Bend it Like Beckham
Yoga Retreats for Everyone
A yoga retreat can be approached many different ways.
Usually, for a devoted yogi, it means picking a favorite
teacher from one's lineage, or someone who teaches in
one's chosen style, and following that teacher to a
destination — often in a dramatic, natural setting
like Costa Rica, Thailand or India. If you're a neophyte
a comfortable, welcoming approach that takes beginners'
needs into consideration will matter more than famous
instructors like Shiva Rea. With our selection of yoga
retreats in the U.S. we've tried to be fair and select
destinations that cater to average people as well as
serious adepts. California being the yoga vortex it
is, we couldn't help but pick three retreats in this
"spiritually minded" state; the same is true
with our two spots in New York. The two coasts were
for the longest time the sole purveyors of things yogic.
You might miss obvious choices like Arizona and New
Mexico, and this was somewhat intentional: You probably
never thought you'd chance upon amazing options in Georgia,
and Virginia. Yoga is thriving and these destinations
are just the beginning!
USA
Big Sur, CA
Esalen Institute
www.esalen.org
 This
exquisite institute with its annual 400 plus workshops,
designed to maximize what Aldous Huxley called the "human
potential," is a top-secret address for serious
retreaters. The quality of its teachers, unique approach
and spectacular coastal setting put Esalen in a league
of its own. Located in the Santa Lucia Mountains on
27 acres of Big Sur coastline, on what formerly was
the home of the Esselen Indians, Esalen blends Eastern
and Western philosophies in its quality workshops, which
have drawn renowned philosophers, psychologists, artists,
religious thinkers and top yoga instructors such as
Matthew Cohen, Seane Corn, Peter Levine, Tias Little
and Jai Uttal. Most people experience Esalen via a weekend
or five-day workshop. Yoga, is of course, only one modality
featured here. Pick from subjects such as biofeedback,
shamanism, somatics, dreams, hypnosis and more. The
hundreds of varieties of veggies that turn into the
meals on your plates are grown on the five acres that
make up the farm and garden. You can enjoy the hot springs
and bodywork by appointment.
USA
Santa
Barbara, CA
White Lotus
Foundation
www.whitelotus.org
 This
high-profile retreat is among the most esteemed in the
world of yoga. Founded by the famous (in yoga circles)
and accomplished Ganga White, this mountain oasis sits
on ancient canyon grounds — considered sacred by
the original inhabitants, the Chumash Indians — overlooking
Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean. On its advisory
board you will find one of America's most respected
experts on health, Dr. Andrew Weill, as well as celeb
yogi Sting and Sanskrit /Hinduism professor David Gordon
White, Ph.D. Various group retreats are offered year-round
with themes such as Spirit Dance and Yoga Retreat and
Sacred Breath/Pranayama—or you can go on a personal
retreat and stay in of their yurts. A retreat will include
any or all of these: daily Hatha yoga classes, hikes
in the oak and manzanita forests, meditation within
canyon walls, breathing exercises, bodywork, dips in
the waterfalls, massage, music, dance, philosophical
discussions, a visit to the underground Hopi style "Kiva"
temple and vegetarian meals. The foundation also offers
a highly regarded teacher training program and practitioner
training in traditional Thai Massage.
USA
Sierra
Foothills,
CA
Sivananda Ashram
www.sivananda.org
 This
Sivananda outpost — there are several Sivananda
Yoga Vedanta Centers around the world — on eighty
acres of Sierra foothills in Northern California's Gold
Country was founded by Swami Vishnu Devananda, a pioneer
of yoga in the Western world. It is open year-round
to practitioners of all abilities, and you can choose
to stay a day, a weekend or a month in this traditional
ashram nicknamed "yoga farm." The daily program
includes two daily yoga classes (with asanas, meditation,
chanting and lecture) as well as the swami's five points
of yoga (proper exercise, breathing, relaxation, diet,
positive thinking/meditation), and you may be encouraged
to practice Karma yoga (selfless service). Special theme-retreats
are also organized. Guests can enjoy a wide variety
of other wellness classes and retreat topics such as
positive thinking, Ayurveda, women's health, vegetarian
cooking, meditation or a silent retreat. Enjoy a swim
in the pond or simply let the tranquil, picturesque
landscape soothe you. Sivananda Yoga is practiced around
the world and you may feel drawn to the swami's mantra
that "Health is Wealth. Peace of Mind is Happiness.
Yoga Shows the Way."
USA
Red
Feather Lakes, CO
Shambhala Mountain
Center
www.shambhalamountain.org
 Located
on 600 acres in the Colorado Rockies, this Tibetan Buddhism-centered
retreat, founded by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, caters
to both neophytes and in-depth practitioners with a
vast roster of programs on yoga, Buddhist meditation,
Shambhala warriorship training, dharma talks and much
more. The name Shambhala symbolizes the notion that
each human being innately possesses wisdom, compassion
and goodness, and after a stay here you'll feel one
step closer to your personal enlightenment. Besides
practicing yoga, you can take walks through the surrounding
wild, natural beauty and encounter brown hawks and eagles,
foxes, marmots and lynx. Or stroll the Shambhala Botanic
Gardens, enjoy massages, Vipassana Insight meditations,
poetry readings and three healthy meals a day. Among
the highlights on the property is The Great Stupa of
Dharmakaya, the "largest and most elaborate example
of Buddhist sacred architecture in North America."
Housing options vary and include motel-like buildings,
the Shambhala Lodge guesthouse, dorms and tents.
USA
Dahlonega,
GA
Pura
Vida USA Wellness and Yoga Retreat
www.puravidausa.com
 The
sister property to Costa Rica's famed Pura Vida Retreat
and Spa sits on 72 wooded acres in the foothills of
the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains, with a view of the
Chattahoochee National Forest, surrounded by fields,
woods, three nearby vineyards (you might know Three
Sisters), waterfalls and blueberry bushes. Guests choose
from the B&B and wellness center's comprehensive
five- or seven-day Mind, Body & Spirit Retreats
or themed yoga vacations like Spring Cleansing, Anusara
Yoga, Tantra: The Yoga of Love, Yoga & Knitting
and wellness weekends. The meals are home cooked with
herbs from the garden, mostly vegetarian and often featuring
world cuisines; and you'll also be able to enjoy some
regional wine or microbrewed beer to cap off a day of
yoga classes (in the 1,400 square-foot yoga hall), massages,
leisurely walks on nature trails and English-style wildflower
gardens or a lounge on the large front porch. Be sure
to check out the aroma spa steam cabin and under-the-stars
Watsu tub with its wooden deck. The 18 accommodations
in the 1920's-style farmhouse, barn or private cabins
("Bear Dens") in the woods are simple and
comfortable, done in traditional southern style. It's
just an hour's drive from Atlanta and you'll be picked
up at the airport. Note: Pura Vida USA is now Dahlonega Spa Resort.
USA
Big
Island, HI
Kalani Oceanside
Retreat
www.kalani.com
 Kalani
Honua translates as "harmony of heaven and earth,"
and this is the mission of this 30-year-and-going-strong
island retreat bordering the ocean and tropical jungle.
Visitors have raved about the lush setting and healing
and joyful spirit of this place and yoga great Shiva
Rea was inspired to say: "Kalani is one of the
most potent and nurturing retreat centers in the world
as it is so close to where Pele’s lava flows into
the ocean — where new earth is actually being created."
Top guest faculty from around the country includes Baron
Baptiste, Shiva Rea and Rodney Yee, but even if you're
not a pro and these names mean nothing, this might be
the place to begin a spiritual or wellness journey with
their Introduction to Yoga retreat offered year-round.
Guests enjoy skilled instruction in yoga basics, healthy
vegetarian, vegan or seafood-centered meals on the open-air
lanai and activities such as Hula basics, creative writing
or DolphinDance. On your off-hours you can laze by the
25-meter Olympic pool, enjoy Hawaiian Lomilomi or Watsu
massage or bodywork, tennis and volleyball. Accommodations
cover all budgets, from the colorful Tree House with
ocean and horse pasture views to the friendly cottage
and the campsite.
USA
Lenox,
MA
Kripalu Center
for Yoga and Health
www.kripalu.org
 Here's
another stellar yoga retreat offering the chance to
study with world-class teachers such as Ana Forrest,
Shiva Rea, Rodney Yee and Gary Kraftsow. Founded by
Swami Kripalu, a master Kundalini adept, in 1966, this
center's mission is as true to the original meaning
of yoga as you can possible get: the search for your
authentic self, or rather, a nonsectarian way to become
a better, healthier, more integrated human being. The
center benefits from a beautiful natural setting in
the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts, and
a typical day may include daily yoga and meditation,
healthy meals and other healing modalities such as Kripalu
DansKinetics classes and Healing Arts Sessions. A weekday
healing retreat can also feature workshops, hikes, meditation
in the labyrinth, kirtan, dance and drum circles. Beyond
you will encounter programs designed to heal body, mind
and spirit that range from macrobiotics, Ayurveda and
raw juice fasting to chi gong and "brainergy."
Accommodations in the Jesuit seminary mean either the
dormitory or small standard rooms. It's not luxurious,
but the rooms are clean and modern, and you cannot top
the quality of instruction and chance for real transformation
offered here.
USA
Neversink,
NY
New Age Health
Spa
www.newagehealthspa.com
 This
Catskill address on 280 acres of pastoral Sullivan County
land is not a yoga retreat per se — but everything
on offer here is designed to help you develop a sense
of greater fulfillment in life — and they do feature
regular "Specialty Yoga Weekends" centered,
for example, around opening your heart, sacred breathing
techniques or the tradition of Viniyoga. In addition,
daily Hatha yoga classes are held in the property's
1,700-square-foot studio with heated floors, a fieldstone
fireplace and impressive Buddha statue. Unless you're
a die-hard yogi and all you want is asana, you'll appreciate
other holistic activities like pranayama, silent meditation,
Tai Chi, aquarobics, strength training, cabaret dancing,
juice fasting, hydro colon therapy, reflexology, aromatherapy,
as well as hiking excursions, swimming, lectures and
workshops and more. Unlike many luxury destination spas,
the prices at "the only destination spa in New
York State" are extremely affordable and the accommodations
nice enough — you'll stay in pretty white country-inn
style clapboard lodges, and the fresh air and greenery
(especially of the nearby Shawangunk Mountains, best
explored on a half-day hike) around you alone are enough
to uplift the spirit
USA
Rhinebeck,
NY
Omega Institute
Rhinebeck Campus
www.eomega.org
 If
you're just beginning on your spiritual journey, the
Omega Institute for Holistic Studies offers the most
approachable programs for everyday people who have an
inkling that something deeper is missing in their lives.
It takes its name from mystic Teilhard de Chardin, who
described "the point where all thought converges"
as "omega." Its Rhinebeck Campus in the Hudson
Valley is the furthest thing from elitist — you'll
encounter neither gurus nor heightened disciplines and
esoteric efforts, but you'll be exposed to yoga, meditation
or transformational psychology in an easily digestible
manner. And, the faculty may include stellar names such
as Pema Chödrön, Sharon Salzberg, Geshe Michael
Roach, Jack Kornfield, Ph.D. or Krishna Das. Omega is
very highly regarded among retreat seekers and people
emerge refreshed in mind, body and spirit, if not totally
reformed, from the many classes such as Thai Chi by
the lake, yoga with pro Baron Baptiste or simple strolls
amid 195 acres of gardens, rolling hills and woodlands
in the Hudson River Valley. Cabin housing can be single
or shared.
USA
Buckingham,
VA
Satchitananda
Ashram
www.yogaville.org
 A
retreat can mean many things, a day packed tight with
scheduled classes and activities or a silent retreat
of rest, meditation and the chance to experience life
in a spiritual community. At the 1,000-acre Satchitananda
Ashram Yogaville in the rolling Virginia countryside
guests enjoy Hatha yoga classes, meditation, three vegetarian
meals a day, Saturday evening satsang and a visit to
Lotus, the Light Of Truth Universal Shrine, an oasis
for contemplation and prayer dedicated to world peace
and all faiths. The Intergral Yoga you encounter here
combines the various branches of yoga (Hatha, Raja,
Bhakti, Karma, Jnana and Japa) to form a scientific
system that helps to integrate your whole being. In
the mornings you're awakened by the play of a violin
and you rise to an environment of serene woods and wildflowers
beneath the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains. Guests stay
in air-conditioned dorms, private rooms in two guesthouses
or campgrounds on a quiet, wooded area. Weekend workshops
and programs on anything from Thai Yoga Massage to structural
yoga therapy or vegan and vegetarian cooking are also
available, as well as teacher certifications. |
