4 Day Rejuvenating Yoga Retreat in Ericeira, Portugal

Facilities

Yoga is well known for its infinite benefits. Whether they’re physical; improving strength, flexibility, building a sweat, recovering from injuries or more on a meditative level promoting calmness, stillness, and relaxation. Through the use of Asana we become more aware of our bodies and by incorporating breathing we create a moving meditation that brings awareness of our spiritual self. The strengths and flexibility that come from dedicated yoga practice will at one point translate into our everyday lives, changing the way we deal with problems and situations. By practicing yoga you’ll learn discipline and to challenge yourself on and off the mat without taking anything too seriously. Our 8 walls Mongolian yurt, with its simple and elegant circular space, will support the practice, creating the right environment to find a perfect balance of focus, tranquillity, and relaxation.

Every day, you will join two yoga classes. The one in the morning, at 8:30, will be dynamic and energizing, based on a mix of Rocket, Ashtanga, and Vinyasa flow yoga, while the one in the afternoon, at 18:00, will be slow and focused on deep stretch, based on a mix of Slow flow and Yin yoga. On Tuesday, Friday and Sunday the class include meditation.

Weekly yoga schedule

• Monday 8.30am Vinyasa flow / 6pm Vinyasa flow
• Tuesday 8.30am Vinyasa flow or Hatha* / 5.30pm Yin / 7pm Yoga Nidra
• Wednesday 8.30am Ashtanga* / 6pm Yin
• Thursday 8.30am Vinyasa flow / 6pm Vinyasa flow or Ashtanga
• Friday 8.30am Hatha*/ 3pm Workshop** / 6pm Slow flow
• Saturday 8.30am Ashtanga* / 5.30pm Yin / 7pm Yoga Nidra
• Sunday 8.30am Vinyasa flow or Hatha* / 6pm Slow flow

* 90 minutes class with meditation.*

* Activity extra packages

Please note that the schedule might be subject to change

Yoga Nidra

Tuesdays and Saturdays are Nidra days, one extra hour to unwind after your evening class practicing the “Yogic Sleep”, a guided relaxation technique that allows you to relax, recharge, rejuvenate and awaken higher consciousness.

Yoga Nidra or Yogic sleep is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping. This practice has been found to reduce tension, anxiety, and stress by helping the practitioner to enter the parasympathetic state of rest-and-digest. In this masterclass you’ll be guided with verbal instruction while lying in a comfortable savasana position following specific techniques that allow you to dive in a deep inner journey where you are to be left to model your own experience and embody your own deeper truth.

Moka is on the top of the hill just outside Ericeira, an old fishermen village featuring typical light-blue and white houses facing the ocean. Restaurants and nightclubs are increasingly crowded with tourists every year. You can enjoy the fresh fish that arrives daily at the little harbor as well as the warm welcoming of the locals. A few steps from the house there are some bars and restaurants as well as a supermarket. Getting around is very easy: daily transfers to-from beach and Ericeira are included in your pack! You can also use our bikes for free, take the bus which stops very close to the house, rent a scooter or take a stroll and reach the two nearby beaches throught beautiful trails. Then, if you want to get more serious with walking, you can plan with us a trekking inside Sintra and Cascais Natural Park which begins near the house. Ericeira is also a perfect starting point for discovering the many attractions of the Estremadura region; not far from the famous old village of Sintra, one of the most popular historical well-known locations in Portugal and right above the Sintra and Cascais Natural Park, a charming location for those who love nature. Lisbon is easily reached either by car or by bus (around 40 minutes ride).

Nearby places

• Restaurants, bar, and supermarket right in front of the house
• São Julião beach - 2 minutes
• Ericeira - 5 minutes
• Lisbon - 40 minutes

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As the staff is Italian, food is always in their mind and plays a central role in their day! Moka believes in a healthy and fair food market so the staff tries to reduce food miles using seasonal and local products, with a special attention to vegetarian aliments. Among other things, you’ll taste pizza, pasta fresca, mouth-watering classic Italian recipes and, of course, moka coffee! During your stay, you will receive a tasty and healthy breakfast every day and two delicious dinners.

Yoga workshops

In Moka Fridays are workshops days, with a 2 hours long workshop to deepen your knowledge of some of the yoga topics that may need a little bit more time than a normal yoga class. In each workshop you will learn, analise, discuss, practice, play, look closely to specific themes and techniques, and most importantly have fun while learning something new or simply getting deeper into things you already know.

We offer two different workshop topics, every other week.

1. The ABC of Inversions & Arm Balances | with Federico Zanchetta

Getting upside down can be daunting for fear of falling. In this workshop we will explore the key principles of arm balances and inversions, starting from the foundations and working with exercises and tricks that strengthen and stretch the muscles needed when why try to fly. Combining elements of core, arm & shoulder strength we’ll build you up step by step to give you the confidence needed to get upside down.

We will practice different arm balances and inversions together such as bakasana, eka pada koundinyasana, sirsasana, pincha mayurasana among others, learning different variations and transitions in order to suit all levels of practitioners.

2. Learning how to breathe – breath as tool to improve health and well being | with Dorotea Zafferani

Breathing is what keeps us alive, the body knows how to do breath for our basic survival. Breathing affects all the systems of the body, and everything we do from the pace we keep to the choices we make are influenced by the rhythmic metronome of our breath.

Most of the time we don’t pay too much attention to how we breathe, and we create unhealthy breathing patterns that become habits in our daily life. In this workshop we will explore into details the anatomy and physiology of the breath and learn simple techniques to improve the way we breathe not only into yoga but also in our everyday life, so that by learning how to breathe well we can create the optimum conditions for health and well being.

Surf

Our school is innovative and highly professional and guarantee quality and safety during all the lessons.

Once in the water, groups (max 6 people per instructor) will be divided according to surf level and previous experience and every alumn will receive personalized instructions and feedbacks . Our instructors, as local experienced surfers, know perfectly the Ericeira World Surfing Reserve perfectly and they choose every day the best spot and timetable for the lessons.

Whether you are an absolute beginner or an expert surfer, among our offers you’ll find the right pack for you!

Beginner

Beginner level is suitable for absolute beginners who want to learn the basics of surfing and for surfers who want to learn how to catch left and right green waves and to improve their paddling technique to reach the line up.

Intermediate

Intermediate level is suitable for surfers who can catch and ride green waves on their own and want to learn how to perform maneuvers on the wave and to improve their knowledge on spot analysis and wave reading.

Kids and private lessons

Our school offer lessons in separate groups for kids starting from 6 years old ensuring safety, quality and fun and private individual or group lessons for surfers who want to be followed by a personal instructor in the water.

Surf guiding

In Moka will find an expert guide ready to show you the best spots of Ericeira World Surfing Reserve and, if the conditions will require it, to organize daily surf trips throughout all the central coast of Portugal. If you already are an independent surfer and if you want to surf always the best waves, this is the service tailored for you.

Other activities

• Stand Up Paddle lessons
• Horse riding lessons
• Mountain bike tours
• Surf equipment rental
• Cycling (free bikes provided)
• Hiking
• Tourism (Sintra and Lisbon)

Allow yourself some deep healing and give a treat to your body and mind! At Moka, we give the chance to restore yourself with two different treatments. Ayurvedic Yoga Massage, based on Master Kusum Modak technique, is a unique style of massage that combines deep tissue massage with coordinated breathwork and yoga stretching; the session is performed on a mat for free movement and flow.

The deep tissue massage helps to release tension, eliminate toxins, promotes correct posture and improves respiratory patterns. Raynor Massage is a deep tissue holistic technique focused on releasing tension, muscles tightness and return the body to a natural state of relaxation. This full body Chi-release massage re-adjusts your circulatory, eliminatory and respiratory systems, so your body functions holistically, the way it naturally should.

• 3 nights accommodation
• 2 daily yoga classes (75/90 minutes each)
• 1 hour massage
• 3 healthy breakfasts
• 2 delicious vegetarian dinners
• Access to the camp's facilities
• Daily local transfers to town and beaches

• Airfare
• Airport transfers
• Lunch
• One dinner

Recommended Airports

• A reservation requires a deposit of 14% of the total price.
• The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
• The rest of the payment should be paid on arrival.