3 Tips For Building The Best Yoga Retreat Itinerary

By: Kayla Nielsen

With too many yoga retreats on the market to keep track of, a great way for your’s to stand out is through your itinerary. Instead of just randomly throwing together your favorite classes randomly into a week, take a look at these 3 tips to create something GREAT instead of just good. 

From our Rewind Retreat in 2022, with Gabriella Arbesu.

Understand Your Demographic

There are many factors to consider when understanding your demographic (age, location, gender, to name a few). 

When it comes to building out the best yoga retreat itinerary, these are the most important questions to ask:

1. What’s their budget?

2. Are they yogis?

3. Have they traveled before?

Now let’s talk about why the answers are important:

1. Typically if the retreat has a higher price tag, then there will be more inclusions. Remember, more inclusions in the retreat tuition is also more money for you out of pocket.

2. Understanding whether or not you’re selling to serious yoga practitioners, or casual groups of friends who want to travel and do a little yoga on the side will make a BIG difference in the quantity, intensity, and style of classes you offer.

3. Many people join retreats as new travelers, because the curation of the experience feels safer than going off to the same place completely alone. If you know you have mostly new travelers, you might want to consider inclusions or services that will make them feel safe like airport transport, or written recommendations for travel getting to/from. Newer travels tend to also appreciate cultural experiences, as well.

Theme

Now that you understand your demographic, you can create a theme for your retreat. Themes are helpful, because they give the retreat a deeper purpose beyond simply doing yoga in a beautiful place. Themes also provide direction while you’re creating the itinerary, which deters you from getting off track. 

As a teacher, you’re probably not a newbie when it comes to creating a theme for your individual classes. Apply that same idea here. Think of your retreat as one LONG class with multiple innings, rather than individual classes to create something conducive and coherent. 

Let’s use the example of our Nature Therapy Retreat In Nicaragua. If you look at the itinerary, you’ll see that every day is based off of an element (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Ether). And if you closely, you’ll realize that the classes and activities on each day are a representative of the element (example: surfing on Water day, or volcano hike on Fire day). If you want to get even MORE detailed with it, you can even request for specific meals or meal styles to correspond with your theme. Although the menu isn’t listed for our Nature Therapy in Nicargua Retreat, I know that the menu we’ve created for it is born from the elements themselves. 

These touches do only create a memorable experience for the students, who feel incredibly taken care of when they notice these thoughtful details, but they also ensure that the experience feels cohesive and intentional, as well. 

Class Flow

When you plan an individual yoga class you start with a warm up, right? It’s not like students step on the mat, and you start them in Wheel Pose. 

The same principle applies to your retreat itinerary. Think about the first class as a warm up. Most people have just traveled (some of them quite far, too!) to get there. They might also be jet lagged. Anticipate their energy by creating a more chill class, with the opportunity to ramp up if you can feel that they’re craving more. 

And from the warm up, you build upwards. Think of your retreat itinerary like the same bell curve of your class. Remembering that sometimes you’re working them towards a big peak posture (ie: a very physical experience), and sometimes the peak experience is actually something more emotional, or mental, or spiritual. 

I’ve been teaching retreats for 9 years now, and they ALL include some sort of partner work in the intensive workshops. However, I will NEVER do partner work on the first day, because I’m letting people land in their own bodies and own experience first. Plus, they don’t know or trust each other yet. Usually, I introduce it for the first time Day 3, and then continue to use it through Day 5, encouraging them to partner with someone different each time. 

Sure, sometimes this partner work means they get hang time in Handstand, or get into full Wheel Pose for the first time. And that’s great! But the communication they learn with their partner, their sense of comfort within in allowing someone else to adjust or spot them, and the trust they cultivate is just as much of a peak moment as the physical break throughs. 

Although you want to create a close, vulnerable space for people to open and share. It’s important to remember to take time to cultivate it, rather than forcing it. 

Book a retreat with us today!