Escape to Tranquillity:
Yoga Retreat in the Peaceful Mountains of The Algarve
16th – 20th October 2024
Nourish your soul and escape into nature with blissful days of yoga, meditation, walking, cooking and creativity. Wake up to breathtaking views, breathe in the mountain air and allow yourself to completely unwind.
Elevate your yoga practice as we delve deeper into a variety of yoga styles. These include activated Vinyasa flow, Hatha, Reiki, meditation, breathwork and nurturing full moon sessions. Discover new techniques, refine your alignment and find balance.
Ignite your creativity in all inclusive workshops such as cooking, sketching and journaling, plus you will be treated to a mountain top picnic and invigorating walk to explore the surrounding trails. Our aim is that you feel completely supported and looked after and when it’s time to leave you are deeply nourished, inspired and full of vitality.
Highlights:
- Guided meditations, breathwork and yoga sessions every day
- Sketching and tile painting workshops
- Daily journaling with an ‘intro to journaling’ workshop
- Mountain top yoga and picnic breakfast
- Connect with nature mountain hike
- Vegan cooking workshop
- Candle lit yoga nidra and full moon sharing circle
- 4 nights’ accommodation in a beautiful location
- All meals and activities included
Skill Level:
Beginner and Intermediate. Instruction in English.
Yoga styles:
Activated, Vinyasa, Restorative, Hatha and Reiki
Hotel Facilities:
Hot tub / jacuzzi, outdoor swimming pool, gardens, yoga deck and dome, multilingual hotel staff, free parking, fibre optic WIFI in all internal areas.
Program
Retreat days will begin with a peaceful group morning meditation session or silent walk where you will learn a variety of different techniques to help you find stillness and connect with your true self. Tasty, healthy breakfasts will be served after the morning classes and there will be some time to unwind, walk around the gardens, read or lounge by the pool every day.
Relax, rejuvenate and indulge your senses with an array of activities and offerings throughout the day. Cooking or journaling workshops, sketching classes or mountain walking. During the week, you will have a 1:1 session with Louise, giving you a chance to discuss your yoga practice, or help you plan one that fits into your daily life.
Evenings are filled with cozy yoga, full moon meditation sessions or yoga nidra to enhance your body and mind’s well-being and aid restful sleep. On Saturday, we begin the day with sunrise yoga on the top of the Mountain of Foia, followed by a picnic breakfast. After our picnic, we will head off on a mountain hike along winding trails with stunning views.
Healthy and Delicious Food
Our own chef will cook for you the most delicious and nutritious vegetarian or if preferred, vegan meals. All meals are included, and we offer fresh, healthy, locally sourced and homemade selections. If you have any food intolerances/allergies or preferences, please do let us know. The following meals are included: Breakfast, lunch, dinner and all drinks.
Schedule Wednesday 16th to Sunday 20th October
Day 1 (Wednesday)
Late Afternoon welcome gathering and introduction and intention setting
1:1 sessions begin. These will continue throughout the week in the free time.
Dinner followed by free time to settle in.
Gentle evening yoga practice inspired by the elements of nature followed by a group meditation under the stars with the sounds of nature.
Day 2 (Thursday)
Early morning guided meditation and breathwork session to cultivate inner peace and relaxation followed by a delicious breakfast.
Mid morning Yoga class surrounded by trees teaching the fundamentals and the art of adjustment with Louise.
Lunch followed by tile painting workshop
Free time to relax by the pool followed by dinner, after which we have an introduction to journaling with Suzanne followed by meditation.
Day 3 (Friday)
Pre-breakfast silent walk around the gardens of VilaFoia to collect for our earth offering.
After breakfast, a group journaling session to reflect on the previous days’ experiences and insights.
Yoga workshop in the dome with Louise exploring strength and balance.
After yoga we have a vegan cooking workshop followed by lunch sharing what we have cooked,
followed by some free time to sit and simply be, before our Reiki yoga class – a slow and gentle class with Louise and Emily.
After dinner we sit together to discuss our individual sleep patterns before winding down with a cozy Yoga Nidra session, encouraging deep relaxation and connection with the earth.
Day 4 (Saturday)
We are taken to the top of Foia for a sunrise Yoga session amidst nature, focusing on grounding and connecting with the earth followed by a mountain top picnic breakfast
After breakfast we head off on a walk from the mountain top and meander back down to the hotel, collecting items on the way to use in our afternoon sketching class.
After lunch we meet local artist Penny, who will teach to explore our sketching skills, deepening awareness and appreciation of the natural world.
Some free time to be spent however you wish, perhaps to read a book in a hammock. Dinner and our closing cacao gathering.
Day 5 (Sunday)
Early morning meditation and yoga reflecting on the entire retreat experience.
Breakfast and closing circle to share insights, intentions, and farewells. Departure with a renewed connection to nature and oneself.
Optional extras – massages can be booked at an extra cost – advance booking required.
Meet your instructors
Louise:
Yoga teacher and host
You can read more about Louise here.
Louise will be your dedicated host, available throughout the retreat to help with everything yoga and activity related. Beyond the group sessions, she will meet with everyone on a 1:1 bases to go through any yoga related questions, discuss any injuries you may have, get a good understanding of how you would like to progress with your practice and to help you plan a sustainable practice that you can fit into your daily life. Her intention is to help you take everything you have gained from the retreat home with you, so that the benefits of yoga extend far beyond your time together.
Suzanne:
An Introduction to Journaling Workshop
Suzanne has a background in the expressive arts and media, writing globally for print and digital media on nature and well-being as well as presenting the spoken word as an award-winning talk radio presenter on Dubai Eye 103.8, with a specific focus on work-life balance. These days you can find Suzanne in the hills of Southern Portugal where she works as a forest therapy practitioner and trainer offering nature-based coaching and communication skills.
Using prompts and writing freely a few times a week for as little as 10 minutes can help manage stress, and unblock areas of our lives where we feel stuck, journaling techniques to help gain clarity of thought and release creativity.
During this session, you will:
• Explore themes like gratitude, happiness, and compassion
• Identify ways journalling can support you
• Takeaway techniques to incorporate into your everyday life
• Journaling is known to help ease worries and prevent intrusive thoughts and rumination. It can help improve sleep and our overall sense of well-being.
Penny:
Sketching Nature workshop
Penny moved to the Serra de Monchiquefrom Devon in the UK, where she worked as an early years teacher. She began painting seriously in her late forties, joining an art class in Dartington led by inspiring teacher Jean Alice Coombe and she enjoyed painting whenever possible, alongside facilitating art projects in her school, including working outdoors with natural materials.
The landscape is her inspiration, from the mountains to the sea, the cork oaks, flowers in the garden, and ocean waves crashing on the shore and against the cliffs. Penny explains, “As a child, I loved painting and drawing and have always enjoyed sketching as a means of feeling my way into a landscape, taking time to really look at the lie of the land.”
Emily:
Reiki
Emily is a Reiki and Massage therapist living and working in the mountains of Monchique. Over the past 9 years she has been deepening and refining her healing practice, empowering people to release mental, emotional and physical pain and dis-ease from the body. In her practice she creates safe spaces for people to see and feel where they are holding onto pain and where they can gently let go to experience more joy, freedom and ease.
She is passionate about the power of women’s circles as a way to guide women home to their innate worth and divine wisdom. In ceremony, she incorporates movement, meditation, touch, herbal medicine, sharing and deep listening as doorways to our sacred nature and heart connection with one another.
Retreat Hotel – VilaFoia
VilaFoia lies among pristine nature with an abundance of flora and fauna and with a stunning view to the Atlantic Ocean. This boutique hotel has beautiful grounds, with small streams and waterfalls, centennial trees, and at 550 meters above sea level on Fóia mountain (902m at the peak) offers an array of dazzling views. At VilaFoia you will find a friendly, unique and relaxing atmosphere. Traditionally designed rooms with Portuguese terracotta tiles, granite, and pine wood all locally sourced from the Monchique region. The cozy and yet spacious rooms offer a high level of comfort and everything you need to take advantage of the surrounding landscape.
The large swimming pool is surrounded by a lawn with deck chairs and a chill-bed to relax. The Jacuzzi on the top deck has yet more fabulous views or you can relax in hammocks and listen to the cascading water. If you are working remotely or need to catch up with some work during your time off, we offer fibre optic WIFI in all internal areas making a perfect combination to work by terrace, or by the fireplace.
Vilafoia is about an hour from Faro airport. We can arrange transport at an extra cost. If other retreat guests are arriving/departing at similar times we can combine transfers to share the costs. Car hire is available at Faro and there are public transport links too, please ask if you need help. For the people travelling from Lisbon we can offer collections from Tunis train station.
Room options
There are various room options, with private and shared availability. You can choose to stay in shared accommodation with one to three other people and if you don’t book with another person you will be partnered up with another retreat participant of the same gender. Of course, you can book a private room as well. Prices start at €855.
Find out why it’s important to take time out and go on a retreat….
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Monchique Yoga 