If you think such luxurious retreats are reserved for the elite few, you’d be wrong. These wellness retreats are incredibly affordable considering what they offer. You’re sure to find one fit to your fitness, health and relaxation goals.

The summer season brings with it an air of calm, as if the real world is lightly on pause. But before fall comes rolling around, dragging you into the trenches of  winter, gift your body, mind and soul with a retreat – a more marked break from the real world with these wellness retreats that are affordable and luxurious.

1. Paradis Plage, Monaco

Ringing in for about $1,000 for a 7-night stay, the Paradis Plage resort’s retreat in Monaco makes for an ideal getaway. Monaco is known to have the healthiest climate in the world. Pair that with surfing, yoga, mountain hiking and spa treatments, you have yourself a holistic health retreat that might as well be sent from heaven.

2. GI Jane Bootcamp, London

This isn’t exactly a relaxing retreat, but it will sure deliver results. The GI Jane Bootcamp will run for about £595.00 if you partake in a Monday-Friday course. The bootcamp requires participants wake up at 5:30 a.m. and start the day off with circuit training. After breakfast, the working out continues on in full force with Iron Man sprinting with ammunition boxes up and down a hill, exercising the butt and abs, running, boxing, power walking, netball and, alas, a lovely massage.

3. Ann Wigmore Institute, Puerto Rico

The Living Foods Lifestyle retreat pairs education with healthy living. The institute has 1-week and 2-week long programs, which offer you certification in raw food legend Ann Wigmore’s lifestyle philosophy. The program includes education on food preparation, proper eating techniques, growing your own sprouts and wheatgrass and the ins and outs of internal cleansing, food combining and composting. The program starts at $1000 and accommodation at $450/week.

4. Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat, Bahamas

Starting at only $73 per night for up to 6 nights, the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island is an incredibly affordable option for those looking for natural beauty and relaxation. The getaway includes morning and afternoon yoga classes, morning and evening meditation workshops and two rounds of lacto-vegetarian buffet-style meals. The retreat is also kid friendly!

5. Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, Massachusetts

Located in Stockbridge, MA, you don’t have to trek halfway across the world to go zen. The Kripalu R&R Retreat involves all-natural meals, daily yoga and yoga dance classes as well as use of a sauna, fitness room, private lakefront beach and walking and hiking trails. Midweek rates begin at $166 per person, per night.

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Sitting Lotus image via Shutterstock

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Since 1962, Esalen, the grand dame of spiritual retreat centers in the U.S., has welcomed almost a million visitors looking to explore their “human potential.”

On a recent vacation, I sat cross-legged on a pillow trying to visualize a space inside my solar plexus alongside ten other people earnestly visualizing one in theirs. No, it wasn’t a group attempt at soothing turista tummy troubles, but an early morning chakra opening meditation at the world-famous Esalen retreat center.

As a British gal living in Northern California, I’m used to a certain amount of what the English might dismiss as “navel-gazing,” but when I look around, every one of these “hippies” looks exactly like me.

Going on retreat is the new vacation. Forget enjoying cocktail service around a hotel pool, a growing number of busy urban professionals are opting to spend their vacation days seeking inner peace under a tree or, quite literally, meditating on a mountaintop.

Nikki Striefler, the founder of Glad.is, the fastest-growing guide to living mindfully on the web believes she knows why. “It’s virtually—pun intended—impossible to unplug in most daily circumstances today,” she says. “When we make the commitment to go on a spiritual retreat, we are giving ourselves permission to turn off, and we’re able to tell others they can’t reach us without our having to feel bad about it.”

It’s not just technology we need a break from. “The simple over-crowding of our cities and the strain on our public places makes it harder than ever to escape to a park when everyone else is there trying to do the same thing,” Striefler says. “Traveling to a remote retreat center has more payoff in terms of finding solitude and peace than ever before.”

There are a number of retreat centers across the country, but  the Esalen Institute has earned its place at the top of the list. And that may have something to do with being located along a spell-binding, beautiful stretch of California’s Big Sur coast. Located on twenty-seven acres, the idyllic setting is cut into the side of a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean. The institute’s facilities include rustic ocean view cabins, an art center, organic vegetable gardens that supply the ingredients for the delicious meals, a mineral water swimming pool, massage pavilion and its famous clothing-optional hot springs baths.

The institute was founded in 1962 by Michael Murphy and Richard Price as one of the first places in the U.S. where people could explore personal growth and expanded states of consciousness. It’s hard to imagine now, but practices offered like yoga, meditation and holistic medicine were then considered counterculture interests.

With more than 400 workshops available year round, there is something to interest everyone. The list of past inquiring minds who’ve visited include, Aldous Huxley, Hunter S. Thompson, Joseph Campbell, Buckminster Fuller, Moshe Feldenkrais, Ida Rolf, and Alan Watts–so you know you’ll be following in great company.

And for those who just want to enjoy the tranquil surroundings, hot springs and proprietary Esalen-style massages, there is the option to stay on a design-your-own-retreat basis.

In our increasingly fast-paced, highly stimulated and plugged-in world, hotel resorts that offer more of the same just won’t cut it. Whether you’re interested in finding your chakra points or not, discovering new versions of getting “away from it all” at places like Esalen is the modern approach to truly taking time off.

 Images: Esalen 

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At Aqua Wellness in the coastal Nicaraguan jungle, the focus is on healthy living: organic food, yoga, meditation – and surfing.

The safest country in Central America, Nicaragua is now starting to challenge neighbouring Costa Rica as the region’s leading ecotourism destination.

An excellent example of this new trend is Aqua Wellness, a luxury ecoresort in an off-the-beaten-path setting: the jungle which fringes the Pacific Coast. This place has serious eco credentials: the low-impact treetop villas, built from sustainably-grown hardwoods by Nicaraguan craftsmen, are integrated within the existing forest; in fact, the resort was carefully designed so that minimal trees had to be removed.

The resort offers a number of retreats and courses themed around yoga, meditation, raw food – and surfing. The yoga pavilion is stunningly located above the forest canopy with views to the sea.

Rooms are stylish, either treetop or beachfront villas (one, two or three-bedroom), with sea or rainforest views, based around wood and decorated in soothing colors. Suites have their own kitchens, some with decks and plunge pools; treehouses have outdoor Balinese showers.

The restaurant serves organic food – some home-grown on their own farm, the rest from the surrounding area (ceviche, fresh fruit, fish and beef curries), and they bake all their own bread. The yoga teacher, Grace, also gives raw vegan and chocolate-making classes. In the spa you can get a papaya and pineapple body polish or a coconut, honey and yogurt exfoliation.

The hotel has set up a foundation to help the local community (most employees are Nicaraguan) with education, transport and other facilities, and also offers volunteer programmes on sustainable development projects, from monitoring native species such as birds, sea turtles and howler monkeys, to organizing the organic farm.

Those wanting to experience the latest adrenalin sport will not want to miss climbing a volcano and then sandboarding back down its slopes. (That’s like snowboarding, except on sand.)

Rates from $155; surf and yoga retreats from $1700 (seven nights including all meals, two yoga practices a day, a class on Ayurvedic nutrition, surfing classes, and a sunset jungle hike; surfboard hire not included).

Photos: Aqua Wellness Resort

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

The post Places & Spaces: Aqua Wellness, Nicaragua appeared first on EcoSalon.

No laptops allowed.

We live in an over-connected world of smartphones, social networking, and 24-hour news cycles. Sometimes, you just need to get away from it all. Whether you dream of a wood cabin in the forest, a cabana on an empty beach, or a treehouse outfitted in sustainable materials, there’s a zen retreat that’s sure to fit the bill. Let this collection of images inspire your next escape.

(above) Minimalist Retreat, Leiria, Portugal

Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia

Hudson Passive Project, Hudson Valley, New York, USA

Desert Nomad House, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Minimalist Country Retreat, Corcovado River, Portugal

Parrot Cay, Turks and Caicos

Asilomar Retreat Complex, Pacific Grove, California, USA

Stealth Barn, Norfolk, England

Summerhouse, Sweden

Temple, Kyoto, Japan

Palm Island, The Grenadines

Mesa Cabin, Utah, USA

Desert Nomad House, Tucson, Arizona, USA

The King of the Frogs Tree House, Münster, Germany

Bay of Fires, Northeast Tasmania, Australia

Latitude 10 Resort, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica

Tierra Patagonia, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

Little Cabin, Yakutat, Alaska, USA

Romantic and Stylish Upstate Cabin, Elizaville, New York, USA

The Naka Island, Phuket, Thailand

Off-grid itHouse, Pioneertown, California, USA

Japanese Garden, Pasadena, California, USA

Canvas Hotel, Telemark County, Norway

lostrivermodern, Lost City, West Virginia, USA

Paperbark Camp, Jervis Bay, Australia

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The post 25 Photos of Zen Retreats appeared first on EcoSalon.

Just when I was starting to feel good about my DIY granola bars, along comes a couple with a do-it-yourself project that makes my attempt look small time. Portland, Oregon residents Mariah Morrow and Ryan Lingard built themselves a 130-square foot cabin in the mountains where they can retreat, relax, and go completely off the grid.

The couple named the cabin The Signal Shed and outfitted it with, well – nothing. There’s no running water or electricity and it relies on a wood-burning stove for heat. That said, this rustically luscious cabin is beautifully decorated and cozy.

Morrow and Ryan chose the location carefully so it would blend into its surroundings, then built it on a platform designed to protect the delicate foliage of the forest floor. Using recycled building parts and uncovered treasures on Craigslist, they built the structure in a mere two weeks. The cost? $57,000 which includes the price of the land.

For $1,000, you can buy the plans from Lingard and build the same cabin in your neck of the woods. Or, for $18,000, he’ll deliver a ready-built Signal Shed right to you. If you want a tiny, eco-responsible getaway of your own, you can’t top a cabin like this. While you’re there, you can practice making granola.

The post Tiny DIY Cabin Gets You Off the Grid and Back to Nature appeared first on EcoSalon.