My Magic Yoga Holiday in Goa at Earth Yoga Village!

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Going on a Yoga Retreat was high on my list of things to do in India, I just had to decide where the best place for Yoga Retreat in India would be!

I looked at a few options for Yoga Retreats in Northern India but the weather was getting cold up there in November and December and a lot of options seemed to be Ashrams which are very strict. I will visit an Ashram in India at some point but I wanted to start with something a bit more relaxed in structure but still deep and connecting.

I decided to save my Yoga Retreat for when I was in Goa in December and after a quick look online and a recommendation from a travel blogger friend who met the owner of Earth Yoga Village earlier in the year when travelling around South America, I decided to book a one week Yoga Holiday at Earth Yoga Village on Palolem Beach in South Goa and it was such a good decision!

Yoga Holiday in Goa

What is Earth Yoga Village?

Earth Yoga Village is a magical place. The ‘village’ is the Accommodation and 2 Yoga Shala’s across a river from the main beach of Palolem Beach in Goa, India.

It’s a haven that you visit to relax, recharge and reconnect back to yourself and to nature. It offers a peaceful setting with a structured set of daily activities designed around well-being and harmonising the body, mind and soul.

The life force behind Earth Yoga Village is Anand who is an ex-banker turned Yogi. He is an incredible human being and his life experiences and beliefs have created this very special space.

What is on offer at Earth Yoga Village?

Yoga Holidays – This is what I took part in. The Yoga Holiday at Earth Yoga Village is a holiday of at least 7 nights. It is designed this way so it ensures there is not a high turnover of people in the village and it’s just the right amount of time to fully relax. Of course if you want to stay for longer than one week, you can.

The Yoga Holiday has a daily schedule which looks like the below, however the team know that we are there through choice and therefore everyone has the choice to attend which is something I really liked, and if you don’t attend, no one will be asking why. The only compulsory activity is Morning Circle.

This may look like a busy schedule but as well as all classes being a choice, the Mindful Satsang and Evening Program are only on a few times a week so there is plenty of time to spend time by yourself reading, journalling, enjoying Palolem beach or talking to other Yoga Holiday Makers in the beautiful setting of the Village.

What makes a holiday even better? The Food! The 3 daily meals are all Vegan and freshly cooked, the food is honestly amazing which makes meal times a highlights of the day, just like it should be! Plus, not having to worry about where to eat, what to eat, or what to cook makes the stay at Earth Yoga Village even more enjoyable and just like being on an all inclusive holiday in Goa, but much much better!

Conscious Living Retreat – If you really want to delve into conscious living, take a complete break, focus on your well-being and rebalancing, the Conscious Living Retreat at Earth Yoga Village is for you. The daily schedule is the same as the Yoga Holiday but the difference is how long you are there for as it lasts for 29 days!

Two lovely ladies were on this when I arrived and were having such a good time and they had fully relaxed into village life. Part of this retreat is to also help out in the village and community help with the cooking, with the online side of running the community and much more as well as having plenty of your own time, so there’s no way you could get bored.

Yoga Teacher Training – If you’re looking to do your Yoga Teacher Training in India and Yoga Teacher Training in Goa, Earth Yoga Village is such a good place to do it! I arrived on the teachers last week so I saw them go through their exams and graduation. They were so well supported throughout the training by each other and by the team, I could see they truly loved it and were so sad to leave when their training ended, in fact, most people stayed on for a few extra days!

Picking the right Yoga Teacher Training program must be really hard, you’re about to spend 4 weeks in one place with the same people and the same teachers. You want to learn as much as possible from these teachers and stay somewhere where you will be aligned with the other attendees and have the same and similar beliefs, after all your Yoga TTC is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

As well as the 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training and the 300 hour Yoga Teacher Training, Earth Yoga Village in Goa also offers yoga training like 100 hour Yin Yoga Training.

If you want to create real, deep, loving connections whilst also becoming a yoga teacher, and you want to do it in a beautiful natural surrounding where you can go to the beach on your day off and in the evenings, this is the best place for Yoga Teacher Training in India!

Drop In Yoga Classes – If you cannot stay for 1 week and you are looking for Yoga Classes on Palolem Beach, you can still take part in the Daily Yoga Classes and you will be very welcomed to them. They are on at 8:30-10:00 am & 17:00-18:30 am each day apart from Saturday and cost 500Rs each. Be sure to arrive about 10 minutes before and give yourself more time to find it on your first day (head to the end of Palolem Beach and look out for a bridge crossing the river).

My Experience at Earth Yoga Village

As you can probably tell, I had a really good time! I left feeling much more energised with more focus on what I want to do in my future, how I want to act and how I want to grow the passion I already have for Health and Wellbeing.

I’m so glad I had to stay at the yoga retreat for at least one week as it made me fully get into a routine, it gave my body a chance to become strong after 3 hours of daily yoga and made my mind switch off!

I had some doubts before arriving I’ll be honest- Meditation for an hour in the morning was one of them. I do try to incorporate meditation into my day but usually just 5-10 minutes. How could I sit for one hour?

Luckily the meditation is led by one of the amazing teaches and structured into 3 parts of Pranayama and Meditation, the first 2 meditations are totally led and explained each morning, the last meditation is our own practice for 20 minutes which was a lot more manageable.

In addition to this, 3 hours of Yoga sounded amazing but 2 days in and my body was feeling it! The team have thought about this though and each day the Yoga changes from Vinyasa Flow in the AM and Hatha in the PM or Hatha and Yin. The evening classes are definitely a lot more relaxed and once I’d pushed through the first few days my body felt so much better and much more strong, now I just need to keep that up!

Most of all though, apart from the Yoga and the opportunity to switch off, especially from my online life, I wanted to go on a Yoga Retreat in India for the human connections and unique experiences of connection. Earth Yoga Village definitely attracts other people who want the same and in my week there I felt so welcomed and so loved. I met amazing people who were on the Yoga Holiday with me and doing their Yoga Teacher Training.

For example, my first Evening Program involved doing an Angel Walk, we stood in 2 lines to create a walkway and one by one we walked through, eyes closed, and received hugs and kisses and hand squeezes from all of the people we walked past.

In morning Circle we danced and hugged.

After meals we’d offer to wash each others plates and cups, giving love and receiving love.

Feeling like a family.

And this is what made my time at Earth Yoga Village so special.

It’s why I’d recommend it to you, it’s why a few people I had met there were on their second visit and it’s why I’d definitely go back!

How to Book to Stay at Earth Yoga Village?

To check out the packages they offer and book, visit their website here!

The opening times of Earth Yoga Village are throughout the Indian Winter Months between October and April when it is dry and sunny in Goa (and probably wet and cold in your home country!).

As well as offering many different packages and retreats there are also many options for accommodation to suit all budgets. There are big dorm rooms which have single beds (no bunk beds), dorm rooms with just 3 single beds, private huts with a double bed and private huts with twin beds.

I stayed in a private jungle hut which I really enjoyed, the bed wasn’t that comfy but it had a huge mosquito net which made sure I didn’t get any bites at night! I really loved the outside bathroom although I did come across a few animals like frogs and furry friends due to the huts being so open but because of the mosquito net I was totally protected as night and this is all part of the experience!

In hindsight, I didn’t spend much time in my room at all, instead in classes or sitting in the comfy, community areas outside and I got on so well with everyone I could have saved some money and gone into a dorm room and been very comfy in there too rather than having a private room.

Talking of prices, Earth Yoga Village is really well priced! There are so many Yoga Retreats, Yoga Holidays and Meditation Retreats in Goa and in India and some of them can be very pricey, especially considering travel to India can be so cheap!

I met a lady who said she had looked on the website of every Yoga Retreat in Goa it seemed and Earth Yoga Village was one of the best in price making it a great Yoga Holiday for Backpackers in Yoga. Earth Yoga Village offers a simple way of life in terms of living and this can be seen in the prices making it accessible for so many people.

 

How to Get to Earth Yoga Village.

Ok, you want to go, but how do you get to this Palolem Beach place??

Palolem Beach is just 2 hours from Goa Airport and if you are travelling to India to attend Earth Yoga Village straight away, this is the best way to get there. The team will arrange a taxi to pick you up and take you there any time of the day.

If flights to Goa are very expensive from where you live, I’d suggest looking at flights to Mumbai or Delhi and changing there rather than a direct flight.  Kiwi is a great site to look for flights to India and so is Skyscanner to compare the best prices and routes.

If you have a long flight to India and you have the time, I would actually recommend staying in accommodation in another place in Palolem for 1 or 2 nights before your Yoga Holiday as I found that a lot of visitors arrived on their first day and were so tired and not even able to take part in the activities because they needed to sleep.

Palolem Beach is really nice and you could get a bungalow by the beach for a few nights first to catch up on sleep and arrive to Earth Yoga Village feeling refreshed and ready to start doing some Yoga!

Finally, for more reviews of Earth Yoga Village, have a look at Earth Yoga Village’s TripAdvisor.

For more of my posts on India see:

• All India Posts
• The Best Beaches in Goa for Foreigners.
• The Best Places To Do Yoga In India For Foreigners!
• Full Guide to Palolem Beach, Goa.

I received a discounted stay at Earth Yoga Village in return for creating a blog post and YouTube video to show you around. I paid for the majority myself and fully recommend it to you!