Dreaming of a Yoga retreat you want without the hefty price tag? Join our on-the-road writer, Zoe Macfarlane, as she uncovers how to feel like retreat royalty on a budget.
The days of needing a trillion dollars to be able to enjoy a private retreat are over. Okay, maybe not a trillion, but most exclusive individualised retreats cost at a few thousand bucks at best.
But Sedona’s Pura Vita Yoga is making waves in the exclusive retreat space, offering a tailor-made, affordable, haven for everyone, not just the 1%.
Supercharged Sedona
Sedona is in Northern Arizona, 120 miles from Flagstaff. With impressive red rock formations that create a bind around the city, it’s a destination worthy of your time. But, it’s the special energy of the vortexes that make Sedona the perfect setting for a supercharged stay.
Vortex = Energy
Visit Sedona describes vortexes as places “where the earth seems especially alive with energy.” Essentially these are places where you feel tingling or a boost when you are in their field. Sedona is the only place in the world where the vortex energy rotates both clockwise and anti-clockwise. People visit the vortex sites for meditation, healing, and for a general energetic pick-me-up.
Pura Vitality
Image: Wellness Stock Shop
Pura Vita has tapped into the magic available here, combining their yoga experience with a vortex boost. Genius really. Their itineraries offer deeply restorative yoga classes and well-timed vortex hikes for their guests’ maximum recalibration.
Amber is intuitive and adaptive in her classic Hatha yoga classes, ensuring revitalization and release. Each class produced dreamlike waves of relaxation, along with a satisfying post-exercise ache from a practice where I hadn’t even stood up!
I also felt a Zen-like calm holding triangle pose atop the Airport Vortex at sunset after an energising hike. Whether it was the increased energetic activity or Lance’s JP-Sears-like delivery, either way, I felt blissed out on back home to our retreat.
Home on the Road
Creekside Living at Pura Vita Yoga.
And it is a home. Amber and Lance open up the comforts of their house (including delicious meals) in an added bid to command relaxation. The upstairs of their creek-side residence is exclusively for guests, including a shared bathroom. Necessary when they have a couple of small toe-rags to consider.
The Vortex Vantage
Yoga Hike with Lance of Pura Vita Yoga.
The retreat schedule allows exploration of Sedona’s tourism treasures. The vortex hikes are the best complement to the wellness classes (though you’ll need a vehicle to get to them). My fellow retreat buddy, Perdita and I, trekked the red-rock vortex paths, feeling buzzing sensations in our hands.
Exploring these sites ranged from easy to why-the-hell-did-Zoe-make-me-climb-this – but each was worth it. Forget seeing is believing, these have to be felt!
Pura Peace Out
Image: Wellness Stock Shop
Pura Vita offered a chance to experience the glam private-retreat-life at a fraction of the cost. Thanks to Amber’s skill and instincts, it was accompanied by accelerated healing and restoration.
Having Sedona’s elevated energy doesn’t hurt their offerings either. I road tripped to Sedona in a Jucy van and thought I’d only travel there once, but leaving like my battery is back to 100% has made me certain I’ll be back.
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