Why do a yoga retreat?

When planning your yoga travels, there are many things to take into consideration – travelling time to your destination, ease of travel on the ground, climate at the time of year you arrive, and of course which teacher or yoga style to choose.

Integrating a yoga retreat into your travels is a great way to take some time out (especially if you are on a long trip) to just do yoga, relax, meditate and unwind. Far away from the stresses of home (including work, bills, and family obligations) you can also get some perspective on where you are at in your life, and take some time to find out what you may want to change in your life to allow for the fullest expression of your higher self in the world.

Some people may have a particular destination in mind that is a lush tropical beach or perhaps perched amongst some breathtaking mountains. Others may be focused on the yoga lineage or practice that they’d like to take the time to deepen. While some people may have already identified a yogacharya (master yogi) that they want to go and learn from and are prepared to travel to wherever they are.

Yoga Festivals

A great way to plan your yoga travels is via one of the growing number of yoga festivals happening worldwide. These events last from one to sometimes five days or more, and bring together a wide variety of master yoga teachers from around the globe. Usually music and cultural events are also integrated into the program, making for a very rich and rewarding experience.

Whatever your priorities are for your spiritual travels, once you know where you are going you’ll have to organise the practical details like flights, accommodation, travel insurance and then what to bring along with you.

Booking Flights

You can go down the old fashioned route of going to a travel agency, one with an office on the high street and real people who attend to your needs. The advantage of this option is that if something happens during your trip and you’d like to change your flight dates or perhaps re-route your journey, you can phone or email your travel agent who can easily sort it out from you, saving you time and hassle. This is especially useful if you are in a remote area where the internet connection (and perhaps the electricity supply) are intermittent.

Booking your own flights has other advantages. Usually you will get the cheapest rate this way, and you can look at all the options available form your point of departure. Of course the downside is it can be quite time consuming trawling through all the different flight search engines or the airline’s websites to find the best deals. And if you want an open-ended ticket with changeable dates this will generally be a bit more expensive than the cheapest prices found on the search engines. But if you find yourself a very economical deal and are pretty certain that your travel plans are fixed, booking your own flights can be a good way to go.

Insurance

Travel Insurance can also be bought online, with many (especially the low budget) airlines offering it as an add-on service at the end of your flight booking. If you plan to be travelling to areas with political unrest, or if you are going to be doing some high altitude trekking as an extra in your trip you may want to investigate some travel insurance. Most basic insurance covers unforseen natural disasters which will interrupt your travel schedule, as well as accidents, lost baggage and any sundry trips to the doctor while you’re away. The Global Yogi recommends World Nomads insurance for global yoga travellers.

Yoga Travel Companies

There are now some full service yoga travel companies that organise everything for you in a package. They manage the yoga retreat – organising the accommodation and the teachers, as well as arrange flights and accommodation. This is a good option if you can only manage a short break from work or your regular schedule and down have the extra time necessary to do all the booking arrangements yourself.

Accommodation

If you are going on a retreat, your accommodation is usually included, but you may need to stay a night or two at your arrival city before transferring to the retreat centre. Sometime the retreat organizer can help you organize your interim accommodation, or at least give you the details of a few recommended hotels. Otherwise if you have to find something yourself, the Internet is awash with accommodation booking sites. Sometimes the amount of choice is overwhelming and you don’t know where to start to find a place to stay for a few nights that matches your requirements, especially if you have never travelled to your destination country or city before.

What to bring?

With more and more airlines following the lead of the low budget carriers and charging you to check-in your baggage, you can save a bit of money by taking a carry on bag only. This will also lighten your load for when you are transferring from the airport to your destination on the ground, and if you are an independent traveller and like to wait til you get to your destination before working out the ground transport, having just one light backpack or small suitcase makes this much easier.

What to pack? Photo by Robin van Mourik

For a yoga retreat of one or two weeks, you don’t really need to bring too much, and if you can get packing your luggage down to a fine art, you should be able to get away with one small backpack (no more than 15 kilos). Your yoga clothes are paramount – a few stretchy pants and top combinations, then perhaps one or two outfits for going out at night, a warm jacket, a decent pair of pants of jeans is usually enough. Your yoga mat can be neatly tied to the side of your backpack, or if you are taking a small suitcase, you can just carry it over your shoulder in a yoga mat bag.

Travel Guidebooks versus the Internet

Guidebooks can really ad weight to your luggage, so I would advise against bringing guides for a short trip. If you have an android phone, you can download a guidebook app from many of the leading travel guide producers, thus giving you all the info you need right on your phone, making getting around easy. If you don’t carry an android phone and don’t want to weigh down your luggage with books, a good idea is to printout the relevant information from the Internet, and just take a few relevant pages with you.