New Year, New You on Florida's Cultural Coast

For many of us, the start of the year marks our declarations of healthy living, turning over a new leaf and detoxing from one too many glasses of holiday wine. Despite our best intentions, exercise often gets put on the back burner, especially on vacation. There’s always something else to do – a museum to see, a tour to take, a lounge chair awaiting, a book to read. 

With year-round warmth, scenic outdoor spaces and a thriving wellness community, Sarasota County makes it easy to swap resolutions for real experiences that support both body and mind. Whether you’re planning to kick off January with movement, mindfulness or simply more time outside, Florida's Cultural Coast® offers energizing ways to feel good while enjoying the best of coastal living. And just maybe, a chance to burn off some of that rum cake without having to step on a dreaded treadmill.

Run (or Walk) Like the Wind

Sarasota runners and joggers are lucky in that they can enjoy their sport outside year-round. Even when it’s “cold,” a pair of tights and a hat is sufficient for a trek around town. In flat Florida, the John Ringling Bridge is the best we’ve got for an incline to work those glutes while taking in the amazingly beautiful sights of the downtown skyline and Marina Jack. Alternatively, a trot along the shoreline will help reach your daily step goal while calming any anxiety or mind chatter. The soft sand of our beaches adds a level of difficulty and novelty, so you work extra hard but are too distracted with diving seabirds and breaching dolphins to notice. 

Aiming to hit 10,000 steps before the day’s through? How about visiting one of our area parks and preserves? A trip to one of our county or state parks will easily accomplish the goal, plus enough extra to compensate for vacation food. Whether you prefer a hike amongst the flora and fauna or a tough trek to make you sweat, there’s a trail for you.

Learn a New Skill or Hobby

Key Sailing Charters Sarasota

Learning a new skill is a powerful way to refresh your mindset—and Florida's Cultural Coast® makes it easy to try something totally new. It's never too late in life to pick up a new passion or hobby, so step outside your comfort zone with an improv acting class at Florida Studio Theatre that sharpens confidence and creativity, get hands-on at a pottery-making workshop, where clay becomes a form of meditation or sign up for painting classes at Art Center Sarasota that lets inspiration flow freely. Finally learn how to play a musical instrument with a lesson at Music Compound, or take golf lessons at one of our many public and private golf courses to work on your swing or short game. 

For the truly adventurous, flying trapeze courses at Circus Arts Conservatory offer an adrenaline-boosting challenge that rewards trust, focus and play for all ages. Offshore, there are a number of local sailing charters that offer intro lessons to sailing for those who've always wanted to chart their own course. Whether creative, physical or a little bit of both, picking up a new skill or hobby in Sarasota turns personal growth into an experience worth remembering.

Bend, Stretch & Play

Namaste at The Bay

Sarasota has a robust yoga and Pilates scene, with dozens of studios scattered across the county. In addition to dropping in at any of the local studios for a class or two, there are also myriad opportunities to catch free outdoor classes at our public parks and beaches. Bayfront Park and The Bay Park both serve as a recurring 'Om' sites, where poses are perfected with breezes from Sarasota Bay and views of sailboats serving as a balancing distraction. Or catch the sunset over the Gulf with community yoga on Venice Beach and Manasota Beach. Watching seabirds fly overhead, the quartz sand underfoot and happy faces greeting you “Namaste” is so fun, you forget you’re also doing something good for yourself. 

Want to really fill your happy cup? Add a mix of cute animals to your restorative flow. Big Cat Habitat Conservation & Education Center offers occasional Wild Yoga at its sanctuary—including yoga with lemurs, tigers, capybara and resident foxes. For a less wild species, catch a Cat Yoga event at Katy’s Cat Cafe on the last Saturday of each month, where kittens pounce and play as you move through guided poses. Oh, and all fostered cats are up for adoption... Can't think of a more wholesome way to kick off a new year than with a new furry friend!

SUP to Serenity

Stand up paddleboarding (SUP) is not only a fun aquatic adventure, but also a phenomenal workout for your arms and core. The combination of balancing and paddling while simultaneously countering currents and waves targets your lower, upper and middle muscles without you realizing it. A sealife-filled tour of the majestic mangrove tunnels of Lido Key should reverse the effects of too much champagne on New Year’s Eve, while the blue, tranquil waters of the Gulf will temporarily quiet any stressors or growing to-do lists that try to creep into mind at the jumpstart of Q1. 

Be moved by the sight of manatees or dolphins breaching, mullet jumping or turtles peeking their head out of water while paddling to your destination. Let these small moments remind you to slow down and enjoy life's simple pleasures. Dolphin Paddlesports will hook you up with any SUP sales and rentals, plus swim/snorkel gear and accessories.

Pedal With Nowhere in Mind

The Legacy Trail

Connecting Sarasota and Venice spans the Legacy Trail, an 18.5-mile multi-use recreational trail that once served as the railway track line. Ambitious bikers and rollerbladers can complete the full route, but distances of any length provide unlimited possibilities, with access points every couple of miles. The straight paved path means you won’t get lost and its off-the-road location prevents traffic danger while enjoying the surrounding nature galore. 

Make it to the Venetian Waterway Park in Venice for additional biking trails on either side of the Intracoastal Waterway. No matter which mile marker you make it to, cycling is a great way to get outside with loved ones to take in scenery, share some fresh air, soak up Vitamin D and sneak in a little low-impact cardio. Bike rentals are available throughout town for those without their own wheels.

Treat Yourself 

Photo courtesy of The St. Regis Longboat Key Resort

Wellness indulgences to welcome the new year include a much-needed spa day, of course. The holidays can be stressful, so sometimes a winter reset includes a little pampering in a beautiful place. Local spa centers and resort spas offer everything from signature facials and massages to whole-body treatments and new hairdos, designed to melt stress and refresh from the inside out—perfect for starting 2026 feeling radiant and renewed.

Food Does a Body Good

Farmers' Market at Lakewood Ranch

Of course, any workout regimen must be supplemented with healthy eating. In addition to the many healthy cafés and restaurants in the area, there's arguably nothing better than eating fresh, local food straight from the source. To feel great but still enjoy vacation dining at its best, a trip to one of Sarasota County's dozen farmers' markets means freshly shucked coconut water out of the husk, sweet Florida produce, fresh-baked bread loaves, locally roasted coffees, Gulf-caught seafood and so much more to kick your New Year's diet with a clean-eating bang. 

From the Treetops to the Clouds

Head to Myakka River State Park, where the lush hammock overhead protects from the sun and serves as home to critters galore. Crossing the suspended 100-foot-long canopy walkway or climbing up the 76-foot-tall observation tower, which offers panoramic views from above the treetops, hardly feels like a workout and more like a vacation excursion. 

If that isn't quite high enough, seek an even higher personal reward. Head to Tree Umph! Adventure Course to tackle its 14 acres of thrilling treetop climbing obstacles and finish with their 650-foot zipline. Or book a parasailing excursion to soar above crystal-blue waters while letting the fresh, salty Gulf air fill your lungs with joy and adventure.

Care to Dance?

Put on your dancing shoes and shake those worries away. The Sarasota Ballet, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe and Sarasota Contemporary Dance offer drop-in adult classes and workshops to merge the culture of Sarasota with a fusion of different dance styles. Whether you’re a novice or en pointe, this is your chance to reconnect with your body and dance into your 2026 resolutions. 

For something out of the studio and a little less rehearsed, just stroll down Siesta Key Beach on Sunday night to stumble upon the Drum Circle, where happy bodies swivel and sway like waves upon the sand to the beat of drums and other instruments as the sun sets over the horizon.