists fitness centers in the city you specify.
• Exercise in your room without any equipment. Although bringing exercise tubes, a jump rope, and portable dumbbells can be helpful in maintaining your exercise routine, they are not necessary. WebMD recommends the following workouts that can be done in a hotel room without any special equipment:
• Do a five minute warm-up consisting of a light cardio exercise such as walking or jogging in place.
• Do 30 minutes of cardio exercise that can possibly be broken up into 10-minute bursts. Try the following routine:
• Low-jump twists (20 to each side);
• Jumping jacks (20);
• Wall jogs  (1 minute);
• Mountain climbers (25 with each foot); and
• Side shuffles (10).
• Strength training:
• Push ups;
• Stomach crunches with an upper-body twist;
• Kneeling back leg extensions; and
• One-legged lunges.
• Cool down for five minutes.
•  Stretch when you are done to keep your muscles warm.

Source: WebMD.