A typical day is simple: a class in the Samhita house, a meal, time outdoors, then the pools or a sauna. The yoga house is glass on the sides, so you practise looking straight out at the forest edge. The timetable covers yoga, Pilates, Qi Gong and singing-bowl meditations, with classes daily except Sundays.

The resilience retreat is the stress-focused part of the stay. It is aimed squarely at people who carry tension from their jobs. Sessions combine gentle yoga, breathwork, meditation and mindfulness exercises, and the point is to take something home that works on an ordinary Tuesday at the office, not only while you're on holiday.

What sets this place apart from a standard spa hotel is the forest. The 'Weg der Stille' leaves straight from the hotel and runs along a stream. Its eight stations include a spring stone where you stop and stand for a while. Walking it barefoot over the forest floor is part of the idea. The Geiger family, who run the hotel, sum up their approach as 'Wellness meets Oneness': movement, mindfulness and time in nature, done together.

Maria Geiger, one of the hosts, is a trained yoga teacher and teaches classes herself. You're not handed off to a rotating cast of external instructors. The person who runs the house is also on the mat.

The spa is big for a hotel this size. You get an outdoor infinity pool, an indoor pool and several saunas, one of them a log-cabin sauna where you rest on hay loungers afterwards. The Tilia Spa does massages and treatments using the hotel's own natural cosmetics line.

The hotel sits near Bodenmais and the Großer Arber, the highest peak in the Bavarian Forest. That puts proper hiking country within easy reach if you want a longer day out beyond the hotel's own trail.

What's included

- Accommodation in a double room - Full board (breakfast, lunch, dinner) - Daily yoga, Pilates, Qi Gong and singing-bowl meditation classes (except Sundays) - Use of the outdoor infinity pool and indoor pool - Use of the sauna area, including the log-cabin sauna - Access to the garden, lawns and natural swimming pond - Access to the Weg der Stille meditation trail

What's not included

- Travel to and from the hotel - Massages and treatments in the Tilia Spa - Resilience retreat programme (confirm with the hotel whether it is included in your rate) - Travel insurance - Personal expenses

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