Sunrise Yoga & Coastal Hiking Week in Costa Rica

The retreat runs Saturday to Saturday out of a nine-room property built into the hillside above Playa Hermosa. Ten of the sixteen spots are in private cabins with their own bathrooms; the rest are in a larger shared house with two twin rooms and a shared outdoor shower. All rooms have ceiling fans, mosquito nets, and hot water, but no air conditioning and no televisions. Wifi works in the main lodge and on the yoga deck, not in the cabins.

Mornings are structured. You'll be on the deck by 6:30am for a two-hour class that moves from a slow warm-up into standing sequences and finishes with fifteen minutes of guided relaxation. Breakfast is served at 8:45am — fruit, eggs, gallo pinto, fresh bread, coffee. From 10am, the day is yours unless there's a scheduled hike. Two hikes are included during the week: a four-hour walk through the Cabo Blanco nature reserve on Tuesday and a shorter sunset climb to a viewpoint over Malpaís on Thursday.

Afternoons typically involve the beach. The lodge is a three-minute walk from a break that works for beginners, and boards can be rented from a shack down the road for about €20 a day. The lodge also runs a free shuttle to the bigger surf break at Playa Santa Teresa every afternoon at 2pm if you want more serious waves. On Wednesday there's no evening class, so most people head into town for dinner.

The teacher, Marta Elizondo, splits her year between Costa Rica and San Francisco, where she runs a studio. She's certified in both Ashtanga and restorative yoga and has been teaching since 2009. She leads all the classes herself — there's no substitute teacher stepping in mid-week.

What sets this apart from the dozens of other yoga weeks on the same stretch of coast is the walking. Most retreats in Santa Teresa are yoga-only. Here, roughly a third of the schedule is spent on trails, including the Cabo Blanco reserve, which is a proper hike — steep in places, muddy after rain, and full of howler monkeys. If you've done one of the yoga-only weeks and found the afternoons too empty, this is the version with more to do.

What's included

- 7 nights accommodation (private cabin or shared twin room) - Daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner (except Wednesday dinner) - Two daily yoga classes on most days - Guided hike in Cabo Blanco nature reserve - Sunset hike to the Malpaís viewpoint - Breathing and bandha workshop - Daily beach shuttle to Playa Santa Teresa - Yoga mats, blocks, and straps - Wifi in the main lodge and on the yoga deck

What's not included

- International and domestic flights - Airport transfers (available for an extra fee) - Travel insurance - Surfboard rental and surf lessons - Wednesday dinner in Santa Teresa - Alcohol and bar drinks - Laundry service (approx. €8 per load) - Spa treatments and massages - Personal expenses and tips