By Mark Hodson, founder of 101 short breaks

The end of summer is the cue for regrouping after the excesses of summer. But for many people it’s time to think about booking their next holiday.

A spa break is a great way to get back on track after the dog days of summer. But these trips are changing. A new trend has emerged among young well-heeled travellers to eschew the fluffy towelling robes of the “traditional” spa and take on something more demanding.

This is a spa holiday with a difference, where an expert team of personal trainers, massage therapists and nutritionists knock you back into shape and help you maintain a leaner, healthier lifestyle.

The first company to organise yoga holidays was inspa retreats. Set up eight hours ago, it takes over a whole property – a villa or small hotel – in exotic destinations such as Morocco and the Balaerics.

A company spokeswoman said clients get home full of energy. “A lot of them return time and again. It’s their annual oil change and tuning”.

A slightly more intense option is a fitness retreat in a stunning beach or mountain location. Fitscape is a London-based operator with trips across the Mediterranean and Morocco.

If you’d rather something more sedate, consider a visit to the mountains of north India. There you’ll find Wildflower Hall where yoga instructors and a life coach help residents to chill to the max. Down time can be spent trekking, rafting or sampling Ayurvedic therapies.

Another optoin: rent a house on the north-east coast of Brazil along with your own personal trainer. Between workouts there is plenty of time to soak up the sun and explore local villages.

Another ground-breaking company is The Big Stretch, which offers trekking with life coaches in the mountains of Northern Spain. Founder Rosie Walford says the combination of dramatic countryside, strenuous walking and creative thinking produces remarkable results. Our clients return home changed. They rediscover their passion and imagination,” she says.

This year cruising has seen a 5% increase from 2008 sparking the question, how? Cruises, the better ones anyway, are not cheap and with people taking pay cuts and other such things how on earth are they affording to go on wonderful cruises to anywhere in the world?

Saving seems to have a lot to do with it. People will save for many years just to go on a cruise and this is for many reasons.

Of course a reason for this could be that there are so many thigns to do on the ship. The thing is with these ships they have so much on offer such as gyms, brilliant dining, dinner shows and of course swimming pools.l. To be able to fit all of this in one place is certainly brilliant. Could the depression change next years figure?

As of 2010 the increase is supposed to go up by another 6.5%. Could it be something to do with the brand new ships out next year. Prices of these cruises have certainly improved a lot. There are just so many deals out there for people to choose from. There seem to be more companies offering cruises every year which means the prices are sure to go down even further. So now is the time to look for a cruise holiday, they are also very relaxing as you are free to do whatever you want, check out the pool, hit the gym or just relax in your cabin.

Of course the percentage increase is just estimation and we might not see as many people taking river cruises as well as cunard cruises like we first thought, however all we can really do is wait it out.