Gay Men Are Trading Circuit Parties For Lifting Camps In Bali And Costa Rica
For years, a gay group holiday meant one of a few options: a circuit party and dance floors, a gay cruise, or a gay ski week.
Now, another option has proven popular – training block getaways with structured, coach-led fitness camps for gay men are booking out.
Operators like Visiting Wrld and Ketanga, which runs its FITNUT programs with coach Josh Grimm, are driving the surge. These are multi-day residential trips in places like Costa Rica, Bali and Palm Springs, and the main event is lifting.
Not optional stretching, not sightseeing with a rainbow group, but programmed resistance training at a private gym, led by a coach, day after day. Visiting Wrld runs six to nine-day trips across Costa Rica, Bali, Thailand and Mexico. Ketanga leans shorter and US-based, with its FITNUT Desert Escape in Palm Springs.
Here’s the part worth a second look. In its own 2026 rundown, Visiting Wrld counted seven operators selling “gay fitness retreats,” yet reckoned only two, itself and Ketanga, are actually built around lifting.
The rest, it argued, are yoga, plant medicine or group travel, “a different product wearing a similar label.” Take that with a pinch of salt, since Visiting Wrld ranks itself first. Still, the point stands: the demand is for real training, not a themed trip.
So what changed? A lot of gay men now think about their bodies differently. The pull is less about one shredded holiday photo and more about functional strength, staying healthy for the long haul, and finding your people while you do it.
The social maths is the quiet draw. Visiting Wrld says roughly 80 per cent of its guests book solo, and the format is built so you leave with a crew.
Reassuringly, the better programs are not the boot camps you might picture. Coaches scale the work to whoever turns up, and most come to build a base, not to compete. In a community where the pressure to look a certain way can do real harm, that framing matters.
The healthiest version of this trend sells belonging first, and abs a distant second.
