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The joint development of sport and tourism has given rise to the most outstanding example of ex nihilo urban construction: ski resorts. Beyond this excep-tional phenomenon, the urbanization of tourist destinations – defined by their potential for the practice of leisure physical activities – has been progressing in a way which is both more diffuse and much more widespread. Through the examples of sailing and mountaineering leisure interests, we draw attention to the driving role of physical activities in this process. This exercise focuses on the beginnings of the institutionalization of physical and tourist practices from the end of the 19th century and makes use of the archives and publications of those companies which supported these activities, such as the Touring Club of France, the French Alpine Club, and the Canoe Club of France.