Balancing act
Make the most of hiking, open-air yoga, organic breakfasts and homemade herbal teas on these wholesome holidays for foodies
Make the most of hiking and homemade herbal teas on these wholesome holidays for foodies
Bali Tropical gardens strewn with wildflowers and statues frame dreamy eco-retreat Desa
Seni. A 10-lodge resort on the fringes of Canggu, it’s designed purely for relaxation – guests can float in a saltwater pool, take classes at an open-air yoga pavilion, book holistic spa treatments or just sip lemongrass tea in their wooden cottage, relaxing among Indonesian antiques and colourful handmade furnishings. Everything at the resort is connected by stepping stones, including the restaurant, which takes around 80% of its ingredients from a huge vegetable patch beside it. Don’t miss the famed Tabanan Delight for breakfast – eggs on sweet potato corn cakes with a tomato, broccoli and thai basil chutney. Doubles from £120, b&b (desaseni.com) Ukraine Traversing primeval beech forests, foraging for strawberries, milking goats on mountain farms... it’s all go on an eight-day
Carpathian Active Adventure Tour. Running between May and October, the trips combine camping out under the stars or staying as the guests of local families with trekking through the Carpathian Mountains and dining with farmers and producers. In Nizhnie Selische, for example, where villagers still pickle their own vegetables and churn their own butter, a herbalist will offer you bee tea, made from herbs dried inside a beehive for sweetness. Another day you might hike to a working water mill where, after tasting banosh (ground polenta cooked in soured cream), you can have a rejuvenating swim. From £1,100 pp, inclusive of everything except flights (experienceukraine.co.uk) Greece The mountain village of Aristi, in northern Greece, is a far cry from the country’s sun-drenched beach resorts. Even in winter the tree-lined landscape is intensely green – Aristi Mountain Resort, with its traditional stone exterior and wooden-floored bedrooms, blends in seamlessly. Hike around the Vikos Gorge (the world’s deepest) along stone mule paths and Ottoman-era wooden bridges, or go rafting and kayaking in the Vikos-Aoös National Park. The kitchen makes equal use of the forests and rivers – as well as an on-site greenhouse and organic garden – in dishes such as river trout carpaccio and fig and feta salad. Doubles from 160, b&b (aristi.eu)