Treat yourself to a cheap retreat!

Wellness expert JANE ALEXANDER reveals six of the best that won’t break the bank...

Here’s a familiar scenario: you desperately need a break and spend the entire year looking forward to the annual family holiday, only to frazzle yourself for two weeks making sure everyone else has a good time.

somehow, you come back with your batteries drained rather than recharged. In fact, you could do with a holiday to get over your holiday — once you’ve completed the mountains of washing, refiled the passports and paid the pet-sitter, that is.

What you need is a retreat, in the original sense of the word: time away from the world just to think.

A retreat was once just that: a retreat from everyday life, in a religious or spiritual community. And it was cheap, very cheap.

Nowadays, it’s big business — ‘wellness tourism’ is worth $639 billion worldwide — with ‘healing holidays’ in luxury hotels and spas costing thousands, putting them out of reach for anyone but the well-off.

But they’re not all like that. As a spa journalist, I’ve been to almost 100 retreats, so I know which ones will leave you feeling nurtured and rested without emptying your wallet.

Here’s my guide to the best cheapbut-brilliant places to check in, switch off and reconnect with yourself.

BE KIND TO YOURSELF

If lIfe’s feeling a bit of a struggle and you’ve lost track of who you are amid the demanding din of family and work, then one of serenity retreats’ self-compassion weekends has your name on it.

run by Zen meditation teacher Kim Bennett, she is renowned for her down-to-earth teaching style and sense of humour. Her self-compassion retreats give you time and space to tune into what you really need to do for yourself. You’re encouraged to do ‘as much or as little as you like’.

food can be a tad school-dinnerish, but everyone’s super-friendly and, unlike many budget retreats, you never share a room.

BEST FOR . . . anyone looking to shush their inner critic and find a more gentle way to live with themselves.

WHERE? Various UK locations including North Wales, the Peak District and Buckinghamshire.

HOW MUCH? from £190 for two nights, full board (serenity retreat.co.uk).

COSY COORIE

If YoU want to head for the hills but still enjoy some home comforts, try a residential stay at Vitality retreat in the far north of scotland. ‘Any farther north and you fall off the top and start swimming to Norway,’ jokes founder Donna Booth, who fled the corporate world and impending burnout in 2008.

each retreat is themed: coming up this autumn is ‘Coorie In’ — ‘coorie’ loosely translates as ‘snuggle’ and is the scottish version of scandinavia’s cosiness trend, ‘hygge’.

expect log fires, storytelling (with a mug of hot chocolate), walks in the woods, stargazing and restorative yoga. Pack your fluffy socks and walking boots. The retreats are held in a lovely old house against a backdrop of infinite skies, stormy seas (and possibly) the Northern lights.

BEST FOR . . . anyone yearning to get far, far away from it all. WHERE? Wick, Caithness.

HOW MUCH? from £199 for a weekend, full board (vitality-retreat.com).

SHHH . . . GO SILENT

A CHArITY dedicated to making meditation retreats available to all, freely Given retreats hosts residential courses with themes such as ‘Going beyond the inner critic’, or ‘everyday nirvana — healing from cravings’.

led by teachers with a range of life experiences (from monks to trained psychotherapists), expect a curated mixture of sitting and walking meditations, guided practices, talks, workshops and group exercises.

They work across three venues, all located in Devon’s beautiful Dartmoor National Park — a glorious manor house, a traditional farmhouse and a community centre with spectacular views and camping grounds.

Typical retreats last five days and are usually silent; phones, gadgets, even books are put away. food is predominantly local and organic.

BEST FOR . . . those who want to use meditation to tackle a specific issue in their life. WHERE: Dartmoor, Devon.

HOW MUCH? A refundable £90 deposit to show your commitment, which is returned on arrival. Donations are invited. (freelygivenretreats.org).

SOOTHE YOUR SOUL

A sPIrITUAl centre and B&B on the outskirts of hippy Glastonbury, Healing Waters retreat & sanctuary also happens to sit on an energy-giving ley line. It hosts everything, from a cleansing retreat if you want a bit of a detox, to a shamanic healing retreat for ‘soul retrieval work’.

It offers a range of treatments, from the well-known (aromatherapy, reflexology, deep tissue massage and reiki) to the more esoteric, such as metatronic soul therapy which takes place in a ‘healing pyramid’ and involves lying on a mat with magnets and crystals, listening to prayers and invocations.

rooms are bright and light. Breakfast is a generous helpyourself affair and you’re welcome to cook (vegetarian only) in the retreat kitchen.

BEST FOR . . . open-minded free spirits who want an eco-escape from modern pressures. WHERE? Glastonbury, somerset.

HOW MUCH? It’s £385 for four nights bed and breakfast, including four one-hour therapy sessions and one metatronic soul session (healing-waters. co.uk).

MEDITATION MISSION

If YoU’Ve tried meditation and mindfulness, but 15 snatched minutes a day with your trusted app isn’t enough, an intense ten-day meditation retreat at one of Vipassana Meditation UK’s centres is the next level.

The Iron Man of meditation retreats, they’re not for the faint-hearted: you rise at 4am, practise around ten hours of meditation every day, interspersed with rest periods, before dropping into bed at 9pm. All in total silence.

Vipassana means ‘seeing things as they really are’, and revolves around developing a clear awareness of what is happening in the moment. You start by observing your breath to concentrate the mind.

food is light and bland so that in the long meditation sessions you aren’t plagued by indigestion or sleepiness.

BEST FOR . . . stoic souls committed to a solid meditation process.

WHERE? Herefordshire and suffolk. HOW MUCH? run on a donation basis, you pay what you can afford at the end of the retreat. (dhamma.org).

YOUR INNER FARMER

for seriously good value yoga retreats, head to Wiltshire’s lower shaw farm — a ‘live off the land’ co-operative greener than an avocado smoothie.

Choose from a standalone yoga retreat, one combined with massage or, if you want to get active, Nordic walking on the Wiltshire Downs. The hayloft yoga studio is airy and there’s a little sauna. Gloriously ramshackle, accommodation is in chalets, cabins and the farmhouse.

BEST FOR . . . back-to-the-earth nature lovers looking to stretch muscles and share laughs. WHERE? swindon, Wiltshire.

HOW MUCH? from £175 for two nights full board (lowershaw farm.co.uk).