Join Chaya Yoga Retreats for a transformational start to 2024 at Cabo Serai, Goa, one of India’s most magical and secluded retreat locations

Escape the cold this month for a unique India Awakening Yoga and Movement Retreat from 19th to 27th January 2024

(More dates to be announced later this year)

January 2024…/ 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. 

The Experience
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.

The location
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 Mullins, 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
• 2.5 hour 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.

Prices start from £2442 per person all inclusive (except flights). Price is based on guests sharing a lux tent or suite (each with ensuite bathroom) based on two or three people sharing. Book now with a friend and get a £200 discount each.

To book your spot or for further details visit www.chayayogaretreats.com or email info@chayayogaretreats.com.

Download images of Cabo Serai here

 -ENDS-

Notes to Editors:

About Chaya Yoga Retreats
’Chaya' in Sanskrit means 'beauty’, ’lustre' and ’protection’, and in Hebrew, it means 'life’, or to 'live'. Our intention is to offer you the possibility of seeing - and feeling - the beauty of life anew. At Chaya Yoga Retreats, we've been crafting unforgettable experiences for over a decade. From Bali’s beaches to the rolling hills of England and the starry skies of magical India, we know how to create the perfect retreat space to support your healing and rejuvenation. And no matter where in the world we take our guests, each of our experiences is carefully designed to inspire, delight, heal and support. Expect always incredible locations, world-class practitioners, gourmet plant-based menus alongside inspiring workshops and treatments. Our expert team is dedicated to creating beautiful, healing spaces - and our retreats are truly unique, just like you.

Chaya Yoga Retreats. Rest for your mind. Love for your body. Pure joy for your heart. Chayayogaretreats.com

About Nics Bannister
Nics’ methodology and style developed out of her own experience of overcoming a debilitating injury from a ski accident in 2016; frustrated and overwhelmed by the restriction to her life from her injury, she set about using yoga to heal herself with the result that she found yoga's magical ability to transform her life and return to optimal health. 

Leaving her life in the corporate world in 2017, Nics embarked on a period of intense learning, undergoing courses in Anatomy and Physiology to complete her years of sporting and fitness knowledge and honour her new path. From being a gymnast and an athlete in her youth to progressing to serious running, leading to a Norwegian Arctic race over four days many years later, yoga underpinned this journey.

Nics has completed teaching training courses in Hatha Vinyasa and Yin Yoga (320RYT) followed by Mindful Meditation and core bodies of work on Somatics, Myofascial Release and Compassion. Together this has built an in-depth knowledge of a wide range of yoga styles and disciplines. Nics has blended such styles to create her unique methodology that allows her a complete personalised appraisal of her students, encouraging them to go far and beyond their previously held beliefs in what they would achieve, all the while being supported and encouraged by Nics.

Her honour of this unique natural ability of her students and her deeper understanding of the energetic load makes her teaching a true blending of mind and body. She strongly encourages kinaesthetic and spatial awareness to work on deeper trapped stresses and softly holds space for physical and emotional healing.

Nics supports her yoga coaching and practitioner work as a reiki practitioner and embarked on specialist work in the field of Neurogenic yoga and TRE last year. Yogawithnics.com

About Isaac Mullins
Isaac Mullins' exploration into the power of the breath and body began in 1997 with the practice of Ashtanga Yoga. His quest for optimal breathing techniques and body conditioning was initially ignited to optimise his performance as a ballet dancer with the Royal Ballet.

Throughout his transformative journey, Isaac has explored a diverse array of breathing practices, each playing a pivotal role in shaping his expertise and personal well-being. His deep-rooted knowledge encompasses the disciplined realm of Hatha yoga and yoga therapy, a wisdom acquired over many years spent in India studying the science and psychology of yoga.

Isaac has trained in many transformative techniques, including the profound Buteyko method and the invigorating practices of the Wim Hof method. Isaacmullins.com

About Cabo Serai
Situated on a secluded hill, a stone’s throw away from the azure waters of Cabo De Rama beach lies Cabo Serai. In the heart of Southern Goa, overlooking the Arabian Sea, our eco resort sprawls over 14 acres of lush native trees. Perched at a height of over 100 feet, Cabo Serai is home to spectacular panoramic views of the ocean and surrounding areas.

Built on the grounds of sustainability and embracing our philosophy of barefoot luxury, the charming cottages and tents at Cabo Serai allow guests to explore the outdoors, whilst generously offering all the modern comforts of luxurious accommodation. All are ocean facing whilst being nestled in the privacy of our flourishing forest.