"Yoga Holidays: How to Choose the Best One for Yourself?

Tired of yoga? It happens. Even if you practice a style of yoga that really suits you, even if you’ve found a teacher you love, you may feel the need to step outside your comfort zone and try something new. A yoga vacation might be just the ticket!

Explore all the yoga vacation options and start planning your trip! Practicing yoga outside of your home or studio is a wonderful thing.

A regular vacation and yoga as entertainment

Imagine a beach resort that has yoga classes in addition to all the usual activities. You can relax, swim to the pool bar, go on Canopy tours, and spend your free time sampling local food and drinks, enjoying the nightlife, etc. If you want to continue your yoga practice but still have time to do other things, this is the vacation for you. If you overindulge in drinks or food, you can always skip class the next day - no pressure, no guilt. (Unless you're traveling with a group of friends who will expect you to be disciplined about attending yoga classes. Make sure that's not the case before you agree to this trip.)

When planning such a trip, keep in mind that many resorts and hotels offer free yoga classes to their guests, but most of the time these are very, very basic, aimed at beginners and bored resort-goers. If you would like to practice more professional yoga at an advanced level, yoga retreats may be for you.

Yoga Retreats

A yoga retreat is a type of vacation where everything is yoga-related. It usually looks like this: you go to a quiet, calm place, away from the noise of civilization, where it will be easier not to be distracted - in such a place you can really clear your mind and concentrate on your yoga practice. Your daily schedule will include morning practice, group workshops and meetings, evening practice or meditation. The menu usually consists of healthy dishes, most often vegetarian, alcohol is excluded.

Yoga retreats tend to attract people who are looking for a Zen-like atmosphere and want to take on the role of seeker, explorer, or discoverer. Individual progress is enhanced and depends on the level of involvement in the group class. You pay for all yoga classes, and if you do not plan to attend all the events, you should consider a vacation with a more flexible schedule of yoga activities. However, if you have been practicing yoga for a long time and want to immerse yourself in a yoga-oriented atmosphere of a small group of like-minded people, then yoga retreats are for you.

Yoga festivals

Although yoga festivals may look a lot like yoga retreats, they can be a very special experience. Yoga festivals are held all over the world, sometimes in very unusual places. The Solstice is held in the middle of New York City, in Times Square, which is far from calm and quiet, and that’s the whole point.

Many annual festivals are held in beautiful locations like Telluride, Colorado and Nantucket. These outdoor festivals are packed with people, live music, and energy, which is very different from the yoga retreat experience. At multi-day festivals, you can pick and choose only the classes and activities you want to attend.

Yoga Teacher Training Programs

While you don't have to travel to participate in a yoga teacher training program, many trainings take place in amazing and remote locations, allowing students to completely remove themselves from the distractions of their lives and immerse themselves in their learning.

These programs are usually quite structured and are designed for people who want to teach yoga, but some yoga practitioners take these courses for themselves, for deep immersion, to work on the connection between the mind and body, without planning to teach later. But in this case, you should understand that the courses pay much less attention to your personal practice.

You will study yoga asanas, their sequence during the class, the technique of leading a whole group of practitioners, the emphasis will often be on things that have little to do with yoga on the mat: the teacher must be able to convey to the student the need to breathe correctly, concentrate, let go of thoughts, get rid of the stress of routine life.

You should understand that training programs require mandatory attendance of classes. Usually, classes are held in studios or gyms (although sometimes classes are held outdoors or by the pool).

There are tons of options for relaxing and practicing yoga! Just google it :) If you feel ready to go on a yoga trip, be sure to research the proposed itinerary, understand what you are paying for, ask about the cancellation policy, and get as much information as possible before signing up for anything. Then you will definitely end up in the right place!