Upscale gym company Equinox, which has 95 clubs in cities including London, LA and New York, is branching into travel with the creation of new fitness-focused hotels and overseas tours.

The first Equinox Hotel is expected to open this summer in New York’s new Hudson Yards development in Manhattan’s West Side, and will be followed by ones in Chicago’s West Loop and Los Angeles in 2021. The last will be located in the Frank Gehry-designed Grand project.

In the long-run, Equinox’s owner Related Cos, intends to open more than 75 gym hotels around the world. A spokesperson says that the one in New York “will focus on living a well-balance life with guests enjoying access to state-of-the-art facilities, active-minded programming and nourishing dining, all within luxurious surroundings”.

They add: “The property will include a 60,000-square-foot fitness centre, Equinox’s largest yet, and a variety of wellness offerings, including an on-property spa and healthy in-room dining options.”

Equinox Hotel, Chicago
Equinox Hotel, Chicago

In the meantime Equinox has also announced that it will begin selling bespoke luxury travel experiences with a strong fitness bent. Featuring bespoke and packaged domestic and international multi-day journeys, the trips will begin with a “summit-chasing adventure” in Morocco, in April.

The company says the new experiences “promise travel to sublime destinations and undiscovered corners of the globe, all grounded with fitness and lifestyle programming that aligns with Equinox’s holistic approach to high performance living”.

Aimed squarely at Equinox club members – worldly, ambitious professionals who take working out seriously and enjoy an enviable lifestyle – Equinox says that its tours are for “sophisticated travellers who want to explore destinations through the lens of transformational health and life maximization”.

Equinox will create highly personalised “custom trip concepts and urban retreats developed in close consultation with Equinox curators and based on an individual or group’s unique fitness and lifestyle goals”.

Excursions will range from physically intense adventures throughout Ethiopia, for example, tracing the birth of elite running, to high-alpine hiking in North America and mindfulness camps in India. They will also be led by Equinox’s “top talent”.

With no compromise on diet and regime, Equinox will ensure that everyone who signs up will continue to eat and exercise appropriately. It says that “expertly harmonised meals, premium transportation, tailored fitness programming and bespoke service in an intimate environment” will be provided.

Itineraries may include exclusive access to a training session with a champion athlete, ultra-seasonal foraging and cooking classes hosted by a renowned local chef, and mountaintop meditation sessions. Equinox will also arrange city-based trips.

Harvey Spevak, executive chairman and managing partner of Equinox, says: “Equinox is already recognised globally for transforming the lives of our members with immersive experiences within the four walls of our clubs, so our move into travel is a natural – and almost inevitable – extension of our unmatched lifestyle proposition.

“Equinox single-handedly invented the concept of fitness-as-lifestyle nearly 30 years ago, and now we are expanding our purview to include active, covetable experiences that empower our discerning members to connect with the world – and themselves.”