Balance Holidays launches with relaxed, short-haul wellness retreats

A wellness holidays company has launched with a new take on retreats.

Balance Holidays was created to offer guests a more relaxed approach to wellness in luxury, family-owned European settings, without restrictive diets or intensive programmes.

A key focus of the 3-day retreats will be to provide wellbeing tools guests can easily incorporate into their lives after the break for self-care, mindfulness and healthy living.

The first retreats will be held in early 2019, locations and dates pending guest demand, with European destinations chosen for ease of access for busy people working full-time hours.

Options include yoga retreats in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Chateau de Raray in Picardie, France with yoga teacher Ilaria Sgaravato; or Italian destinations including il Borro, Tuscany, Furnirussi, Puglia and Commenda di San Calogero in Sicily.

Yoga will be the key fitness element for the retreats and each will feature activities that incorporate the local surroundings, such as forest bathing in Picardie, where accommodation is in luxury tree houses. Guests will eat native cuisine made using local produce.  

Explaining the concept behind Balance Holidays, founder Livia Manca di Villahermosa told World Spa & Wellness: “I really want people to be looked after. My view on nutrition is that we have to relearn the art of eating. We’re pulled in so many different directions that we don’t know anymore what’s right to eat.

“I’m a great believer of the Mediterranean diet – a little bit of everything in small quantities and not being obsessed with dairy, gluten, and so on. For example, some of the retreats include wine tasting because they’re in beautiful farms with vineyards.

“It’s about bringing us all back to simplicity. If you want to go to a juice retreat or a boot camp, Balance is not for you.”