The birthplace of yoga and home to some of the best retreats in the world. Here’s our recommended yoga, detox and meditation retreats in India that will help you to improve your yoga practice, de-stress and discover your inner zen.
Yoga Alchemy Release & Let Go Retreat, South Goa 7th – 13th January
India is no foreign land, it’s the Mother Land. Every year she calls us, and we always answer. Except this time around, you’re invited. We’re taking along a few friends to re-create the Akasha experience. Join us on a transformational retreat in the beautiful region of South Goa.
Release the constraints held tightly in your being, and restart your system on this 6-night retreat that will leave you ready and open for the magic that 2018 has to offer. High expectations and daily stresses create negative emotions in our physical body which can then create an ongoing cycle of frustration and bad habits. Quite often, instead of taking more energy in, we first need to clear and release that which we are holding on to.
This rejuvenating retreat will give you the chance to gently detox the subtle body, then set a solid, unshakeable foundation for the year ahead.
Wellness Retreat Southern India: Yoga, Pilates and Self-Care, 4th – 10th March 2018
Escape the grind by retreating to rustic Southern India for a wellness retreat focusing on YOU. This is an opportunity to seek space for rejuvenation, exploration and peace.
Take part in two classes each day of Yoga and Pilates, sprinkled with other wellness opportunities like meditation and breath technique. Delight your taste buds with Southern India’s cuisine of spice, texture and sauces, including lentils, native fruits, coconut oils/milks and curry leaves. Take the opportunity to soak up knowledge of Ayurveda, India’s sister science, and experience luscious ayurvedic treatments, the ultimate in self-care. The state of Kerela has a tropical climate and the beach culture of the Kovalam area will allow you to shed the layers and congestion of the west as you practice self care and relaxation in a natural environment.
India has so much for the senses to take in. Whether it be the wind of tuk tuks whizzing by on the road or the smell of Indian spices wafting from restaurants and local family homes, or the sound of a woman chopping open a fresh coconut for you to drink by the beach. Brightly colored sari’s adorn the local women and tiny winding streets with handmade shopping treasures entice you to explore. It is full to the brim of endless temples, shrines, churches, mosques, and bazaars devoted to spices, incense and freshly cut flowers. India is made for those with a curious spirit and a heart ready for adventure.
Leave it to Mandee to navigate the details in moving through India while you simply enjoy and treat yourself to the tropical experience in the south. India’s positive and energetic vibe is like nothing you have been a part of before. Let her lead you to a place that mesmerizes with all its colors, beauty and life lessons!
10 Tips for yoga travel in india
Discover Your Inner Yoga Athlete in Enchanting Munnar, 12th – 20th December
This retreat is designed to bring out your inner warrior. If you’re idea of a break from it all, is eating healthy, sleeping deep and training hard then this is the retreat for you! We cycle up and down the mountains of Munnar from day one, rise early each day for morning training, be it a run, martial arts or a dynamic yoga practice. This trip is designed to challenge you, and you are guaranteed to return home with new skills you never knew you had.
We have found some of the very best Kalari practitioners in South India, who we also go and see perform, and asked them to teach us a session in this ancient Indian martial art, which is believed to have been the precursor to Kung Fu. So the preliminary sessions in traditional Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi, will get you prepared! Finally everyone is rewarded with a gorgeous deep tissue Kalari Ayurvedic massage!
After all, a warrior needs some respite!! What’s more we stay in the very best and most beautifully designed eco-retreats, offering total comfort in the lap of nature.
Munnar, the hill station and former resort for the British Raj elite, is surrounded by rolling hills dotted with tea plantations. Established in the late 19th century, it is known for being the habitat for the endangered mountain goat Nilgiri tahr, and is home to the Lakkam Waterfalls, hiking trails and 2,695m-tall Anamudi Peak. This is not just a yoga retreat but a real journey in every sense.
A Vedic Adventure: Yoga, Ayurveda & Spirituality with Jasmine Grace, 29th November – 10th December
Experience the overwhelming magic and exoticness that is India. Let its ancient cultures and traditions mystify you, its exotic foods take you on a culinary voyage of its own, its colorful people charm you, its spirituality reveal the beauty of your soul and its ancient medicinal teachings heal you. This is a journey of self-transformation through a land of soul-stirring spiritual experiences and an in-depth practice and study of yoga, ayurveda and meditation.
This retreat is not for the faint-hearted, nor is it only for the fearless. It is for those seeking to discover themselves on a journey of personal transformation through a myriad of inner and outer experiences that last a lifetime. Isn’t it time you explored one of the world’s most gorgeous and ancient lands, and discovered yourself in a soul-stirring spiritual adventure? Your journey to self-discovery begins not when the universe says so but when you decide to start it. It is no accident that you have come across this.
Our journey begins in Kovalam, Kerala, on the shores of the Arabian Sea. Here we will immerse ourselves in a daily study and practice of Ayurveda and Yoga. We will observe an Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle for 7-days as part of our wellness experience and rejuvenation of the body on this retreat. From here, we traverse to the very southern tip of India before making our to Madurai, the ancient Tamil capital of culture. The city itself is a densely packed warren of streets, shops and bazaars. Our hotel is a luxurious oasis just on the outside of town that will allow us a peaceful base from which to explore. Join us on our Vedic Adventure for an experience of a lifetime.
EAT.PRAY.MOVE Form & Focus Luxury Retreat Goa, 17th – 23rd March 2018
Join us for our EAT.PRAY.MOVE Luxury Form & Focus Retreat in Goa. We are so excited about another special collaboration with Julian Hyzler from EASEL&LENS to combine a look at creative focus with travel-journal creation classes throughout the week. Yoga and meditation classes will be held daily to prepare our bodies and minds to find the ‘calm in the chaos’ of the sensory-overload that is India – and then these creative projects will help us find new ways of seeing – both yoga and art working together to find FOCUS in the many layers of smells, sites, and sounds that abound in exotic Goa.
This creative retreat features “design curation” by Rupi Sood, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of J’AIPUR, an East-meets-West arts and culture journal. In addition to creating and curating online content for the magazine, she publishes bi-annual print editions which are sold in select shops around the world. Rupi was born in India, raised in Canada and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, two children and a Jack Russell Terrier named Sherlock Holmes. She is an EAT.PRAY.MOVE multiple time past guest and now helps to plan exciting new lifestyle additions to our India retreats.
Nurture your Inner Self Retreat in magical Kodaikanal, India 28th February – 8th March 2018
Drawing from both the traditions of yoga and meditation, we introduce you to techniques you can use in everyday life to overcome the obstacles and stresses we face. The yoga classes we facilitate on this retreat are gentler than the other three retreats, and taught as a guided meditation. The hikes bring refreshment and revitalisation without being strenuous.
The premises are chosen for comfort, style and peace and the food is seasonal and uplifting, carefully selected for nutritional balance and grown locally. Witness for yourself your body, mind and soul respond to a week of regeneration in nature’s paradise in the Western Ghats.
With its mystical misty mountains and awesome eucalyptus forests, pretty coffee plantations and lush meadows Kodiakanal, known to its friends as Kodi, is an ideal site for the numerous eco- spiritual communities, eco-minded hoteliers and resorts, which have set up home here. Granite cliffs, forested valleys, lakes, waterfalls and grassy hills, border the evergreen forest beyond. Kodi can be understood as an energy centre. It is a place where magic mushrooms grow wild (the flora and fauna is generally surreal – take the Bengal Monitor as an example), the air is so pure and the waterfalls tells stories.
It is truly a magical place, an energetically charged wonder of the world. We have carefully selected the accommodation after spot checking a number of resorts over a period of months. We chose the resorts that employed the happiest staff, in the most stunning locations with the highest standards or cleanliness and maintenance. In particular we chose locations nearby the lively and bustling market town replete with chocolate, spices and pretty shops of pottery and crafts on the one hand and lush forrest and waterfalls within walking distance for the second half of the trip. We have also arranged for one night’s camping after short one-hour stroll around the farm, and ensured for the provision of good quality tents and sleeping bags on Day 4.
The Leela Goa, luxury beach resort
The Leela Goa is a fabulous 5 star luxurious beach resort which spreads across 75 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens on the southern tip of Goa. The entire resort, from architectural elements to heavenly gardens represents an intriguing fusion of Colonial Portugal with modern India, giving the guests a cultural experience that is truly Indian.
Located just off the beach, The Spa offers an extensive selection of holistic and Ayurveda spa treatments. Relax, revitalise and rejuvenate. Considered the most natural path to holistic health, Ayurveda is the ancient science of preventive medicine and healthcare that focuses on getting the human body to arrive at perfect harmony with the universe around us.
Ayurveda is based on how the five elements of nature—ether, air, fire, water and earth—organise themselves in our body to form doshas like vata, pitha and kapha. The science attempts to balance the relationship between four of the core aspects of life—atma, the soul; manas, the mind; indriya, the senses; and sharira, the body.
Some of the recommended therapies here include Abhyanga, with one therapist; synchronised Abhyanga, with two therapists simultaneously; traditional full body massage; Sirodhara warm-oil massage; and Ayurvedic back massage. You can also sign up for other localised treatments for various parts of the body.
Get a taste of paradise by staying at this breathtaking resort. Relax in the swimming pool, enjoy a pampering treatment at the spa, opt for a yoga lesson, play some golf, tennis or volleyball and enjoy opulent accommodation amid tropical settings.
Check availability
Alila Diwa Spa resort, Goa
Explore in and around South Goa, a land of swaying palms, white sands, sparkling waters, emerald green paddy fields and eternally clement weather.
Picture a fitness boot-camp with creature comforts and seaside views – that’s Bio Resurge for you. It is a private ‘clinic’ housed at the Alila Diwa resort, located on the idyllic Majorda beach in the south of Goa. An exclusive institution that allows just 10 clients at a time, it promotes comprehensive health through its weight-loss programme. Developed by Glen Schirmer, an Australian fitness guru who has trained tennis champs and Olympic athletes, the 28-day wellness/fitness programme at the clinic focuses on helping individuals regain health, and reverse “health pathologies” by gaining as much lean body mass (LBM) as possible while losing maximum body fat via massages, workouts, power walks and healthy eating.
Lose yourself in a world of sheer indulgence at Spa Alila. Revel in an array of treatments and therapies at the hands of our expert staff and emerge completely relaxed and energised! Inspired by the age-old healing traditions of Ayurveda, Spa Alila also offers bespoke programmes crafted to your body constitution and wellness requirements.
Check availability
Ananda in the Himalayas
Ananda is an award-winning luxury destination spa resort in India situated at the Himalayan foothills in Northern India. Located on a 100 acre Maharaja’s Palace Estate, Ananda is surrounded by graceful Sal forests and overlooks the spiritual town of Rishikesh and the Ganges river valley. Ananda, one of the best luxury ayurvedic retreats in India, integrates traditional Ayurveda, Yoga and Vedanta with international wellness experiences, fitness and healthy organic cuisine to restore balance and harmonize energy.
An expansive spa spread across 25000 sq. ft. with its 24 treatment rooms, state of the art gymnasium, outdoor temperature-controlled swimming pool and luxurious hydrotherapy facilities is the centre of attention at Ananda. The spa featuring more than 80 body and beauty experiences integrates traditional Indian wellness practices of Ayurveda and Yoga with the best of international wellness experiences at the best destination spa in India. The personalized therapy and activities program are designed to meet individual needs and health goals – de-stress, detoxification and cleansing, deep relaxation, anti-ageing, weight & inch loss, while also offering guidance in the areas of nutrition and active fitness. A team of qualified nutritionists, Western & Ayurvedic physicians, spa therapists, Yoga and Fitness experts all gently guide towards a better lifestyle at this Himalayan spa and wellness retreat.
Check availability
If you need help selecting your retreat or you need more information don’t hesitate to get in touch at retreats@soulseedmedia.com.
