Determined to bring yoga along with us on vacation, some of us head to the shore or up to our favorite ski slope toting a yoga mat and maybe a yoga DVD or even a list of poses that our teacher has written down for us. Others of us, however, have the intention of bringing a vacation to our yoga. We don’t want to mix a little practice with our vacation; we want to go somewhere so we can practice more. And more. And, these days, it’s possible to do that not just in India, where yoga began more then 5,000 years ago, but in Thailand, Italy, Costa Rica, Australia, Massachusetts, and Maine. Here, Yoga Journal readers share memories of some of their favorite yoga vacation spots and Nancy O’Driscoll, 35 a Interaction Designer from Boston, Massachusetts wrote the following concerning her trip to Sunflower Retreats in Casperia.
For our honeymoon, my husband and I spent a blissful week in a sparsely populated medieval village outside Rome. Our days were full of lazy hikes in the surrounding olive fields and hills, bike rides to other villages, amazing local cuisine, and twice-daily yoga classes held in a converted stable. There were only eight of us in the group that week with Jennifer Hubbard, a contracted yoga instructor from California. She had broad knowledge and worked with us to make sure that yoga suited our preferred styles. My husband and I have been following Forrest yoga recently, and there were Iyengar students in the class as well as some people entirely new to yoga. We were all satisfied. Jennifer also offered classes in other topics – most memorably Yoga Nidra.
Accommodations, classes, and a group breakfast are included in the package; other than that you are free to explore the town’s other options or, if you have a kitchen in your quarters, to make your own food.
Aside from yoga, we spent time on Sunflower bicycles exploring the countryside and other small towns. The owner led a couple of hikes during the week through the surrounding hills, which are full of amazing trees and plants (not to mention truffles and boars) and are also rich in history, which Alan, the owner, was happy to share.