The Scoop: Looking for a vacation that actually leaves you feeling refreshed? AdventureYogi is a travel company offering retreats and excursions that combine thrilling adventure activities with regular yoga sessions. The U.K.-based company takes hundreds of travelers on dozens of trips every year to locations including Nicaragua, the French Alps, Kenya, and beyond. AdventureYogi offers wellness-minded travelers the ideal combination of high adventure and quiet meditation, complete with highly trained in-house yoga instructors and chef-cooked vegetarian meals.
Sometimes vacations are better in concept than they are in execution. The thought of a getaway to an exciting, beautiful destination is an alluring one, but when it comes time to work out the logistics, it can be a lot to handle. Buying plane tickets, getting time off work, making itineraries, finalizing travel documents, finding lodging– the list goes on. And often, the work doesn’t stop when the vacation starts.
If you’re the kind of person who looks for adventure while they travel, organizing different excursions can be overwhelming. You often have to compare several different companies and offers, and it can be hard to tell which ones offer the best experience. Just because you’re seeking an adventure-filled holiday doesn’t mean it should cause stress.
All too often, what was designed to be a relaxing escape from the daily hustle and bustle ends up being an exhausting blur. But this isn’t how vacations have to be. AdventureYogi is one of the first yoga holiday companies in the United Kingdom, and the company has been bringing health-conscious adventurers to unique retreats for over a decade.
AdventureYogi vacations combine adventure excursions, regular yoga sessions, and chef-cooked vegetarian meals to provide travelers with a true escape from their day-to-day routines and worries. Michelle King is the owner and co-founder of AdventureYogi. She told us about the travel company and why people choose AdventureYogi for their next great adventure.
“When you’re doing yoga, or any other meditative practice, you’re channeling inward,” Michelle said. “You’re going from your thinking mind into your heart space, and you can connect with yourself, and the nature that surrounds you.”
Marrying The Wellness and Adventure Travel Markets
The idea for AdventureYogi was born during a ski trip Michelle took with a few friends. “It all started 18 years ago,” Michelle said. “We were all into yoga and looking after ourselves. We all followed the yogic diet and loved adventure sports. We realized one day while snowboarding in France that you didn’t have to be sitting in the lotus position to be present in the moment.”
Michelle continued, “You could be snowboarding down a mountain or surfing a wave or climbing up a cliff while being fully present. So we started to create yoga holidays that incorporated more healthy and meditative practices into the normal ski holiday.”
The founders of AdventureYogi wanted to elevate the standard adventure holiday by fusing holistic health practices into every aspect of the trip. With combined backgrounds in massage therapy, acupuncture, yoga, and Ayurvedic healing, the trio decided to take the leap and founded AdventureYogi. They knew they wanted to design trips that would allow travelers to spiritually connect with nature, each other, and themselves.
AdventureYogi incorporates health and wellness into adventure travel. Michele said building yoga and healthy vegetarian food into adventure travel only felt natural to her and the other co-founders. While wellness travel may make up a market of its own today, that wasn’t the case when AdventureYogi was founded in 2007.
“Around 2015, the wellness industry really took off, and now loads and loads of people are running retreats,” Michelle said. “We’ve been around for 18 years, and I think that’s what differentiates us from other companies. We’re a professional and trusted brand. Once you’ve booked a holiday with us, you can be sure you’re going to get it.”
AdventureYogi was one of the first companies to combine wellness and adventure travel and continues to offer several retreats and vacations every month. “We’re trying to straddle the adventure travel market and the wellness travel market and just bring them back together,” Michelle said. “We think a great way to clear your head is to get out in nature and do something fun.”
Yoga Connects Explorers To Their Surroundings
AdventureYogi offers a wide variety of adventure excursions and retreats that will interest travelers looking for rejuvenating yet exciting experiences. The company offers retreats and trips within the United Kingdom as well as excursions abroad. Trips are planned months in advance, making it easy for adventurers to find vacations that work with their schedules.
AdventureYogi’s 2024 calendar includes trips to Morocco, Greece, and Portugal. On an AdventureYogi vacation to Marrakech and the Atlas Mountains, travelers will enjoy twice-daily yoga, a day trip to the beachside city of Essaouira, and a walk into the Atlas Mountains. The trip perfectly balances activities with relaxation, and vacationers can relax by the pool or explore the nearby city in their free time.
“We use all of our own teachers,” Michelle told us. “We provide the yoga teacher, and we call them a hosting yoga teacher, and they also manage the logistics whilst on location. They make sure the guests get to activities, make sure the activity providers turn up and arrive on time, coordinate with the taxi transfer companies, things like that.”
In late December 2024, AdventureYogi will be bringing a group to Sri Lanka. The trip includes nine nights at a yoga resort on Lake Koggala. Instructors will offer two yoga classes a day in the rooftop studio, and the retreat is fully catered with plant-based meals by in-house Sri Lankan chefs. Travelers can explore the lake shore, explore coastal villages, and surf in the nearby sea.
Michelle said that yoga enhances vacations, no matter what a traveler decides to do in their free time. “When you come out of meditation, you might notice things in the environment a lot more than you would if you were rushing around just being super busy,” she told us. “So when you take time to sit and watch the sunset, or wake up early and watch the sunrise, you’re giving yourself this special opportunity to connect with nature, which is what this is all about.”
Couples Connect On A Deeper Level With AdventureYogi
AdventureYogi trips are suitable for couples and singles alike. Couples looking to enjoy a relaxing getaway together will find that AdventureYogi trips give them plenty of time to spend together. Couples can enjoy massages, yoga sessions, and day trips together, but each trip also offers plenty of space and activities they can enjoy on their own.
“We get a lot of couples on the ski and hiking trips,” Michelle said. “The beach and surfing ones are also popular among couples, but we also get a lot of solo travelers, male and female. Solo male travelers are usually more attracted to the high adventure trips, and we see a lot of female travelers coming with groups of friends.”
Solo travel can be challenging, but AdventureYogi makes it simple. While many travel experiences end up being more stressful and expensive for single travelers, AdventureYogi aims to offer options that are accessible for travelers in any size group. Most trips include single, twin, and double bedroom options.
Traveling with a group grants solo travelers increased safety and offers as much social interaction as they desire. Michelle told us that AdventureYogi travelers are often excited to mingle with other travelers and form new connections.
Singles can meet like-minded people who value adventure and health on AdventureYogi trips. Michelle said the company fosters a close-knit community throughout each of its excursions. “People leave with new friendships all the time, and then they rebook with the people they met so they can travel together again,” Michelle said. “It’s a great place to meet people and make new friends.”
