What makes a great yoga retreat?

With a new year starting we know that lots of you are thinking about health and wellness goals for the next 12 months. Many of you as part of this are looking at all the yoga retreats on offer worldwide. But what makes a really GREAT yoga retreat? How do you pick one?

We have a few points to look out for when shortlisting your top yoga retreats for 2016:

It’s in an inspiring location

Look for a yoga retreat that will enable you to visit a beautiful and inspiring location. The setting of your retreat will have a real impact on how much you enjoy it and it also affects what activities are on offer.

Our yoga retreats with digital detox are set in three amazing locations this year; our first retreat is set in a traditional 19^th century Hawaiian ranch on Oahu’s North Shore. You will be able to lap up the stunning beaches of Hawaii’s famous coastline and also explore the 19 acres of ocean front land on which the ranch is set on.

In May our yoga retreat with digital detox will take place in the rolling countryside of Puglia, Italy. Our 18^th century masseria is surrounded with 20 acres of land with stunning views. Close to the masseria you will find a series of white-walled towns and villages as well as beautiful secluded beaches.

If you want a UK coastal retreat on a cliff-top with stunning views of the coast, our yoga retreat with digital detox in June is perfect. This retreat is set on the north coast of Cornwall, England.

A variety of activities are on offer

A yoga retreat is a great time to relax and unwind and enjoy the amazing benefits of yoga. You will be practising yoga daily, often more than once a day. This allows you to experience all the benefits yoga has to offer in an intensive period of time.

However, when choosing a yoga retreat you should also look for a range of other activities that are on offer which will give you the opportunity to try new things in-between the yoga practice.

Both our Hawaii and Cornwall digital detox retreats offer the opportunity to try surfing with experienced instructors at one of the nearby local beaches. Our retreat in Italy also offers daily guided coastal walks giving you the opportunity to explore the area with others on the retreat.

A yoga retreat that offers a variety of additional activities allows you to spend time practicing yoga as the core of the retreat whilst also giving you the chance to try new experiences and explore and get to know the local area.

The food is a core part of the retreat

Look closely at the food on offer at a yoga retreat, not only the menu but also the sourcing of the ingredients and the experience and philosophy of the chef.

On our yoga retreats with digital detox we always offer a vegetarian, mainly raw diet with fruit and vegetables always sourced from the local area. A raw diet has many benefits including increased energy, improved digestion and weight loss.

Our chefs are chosen for their passion and enthusiasm for working with raw organic food, you can read all about some of them here.

The yoga on offer is for all abilities

Make sure when you are choosing a yoga retreat that regardless of whether you are a newcomer to yoga or a seasoned yogini, the retreat will cater to you.

Experienced yoga teachers understand that poses that may be more advanced can easily be adapted to suit everyone at different levels. We only take yoga teachers on our retreats that have many years of teaching yoga to all levels of experience and who are particularly open to welcoming those who have never tried yoga before.

There will be a like-minded group of people

Ask when you are booking your retreat what other people have attended before, and who has already booked. Ensure that you are going to be part of a group that has similar interests and experience to you. If you book a yoga retreat with digital detox you can be guaranteed that everyone attending will have the same motivation to get offline and spend time away from the digital world as you, making it likely you’re going to be with a group you’re going to share a lot of interests and a similar outlook with.

We hope these tips on what to look for when choosing a yoga retreat are helpful. To see the range of retreats we have planned check out our digital detox retreats page.