Looking for a last-minute chance to banish the winter blues and start 2024 off with a rest and reset?

This January Chaya Yoga Retreats is offering a nine-day retreat at the beautiful eco-luxury resort, Cabo Serai in southern Goa, India. Guests can enjoy movement, yoga, breathwork, ice bath therapy, meditation and nature bathing, plus nourishing foods and healing treatments designed for total rejuvenation of body, mind and soul.

This is Chaya’s 12th year in India, promising India veterans and newbies alike an enchanting and uplifting experience like no other, supported by a world-class team of practitioners. Chaya Yoga Retreats are open to guests of all ages and levels, and welcome solo travellers, couples and groups of friends. 

Escape the cold and gift yourself a truly life-changing experience. Spend your days immersed in yoga and movement practices with leading yoga practitioner Nics Bannister, hosted in the resort’s shady coconut grove yoga shala. Indulge in a lazy, multi-course brunch with panoramic sea views. Take a nap and then dip in the warm, turquoise, Arabian sea. Bask in the non-stop balmy sunshine, or enjoy a deeply healing treatment at your leisure.

Be guided through a breath-taking sunset hill top meditation with incredible views, followed by an epic community feast under the stars, before drifting off to sleep listening to the sound of the waves and twilight songs of tropical birds.

Opened in 2019, Cabo Serai is a beautiful eco-luxury resort on the stunning South Goa coast and the new Indian home for Chaya retreats. Nestled upon a hillside surrounded by untouched nature and offering panoramic sea views from every room, Cabo is a hidden gem in this part of the world. Only accessible by buggy - to get there is a mini adventure in itself – on arrival guests walk through coconut groves and across a pretty stream meandering to the sea where you’ll find yourself in this private tropical paradise.

Each ecologically designed suite or luxury tent has panoramic views of the ocean. With no neighbours in site and Chaya’s exclusive use of the property for the duration of the retreat, the team at Chaya promise to create a peaceful, inspiring and healing environment for guests to completely relax and let go within.

Yoga and Movement
Leading the retreat’s twice daily yoga classes will be Nics Bannister, an experienced yogi with 20 years’ experience in health and wellbeing. Nics has developed a unique method of teaching yoga and mobility that stems from her belief that yoga should be fully inclusive and adaptable for everyone. She strongly encourages kinaesthetic and spatial awareness to work on deeper trapped stresses and softly holds space for physical and emotional healing.

Breathwork and ice bath therapy
Isaac Mullen, a trained breathwork practitioner in many transformative techniques including the profound Buteyko method and the invigorating practices of the Wim Hof method, will be leading an ice bath and breathwork workshop during the retreat. Designed to enliven, revitalise and elevate your overall wellbeing and boost mental clarity.

Treatments and therapies
Chaya therapists and practitioners cover a variety of massage disciplines. Included in the retreat will be a one-hour treatment of your choice, hosted either in-room or at Cabi Serai’s secluded treatment area.

Food and wellbeing menus
Food plays a huge part on every Chaya Yoga Retreat. The talented chefs at Cabo Serai will work with the retreat’s famed Chaya Kitchen menus and in-house team to bring guests exceptional food using local, seasonal and, where possible, organic ingredients. Fuel up on delicious, nutritious and Indian-style, regional multi-course menus, designed to balance, nourish and delight. Chaya Yoga Retreats’ Founder, Lucy Hill, will also apply her knowledge and understanding of wellbeing food to the retreat’s menus. The food will refer to the pillars of a therapeutic diet to best support your rejuvenation. Enjoy juices and homemade plant-based milks, two delicious plant-based meals per day, free-flowing coconuts, fresh fruits and herbal teas, all designed to leave you feeling nourished on every level.

Other activities
Aside from the daily schedule, if you’re feeling adventurous Chaya can arrange for guests to discover local markets and other gorgeous beaches, visit a traditional temple, an organic spice farm or take a trek to the famous Dudshagar waterfalls.

Typical daily retreat schedule:

08:00 - 10:00 Yoga, movement with Nics
11:00 - 12:00 Buffet brunch
12:00 - 15:00 Free time, treatments
15:00 - Afternoon tea, light snack
16:00 - 19:00 Evening practice
19:30 - 20:30 Dinner
21:30 - 22:00 Meditation (once per week)

Included in the retreat:

  • Inbound private airport transfer to Cabo Serai
  • Twice daily yoga, movement and meditation with Nics Bannister
  • Full board, including 2 x multi-course gourmet meals, afternoon tea, unlimited teas, fresh fruit and mineral water
  • Choice of 1 hour treatment, plus a selection of beautiful additional therapies
  • Wellbeing food workshop with Lucy Hill
  • 2.5hour breathwork and ice bath workshop with Isaac Mullins 
  • Evening guided meditation and sound healing
  • Kirtan (singing circle)
  • Optional additional activities such as spice plantation visits, shopping and cookery classes
  • Choice of beautiful, luxurious accommodation with far reaching sea and jungle views

Not included in the retreat: Flights and onward transfer from the retreat.