Dates
Fees
Yoga Classes
Location
Accomodation
Swimming
Food
Travel
Booking
Places to visit
General information
Visas
Recommended reading
Exclusions
Dates >>back
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22 June - 29 June 2008
29 June - 05 July 2008
14 September - 21 September 2008
Fees >>back
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£440 for 1 week £830 for 2 weeks - Breakfast and Dinner
£395 for 1 week £690 for 2 weeks - Breakfast Only
This includes shared accommodation (two persons per room) and morning
classes. Single supplement is at £130 per week.
Price does not include travel to and from the retreat.
Yoga Classes >>back
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There will be two groups of a two hour practice, six days per week.
A talk-through practice will be taught from 7am -9am This is suitable
for people with at least six months of Ashtanga practice. The beginners
course will take place from 9am -11am. Optional afternoon classes
take place twice a week.
Please bring your own yoga mat.
Location >>back
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The Limeni Bay is situated on the lower west side of the middle
finger of the Peloponnese in Southern Greece. Map
Accomodation
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Constructed in the traditional Mani style, Limeni Village is a
stone-and-wood built hotel sitting on a rock, overlooking the sea.
Over the picturesque area of Limeni bay, the hotel numbers 16 tower
houses which have been converted into rooms and suites, all with
modern amenities, (TV, refrigerator, air conditioning). Guest facilities
provided in the main building include a reception hall, a resident's
lounge, restaurant, coffee and cocktail bar, spacious verandas and
swimming pool.
Swimming >>back
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Limeni bay is a ten minute walk from the hotel, down a beautiful
path on the side of the rock overlooking the sea. There you can
find various swimming areas and tavernas serving traditional greek
food and fresh fish. “Dexameni” is an old water storage
tank on the sea and is a beautiful hangout for swimming and diving.
The water is beautifully clean and clear! Other options include
beautiful beaches , only a short drive from the hotel.
Food >>back
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This is carefully prepared mediterranean, vegetarian cuisine prepared
with fresh, locally grown ingredients. Non-vegetarian option is
available at an extra charge.
Travel >>back
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Guests are expected to arrive anytime, on the starting date of
the retreat. Classes start on the following day. Departure from
the retreat should be arranged after the morning class on the last
day of the retreat.
We recommend that you travel to Athens or Kalamata airport. Kalamata
airport is of much closer proximity from the retreat (only a 1 1/2
hour taxi ride from the retreat) but most charter airlines that
fly there, tend to be slightly more expensive and very booked up.
Olympic Airlines (0870 606 0460;
www.olympicairlines.com) flies three times daily from Heathrow
and twice daily from Manchester to Athens. British Airways (0870
850 9850; www.ba.com)
flies 18 times per week from Heathrow and once daily from Gatwick
to Athens.
Please let us know of your travel arrangements. We can organise
shared taxis from the airport straight to the retreat. Taxis can
take up to 4 people and cost approximately150 euros from Athens
airport and 60 euros from Kalamata. The taxi ride from Athens airport
is 3 1/2 hours. Alternatively, there is a bus service from Athens,
between central Athens (buses leave from Kifissou 100) and Areopoli.
Areopoli is the closest village to the hotel. The bus ride can take
approximately 5 hours. Please arrive to Athens early, especially
if you are planning to take the bus. The last bus leaves at around
14:00pm from central Athens but please check with the bus company
for exact times.
For information on bus times and fares please call KTEL, T:+30210
5246805.
Alternatively you can rent a car from Athens and drive to the retreat.
This very economical, especially if you are sharing the costs. You
are advised to leave early and make sure you have proper instructions
before you set off. Having a car at the retreat can be particularly
useful especially if you want to explore the area well.
The telephone number of the hotel is +30 27330 51111.
Booking >>back
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To register please click 'make a reservation' above and let us
know how many people and which dates you would like to reserve space
for. Full payment is required for reservation.
Please make cheques payable to "Yoga Practice ltd" and
return to: Michael Anastassiades, 122 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7AE
For more information about the retreat, e-mail: info@yogapractice.net
or call +442079287527.
Insurance is not included, so people are advised to take out their
own travel insurance.
Places to Visit >>back
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MANI
Situated in the heart of the Peloponnese, is the region called Mani
which has a stonily austere quality which grows more powerful the
deeper you travel into the peninsula. With rich layers of history,
this area boasts some of the most magnificent and haunting monuments
of the Byzantine Empire and an architecture of extraordinary importance
and richness.
AREOPOLI
Called Tsimova in the old days, small compact Aeropolis is a perfect
introduction to the inner Mani. Although it is without obvious sites
or elegance, it is nevertheless strangely enchanting, with its little
white squares and towers.
EPIDAURUS
From Nafplio it is easy to reach probably the most beautiful site
of them all, Epidaurus. Unlike the Acropolis in Athens, or the great
Greek remains in Sicily, which seem designed to make a grand statement
for miles around, the sites in the Peloponnese hide themselves seductively
away, and when you finally come across Epidaurus or Olympis, the
grand scale of the buildings seems like a conjuring trick. The ancient
site of Epiduarus is known for its theatre, buried in a hillside
and surrounded by dense and perfumed groves of trees as far as you
can see. It was so well hidden that it was only discovered and excavated
a century ago, and is now used in the summer for performances of
the ancient classics, translated into modern Greek.
KARDHAMYLI
The village of Kardhamyli is one of the most beautiful places imaginable,
with the dense green hill reclining into a dazzling sea. Although
still enchanting, it has been thoroughly discovered, yet the development
here has been stylishly done.
MONEMVASIA
The other great Byzantine spectacle in the Peloponnese, the opulent
port of Monemvasia, is now a little oppressive with tourism, and
what was once grand has become merely picturesque, with endless
souvenir shops of the pseudo-tasteful type.
MYCENAE
This is a much older site, supposedly the royal palace of Agamemnon
and his appalling family. The saga of the House of Atreus, set at
the time of the Trojan War, is a horrifying one of family members
murdering each other in revenge and retribution, and there is something
terrifying about Mycenae. The site clings to the top of a hill,
its intricate and barbaric massiveness crawling over the peak. It
is all too easy to recreate the sense of dread as you enter the
Aztec-style gates or follow the twisting paths of the palace.
MYSTRA
This is a supremely poetic place where you can spend an entire afternoon
wandering around without seeing more than a dozen other people.
It was once a dazzling capital of palaces, churches and monasteries
and, after the fall of Byzantium to the Turks in 1453, became the
last capital of the great empire. And then it fell into decay. Now
it is a complete, abandoned city of ruins and empty, unvisited churches;
no one lives here but a tiny community of nuns.
NAFPLIO
First stop in a visit to the Peloponnese is Nafplio. The region
is full of charming little ports, most of which - like Yithio in
the Mani or Pylos at the far reach of the region, overlooking the
sea where the Battle of Navarino was fought in 1827 - remain pretty
undisturbed by anyone except Greeks. Nafplio is more cosmopolitan,
but is still an enchanting town. Greek towns have a happy talent
for visual harmony, think of all those blue and white Cycladic towns,
and Nafplio has a wonderful faded elegance. It's a popular town,
but delightfully so, and in the early evening it puts on a wonderful
display as the town turns out to parade up and down, and stand and
gossip in the main square while children start impromptu football
matches. The ambitious scale of the square is surprising; however
as it turns out, Nafplio, for a very brief period after the declaration
of the modern Greek nation, was the capital, with a royal palace
and real power. They've been living off their glory days for nearly
two centuries in a mood of decaying nostalgia. The most celebrated
and visited places here are, naturally, the ancient Greek remains.
OLYMPIA
There is something of the atmosphere of Epidaurus at Olympia, which
was not just the site of the great ancient games but a sort of political
arena where the representatives of the competing nations could meet
and during the truce enforced by the games, embark on diplomatic
negotiations. Again, it is quite hidden until you are almost at
its gates and it has an incredible grandeur and clarity. At its
centre, the great Temple of Zeus lies in ruins, but the massive
columns that lie toppled in the grass show how imposing it was.
The poetry is in the ruination, not in the neatly excavated running
track. It's a popular site but you see the magic of it best when
it is empty of tour parties.
General information >>back
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CAPITAL Athens
AREA 131,944 sq km
POPULATION 10.66 million
LANGUAGE Greek
CURRENCY Euro
TIME GMT +2 hours
TELEPHONE CODES 00 30
ELECTRICITY 220V, 50 Hz
Visas >>back
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Nationals of Australia, Canada, EU countries, Iceland, Israel,
Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the USA and many South
American countries can stay for up to three months without a visa.
Most others are authorised to enter Greece for up to two months
Recommended reading
>>back to list
Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese, by Patrick Leigh Fermor
(John Murray Travel Classics). This is one of the greatest of all
travel books about the region!
The Greek Travel pages, updated monthly. Consult a copy at the
National Tourist Organisation, or visit their website at www.gnto.gr
Exclusions >>back
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We do not take responsibility or liability for cancellations, delays,
changes or losses caused by act of God, war, threat of war, closures
of airports, natural disasters, accidents or any other event beyond
or within our control, guest injuries, illnesses, medical or psychiatric
conditions developed during our subsequent holiday: loss or damage
to personal property of guests
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