Women's Wellness Weekend: Rest, Pampering & Yoga in the Ferguson Valley

The Rest & Restore retreat at Ferguson Valley Escape runs Friday to Monday, and the structure is deliberately loose. You arrive Friday afternoon to a welcome drink and fruit platter, meet the other guests, and take a slow tour of the grounds. Dinner that night is a Caribbean-style vegetarian feast, and the evening winds down with either a sound bath or a lavender Epsom salt soak in one of the bathtubs.

Saturday and Sunday follow a similar rhythm: a gentle stretch or bushwalk before breakfast, then hours of free time to book your included Lomi Lomi massage, join a cooking demo, take a sauna and ice-bath dip, or join the paint-and-prosecco session. The highlights are the weekend's two outings — a cooking demonstration and lunch with the chefs on Saturday, and Sunday's surprise lakeside picnic with local wine, where the team drives you out to a hidden valley spot with grazing boards and rolling views.

The food deserves its own mention. Guests call it "EPIC. ELITE. 5-STAR," and it's cooked fresh from the garden. Breakfasts come as jars of coconut tapioca and chia with berries, or frittatas made with eggs from the resident chooks. Dinners have included zucchini noodles in fresh tomato sauce with Pecorino, and coconut and pumpkin curry with crispy rosti. Martin, one of the hosts, is a qualified chef who worked in the Cocos Islands, Singapore and Perth, and he started Tony Roma's in WA — so the cooking is in seriously good hands.

Sasha handles hosting and the wellness side, curating the spa treatments, the yoga, and the overall flow of the weekend. Guests consistently rate the teachers and food at 4.99 and 5.0 out of 5, and the location scores 4.99. It's a retreat that knows exactly what it is — a small, pampering, food-led escape for women who need to switch off — and it does that very well.

What's included

- 3 nights accommodation - 3 daily delicious and nutritious meals - Water, tea, coffee served throughout the day - Daily yoga classes or bush walks - Healthy cooking demo - 30-minute pamper circle head massage & foot bath - 45-minute Lomi Lomi Hawaiian massage - Optional nature hike with a trusted guide - Paint & Prosecco class - Course manual - Parking - Luggage storage - Wi-Fi connection - Sound healing - Surprise picnic with local wine - Welcome drink - Transportation during the retreat - Specialized workshops - Group excursions/activities - Daily pranayama classes

What's not included

- Airport transfers - Flights - Travel insurance - Visa fees - Additional treatments - Alcohol (you can BYO) - Additional activities not included in the itinerary