Autumn Mountain Wellness Retreat: Four Days of Yoga, Walking and Cold-Water Swims in the Bavarian Alps

The retreat takes place over four nights in November 2026, in a small retreat house above Oberstdorf in southern Germany, close to the Austrian border. It's a first edition: the organisers are running it here for the first time and are upfront that part of the appeal is discovering the place together as a group. The group is small by design, and the atmosphere is described as more like a family holiday than a structured programme.

Mornings may begin quietly with meditation, movement or pranayama — Sanjeev leads all practices and sessions. Beyond that, the days are loose. Walking is the main daytime activity: forest paths and meadows around the house, cold, clear mountain air. Some afternoons or evenings are spent by the lake, others by the fireplace indoors. There's dancing, singing, and talking around the table for much longer than anyone planned. Guests who are up for it can swim in the lake. Nothing is compulsory and nothing is being measured.

The food is vegetarian and simple — breakfast, lunch and dinner are all included and cooked for the group. The setting is what you'd expect from the Allgäu Alps in late autumn: quiet, cold, forested, and largely empty of tourists. Oberstdorf itself is a Bavarian market town and a base for hiking in the surrounding mountains.

What separates this from a standard yoga retreat is the absence of a syllabus. There's no teacher training, no cleanse, no morning-to-night timetable. The stated aim is simply to spend a few days where there's more room around ordinary life — to be present enough that a joke lands, music gets into your body, and walking starts to feel a bit like dancing. The accommodation reflects that: simple rooms, a family-home feel, shared bathrooms in most cases, two ensuite rooms available at a higher price.

Travel is arranged individually. The organisers will share practical arrival information and, where possible, put participants who want to travel together or share a ride in touch with each other.

What's included

- 4 nights' accommodation - Vegetarian breakfast, lunch and dinner - All practices and retreat sessions with Sanjeev - Practical arrival information for travel to Oberstdorf - Help connecting participants who want to share a ride or travel together

What's not included

- Travel to and from Oberstdorf (arranged individually) - Travel insurance - Personal expenses - Any meals outside the retreat house - Optional extras and personal spending in Oberstdorf