Some of the best parts about international yoga retreats are the feeling of adventure, the ability to explore a new and out-of-the-way location, and to do so as comfortably as possible. Of course, getting to incredible locations often means making a big journey. In the first installment of Yoga Retreat Planning Tips: Travel Daze 1 we took a look at how understanding the whole picture related to travel costs is important in order to maximize profits, and provide the best experience to the yoga retreat participants. In this post we, we will look at how diligent yoga retreat planning sets up a successful retreat by ensuring the participants arrive happy and excited for the week.
Know your community
First things first, different demographics tolerate different sorts of travel days. Busy professionals don’t like to spend over 24 hours of their one week vacation in transit. People flying out of Seattle take as long to arrive in Colombia, as a Bostonian takes to arrive in Japan. Some groups of people will only fly direct flights and have no interest in 5 hour ground transportation after landing. Take a close look at your community, perhaps poll a few of them, and be compassionate when deciding on the sort of travel day they will endure to arrive at your yoga retreat. It may seem that the list of potential retreat destinations is endless, but once the retreat leader decides on the length of the travel day, that list becomes much shorter.
An airport greeting
The retreat participant’s first interaction with the people that will care for them over the course of the retreat happens right at the airport. Make sure someone is greeting them, where they expect, when they expect, and is easy to identify. If you can get an English language speaker, even better! Point out the bathrooms, where they can get food, drink, and money, and brief them on what is going to happen next. The participants will feel much better when they know that they are not responsible for thinking any more!
Ground transportation
In a perfect world, each yoga retreat participant would walk out of the airport and into their own private black car for a 15 minute ride to the resort. Of course, this isn’t reality in most locations. But excellent yoga retreat planning considers the timing of arrivals, and gets reasonably sized groups out of the airport and on the road as quickly as possible, in comfortable and safe vehicles. Arrange the vehicles so that groups don’t have to wait hours on end in the airport for the next arrival. Select vehicles that are sufficiently large to hold the luggage and people comfortably for the ride they have ahead. Make sure that when the ride is over, there is no confusion about what happens next! Cover these bases with ground transportation, and your guests will feel very well cared for.
Consider their biorhythm
In order to provide the right comforts, you have to consider how the participants will be feeling at that time. If the destination requires a red eye flight in, do your best to get the guests to their beds as soon as possible. If ground transportation is over and hour and a half, have a plan for a comfort break somewhere with good facilities. If the ground transport is over 3 hours, consider breaking up the trip with an overnight at a closer point of interest. When was the last time your guests had a proper meal? To cover all your bases when yoga retreat planning, put yourself in their shoes.
SolSeed specializes in curating travel experiences which focus on getting everyone to their destination as swiftly, comfortably, and safely as possible. It can be a lot to manage effectively, and not paying mind to your guests’ comfort can start the whole trip off on the wrong foot. We are experts at yoga retreat planning, and we’d love to hear from you even if we don’t service the destination you have in mind. We’re happy to provide more tips & tricks, simply reach out below!