Andean Yoga & Wellness Retreat in Peru's Sacred Valley

Willka T'ika was founded by Carol Cumes, a teacher and traveller who arrived in the Sacred Valley in the mid-1980s, wrote 'Pachamama's Children', and built the retreat with two Quechua families. It opened in 1994 — decades before wellness travel became an industry — as the Sacred Valley's first yoga shala and one of the first vegetarian retreat centres in Peru. The same 20 Quechua staff and their families still run it today, which is why so many reviews mention feeling like family rather than a guest.

The property has 35 rooms and can take up to 65 guests. Luxury Rooms and Garden View Rooms come in single, double and triple configurations, all with Andean textiles, local artwork, handcrafted ceramics and views of either the gardens or the Andes. Down bedding, filtered water and an in-room tea kettle are standard. Rooms are spread through the gardens rather than in one block, so you walk past flowers and herbs to get anywhere.

The Seven Chakra Gardens are the centrepiece — seven linked garden areas, each planted and designed around a chakra, with a 1,000-year-old Lucuma tree used for meditation. Yoga classes are held in the garden shala, which gets sun most of the day. There is also a spa offering Andean-inspired treatments (the floral bath is the one guests write about most), a tea bar, and a dining room where breakfast and dinner are served.

The Essential Wellness Retreat is the core programme: a set schedule of yoga, meditation, garden tours, spa therapy, Andean ceremony and at least one full-day excursion into the Sacred Valley. It is designed to be booked on its own, but the retreat centre also hosts group retreats and yoga teacher trainings led by outside facilitators, which run alongside.

What separates this from a standard yoga holiday is the ceremony programme. Q'ero healers and Quechua wisdom keepers come in to lead despacho ceremonies, sound meditations and offerings to Pachamama. These are optional but most guests attend at least one. The food is a close second: the kitchen grows most of what it serves, and dishes lean on Andean ingredients — tarwi, kiwicha, quinoa — rather than generic health-food staples.

The retreat centre is also a working sustainability project. A solar grid and water system supply the property, the gardens feed the kitchen, and the Willka T'ika Children's Fund has paid for schooling for thousands of Quechua children since 1994. It sits a short tuk-tuk ride from Urubamba, which has a market, restaurants and shops, and works as a base for Cusco (about 90 minutes), Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu.

What's included

- Accommodation in Luxury or Garden View rooms (single, double or triple) - Breakfast and dinner daily, vegetarian farm-to-table - Yoga classes three times a week (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays) on direct bookings - Guided tour of the Seven Chakra Gardens - Access to the tea bar - Hot water bottle turndown service - Fresh flowers in your room on arrival - Direct communication with guest services for special requests

What's not included

- International and domestic flights - Airport transfers (can be arranged on request) - Midday meals (available on request, may be chargeable) - Spa treatments beyond those in your programme - Andean ceremonies not included in your chosen retreat - Machu Picchu excursions and train tickets - Travel insurance - Personal expenses, tips and gratuities - Alcohol