Body & Soul Escapes [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Packed with advice that manages to be both sensible and inspirational --Condé Nast Traveller

Comprehensive guidance on the newest and best retreats, spas and fitness adventures. --Vogue

..full of snappy information, with no fluff, on where to get the spa effect you want at the price you want it" -- --Red

Body & Soul Escapes by Caroline Sylge is the first book of its kind, bringing together over 450 inspiring journeys and retreats around the globe. Blending inspiring features with practical first hand experience, the book covers family-run guesthouses, villas and hotels for do-it-yourself retreats in rejuvenating locations; yoga, pilates, tai chi, dance, art & adventure holidays; meditation retreats and ashrams; purpose-built holistic venues offering personal development courses; life coaching weeks; ayurveda and detox resorts; thalassotherapy and thermal spa retreats; destination health spas and extreme fitness weeks. Body & Soul Escapes is aimed at anyone looking to de-stress and re-energise. You might be tired, bored, restless and in need of a challenge, stuck in the wrong career or relationship, or unfit and determined to change your lifestyle. You may be a yoga, tai chi or pilates enthusiast who wants to explore your practice on a deeper level, a sybarite in need of a good pampering, a spiritual warrior wanting to get back to basics, or a stress addict who has forgotten how to eat, sleep and breathe properly. There are venues and holidays to suit every temperament, life stage and budget - hang out at an alternative retreat in France or treat yourself to a chic bikini boot camp in Mexico; get back to basics in a jungle ayurveda retreat in Sri Lanka or express yourself on an artistic retreat in New Zealand; practise yoga on an African safari, cycle alongside monks in Buddhist Laos, or learn to meditate on a hillside in Australia.

Caroline Sylge is an experienced UK-based travel journalist who has written for books, magazines, newspapers and websites internationally. She first discovered yoga over 10 years ago in a chilly English village hall, and the power of meditation in a Thai jungle five years after that. She lost her cynicism about alternative therapies when a hypnotherapist and Reiki master helped her give up her smoking habit in her 20s. Now in her 30s, she is a dedicated yoga student who regularly attends meditation retreats, has a penchant for the good things in life and is passionately curious about everything to do with wellbeing, from life coaching to detoxing. Caroline has spent the last five years experimenting with such things on her travels all over the world - Body & Soul Escapes is the kind of book she would like to have read before she set out.