Our first night will be at the Hotel Bourgainvillea near San Jose, so we can rest after our journey. The hotel is world renowned amongst bird watchers for the variety of species in the flower filled garden.

All rooms are en-suite with air-conditioning.

We will leave the following morning for the Caribbean coast.

The following four nights will be at Sonora Jungle Retreat, a luxury yoga retreat centre on the Caribbean Coast.

All rooms are en-suite with air-conditioning.

Breakfast, lunch and evening meal included.

This is a stunning venue, with a pool, lovely accomodation, surrounded by rainforest with a wealth of wildlife.

Playa Negra beach is 1 km away. Bikes can be hired from the hotel.

There is a spa area where you might like to book a massage treatment. The yoga studio is fully equipped with mats, blocks, belts and bolsters.

Our final four nights will be at Ara Ambigua Lodge in the heart of the Serapiqui rainforest. We can choose between two yoga shalas, which are wonderful practice spaces. There are two pools to relax by.

All the rooms are en-suite and air-conditioned. It’s a great venue for wildlife watching with an abundance of birds including hummingbirds, macaws, toucans; and we may see sloths and monkeys in the trees.

We go back a long way, having been at school together !

We didn’t see each other for 35 years, and then reconnected through our love of mantra and chanting on a weekend retreat in 2023 with Deva Premal and Miten in Yorkshire.

Since then we’ve taught retreats in Spain and Costa Rica. We are returning to Spain in Sept 2024, and have a fully booked retreat in Turkey 2026 to look forwards to.

Our teaching styles complement each other nicely.

Kate has been teaching yoga since 2004, and trained with the British Wheel of Yoga. Kate has undertaken numerous training courses including Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs, Restorative yoga, Yoga Nidra, Vagal Toning and Menopause Yoga.

Claire loves teaching dynamic flow yogas, but balances this out beautifully with breathwork.

Claire is passionate about working with the Blind Community, teaching classes for BlindAid, a charity organization that provides support and services to people with visual impairments.
As well as offering her clients meditations, sound healing and a variety of day & weekend retreats throughout the year.

During our stay at Ara Ambigua we will enjoy a boat trip along the Serapiqui river, to enjoy spotting iguanas, kingfishers, herons and other wildlife.

This is a really relaxing trip !

Included within the price of the retreat.

Four of us loved spending an afternoon rafting along the Serapiqui. It was certainly more exciting than we’d expected ! But it was a great trip, and you are very welcome to book in with Green Rivers who organise it. Cost is approximately $75 per person, including collection and return to the Ara Ambigua. Not included in the price of the retreat. Being a confident swimmer is essential.

Alternatively, Green Rivers offer tubing which looks far more gentle !

La Selva is a world renowned biological station, where scientists from across the globe join to study the amazing biodiversity of Costa Rica.

Braulio Carrillo National Park is a stunning area of rainforest and dense cloudforest with amazing biodiversity.

These are an optional trips, with an additional cost. We recommend that only people who are avid bird and wildlife watchers attend.

Several members of our group enjoyed an additional trip to a coffee plantation whilst we were staying in Serapiqui.

We are happy to help you to arrange this if you’d like to go. The cost will depend on the numbers attending.

The Caribbean beaches are stunning. This is Claire and Kate on Playa Pelada on the Pacific coast where we enjoyed watching the pelicans and magnificent frigate birds soaring overhead, whilst paddling in the sea, which was as warm as a bath !

Sonora Jungle retreat centre is 1km from Playa Negra near Puerto Viejo. Bikes can be hired to make accessing the beach even easier.

You might like to treat yourself to a treatment at Sonora or Ara Ambigua with a variety of massages available, from about $60. Book in through reception.

A couple from our group arranged a horse riding trip in the rainforest, and they throroughly enjoyed it ! This is not included in the retreat price, but costs approximately $60.

The sunrises and sunsets of Costa Rica are stunning. Being so close to the Equator, the sun rises and sets very quickly. Night time brings a different dimension. The dark skies are perfect for stargazing, or you might see fireflies !

The colours of the flowers in the rainforest are truly stunning ! If you’re an artist you might like to take a set of paints with you.

The retreat price includes a morning and evening bird watching trip around the hotel grounds with a local expert guide.

The guides really are expert at finding birds and wildlife, and helping us to spot them through the telescope.

Claire also has a huge knowledge of the birds of Costa Rica, and will be out early every morning to look for birds, so you are welcome to join her.

We recommend that you download the Merlin app with Costa Rica pack to help you to identify the birds.

Cope is an environmentalist and artist, whose garden is famous for it’s biodiversity.

The retreat includes a trip to his garden, where we will enjoy refreshments on the veranda watching the birds on the feeders.

Cope will then guide us on a short walking trip of the rainforest where we may see porcupines, bats, frogs, lizards, owls as well as a wide variety of plants.

This trip is included in the retreat.

Yoga will be offered twice daily, with a variety of classes available.

Our practice areas are surrounded by rainforest, so we can enjoy the bird song and sounds of nature.