Ubud-Bali, Photo by Lori RiceIf you haven’t read the memoir Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, chances are you have heard about it.  According to an article from Time.com, tour companies and resorts are taking advantage of the best seller’s popularity, and offering guests an experience straight from the pages of the book.

Resorts such as Ubud Hanging Gardens, Ayana and tour companies such as the Las Vegas-based Spirit Quest Tours have created Eat, Pray, Love packages and excursions. These trips are intended to mimic the activities, self-discovery and transformation experienced by Gilbert herself. They are for guests who want to do the things the author did and see the things she saw.

As part of these expeditions, travelers take part in yoga, meditation, massage therapy, journaling and beach dinners. If you want to mix in a bit of Hollywood with your transformative trip, you can take an outing and see where the memoir-based movie was filmed which is set to open in the theaters this August.

The book which was released in 2006 has likely had an influence on the increase in spiritual-focused tourism for Bali. According to the article, when comparing January through March of 2006 to January through March of this year, the number of foreign tourists increased from 237,260 to 551,186.

What do you think? Are you up for an Eat, Pray, Love tour of Bali, or would you rather explore the island and find enlightenment on your own?

Lori Rice is a freelance health and travel writer, and Galavanting travel news and reviews correspondent. You can follow her adventures at 3 Star Traveler or explore her thoughts as a nutritionist, wellness advocate and foodie traveler at Fake Food Free.

Photo by trevorturkTravel can be marketed in a variety of ways. There’s adventure, family and even agriculture, but medical and health tourism? According to World Tourism News, if you visit Germany next year this just might be the highlight of your trip.

The German National Tourist Board will focus its 2011 campaign on the medical and health side of travel. Before you envision the need to suffer an ailment to take advantage, instead consider health and fitness resorts, spas and wellness centers. The campaign will target active travelers who want affordable holidays, and who like to mix fitness and relaxing indulgence with culture and history.  

Germany is full of hotels and resorts that offer guests natural therapies with the invitation to take advantage of the countries healthy climate and healing waters. This new campaign will better market those appealing characteristics to tourists.

Medical facilities are still part of the marketing equation, however. According to the International Medical Travel Journal, Germany has approximately 70,000 medical tourists who visit clinics and hospitals each year. These facilities are known for their high quality and reasonable prices.

So if you head to Germany visit those museums, take those historic tours, drink the beer and eat the sausages as planned.  However, you might also consider a healing mud spa or a therapeutic bath. If you’ve been meaning to have that ache or pain looked at you might want to add that to your travel itinerary as well.

Lori Rice is a freelance health and travel writer, and Galavanting travel news and reviews correspondent. You can follow her adventures at 3 Star Traveler or explore her thoughts as a nutritionist, wellness advocate and foodie traveler at Fake Food Free.