7 Day Balance & Bliss - Yoga, Meditation, Journaling, and Tours Retreat in Split-Dalmatia, Croatia
Blissful Yoga Holiday in Croatia
Imagine spending a week on Croatia's “Island of the Sun” – Hvar – recharging your batteries with yoga, delicious food, daily outings, beautiful beaches, and quaint seaside towns. The Balance and Bliss retreat offers precious time to rest, reflect, and discover something new while re-discovering yourself. Hosted at Suncokret’s integrated holistic yoga lifestyle retreat center, featured in Lonely Planet’s “10 incredible yoga retreats in Europe for 2024,” the program blends wellness and local charm. Your hosts are Evening Marie, a yoga therapist with over 20 years of experience, and her partner Stipe, a certified chef, agro-tourism expert, and Hvar Island native who guides you through the area’s treasures. Alongside a team of visiting holistic yoga lifestyle instructors from around the world, they create a safe and cozy space to explore all levels of your being. This retreat combines professional guidance, nourishing cuisine, and immersive cultural experiences. It is best suited for fit and healthy participants aged 25 to 65.
Meet the instructors
Highlights
- An opening and closing circle
- A free consultation with the holistic lifestyle coach
- Daily integrated Yoga Sadhana adjusted to your needs
- Daily "deep-dive" discussion, meditation or theme-based practices
- Daily outings to the cultural and historical gems of the island
- Daily free time for swimming, exploring, and relaxation
- Twice daily fresh and nurturing "Dalma-Veg" meals
- 6 nights accommodation
Skill level
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Yoga styles
7 days with instruction in English
Average daily hours of activity: 8
Accommodation
Facilities
- Dining area
- Garden
- Kitchen
- Terrace
- Yoga deck
- Yoga shala
- Free Wi-Fi
- Library
- Parking lot
Retreat guests are situated in one of three semi-attached stone cottages; each is representative of one of the three realms of existence: primal, human, and heavenly, while each of the seven rooms has been designed to represent one of the seven major chakras that govern the way you think, feel, and act.
No matter your choice of cottage or room, your stay in the retreat will enhance the holistic nature of your experience.
Facilities
- Outdoor yoga terrace
- Indoor yoga shala
- 2 living rooms
- Outdoor and indoor dining areas
- An enclosed garden
- Organic fruit and veggie garden
- 2 patios and a sundeck
- 3 kitchenettes w/tea-making corners
- 2 libraries w/inspiring books, music, films, games, and art supplies
- 3 washing machines
- Free parking
- Comforts of a home away from home
- Wi-Fi access is available in all rooms and throughout the retreat facility
Program
Join Suncokret Dream for a blend of daily Chakra Yoga, meditation, and journaling together with nourishing vegetarian meals, daily outings to the best spots, and plenty of free time to recharge. Enjoy the chance to unwind in our safe and cozy retreat space, exploring your body, mind, and soul while simultaneously getting to know the local culture and customs of our exotic Dalmatian island. Spend dedicated daily free time swimming in crystal clear seas, exploring our quaint seaside towns, experiencing pristine nature, and taking time out for YOU.
The program is overseen by your host and program manager, Evening Marie, a yoga therapist with over 20 years of experience, and her partner Stipe, a certified chef, agro-tourism expert, and Hvar Island native who acts as the chef and local guide during the retreat. Together with the contributions of their visiting team of holistic yoga lifestyle instructors from around the world, Suncokret provides a masterful retreat experience in a safe and cozy shelter that enables you to explore the various levels of your being. The program is best suited for fit and healthy participants between 25 - 65 years of age.
Approach
This inspiring program offers a balancing blend of integrated holistic yoga sadhana, adjusted to your needs, daily deep-dives into theme-based topics, daily outings to places of interest, and free time to recharge and fill your batteries in whatever way suits you best.
Relax
After the morning program and brunch have concluded, why not relax the day away in the safe and cozy shelter of the retreat space and take some time for yourself? Daydream in a hammock under the olive tree, soak up the sun rays in a corner of the garden, unleash your artistic vision using the dedicated art supplies, borrow an inspiring book from the spiritual and travel-and-leisure libraries, or curl up in one of the sofas with a fresh cup of herbal tea, chatting with a retreat mate, or perhaps just soaking up the silence. Relax your way as this retreat is about you!
Refresh
Within the light daily schedule, you will find there is plenty of time to refresh yourself fully by exploring the beautiful abundant, and fascinating island with its ancient towns, quaint villages, gorgeous beaches, and noble pinewood forests. Take advantage of the free conceptualized daily outings/transfer service that takes you to and from the best spots on the island; or explore on your own. Every day, you are given plenty of free time to relax in a nearby town or village, where you will also have access to nearby beaches and can enjoy the opportunity to swim and sunbathe, and more. Your free time is yours to enjoy in whatever way pleases you!
Rejuvenate
In addition to the yoga, deep-dives, and island explorations, you may also dedicate a portion of your retreat time to working one-on-one with Suncokret's Holistic Lifestyle Coach, Evening Marie, who offers a range of a la carte holistic services to support your well being and personal development.
Who is this for?
The program is suitable for those in need of a sacred shelter in which to explore the body, mind, and soul.
Sample schedule
Arrival day
- 16:30 Free transfer from Stari Grad Port
- 17:30 Dinner
- 19:00 Walking Tour and Welcome Circle
- 22:00 Quietude
Daily
- 08:00 Self-catered coffee/tea
- 08:00 Morning yoga sadhana
- 10:00 Brunch
- 11:15 Daily outing and free time to explore, swim, and enjoy yourself in whatever way you please
- 17:00 Transfer to the retreat
- 19:00 Dinner
- 20:00 Deep-dive sessions with discussion, journaling, mediation
- 22:00 Mauna (quietude)
Final day
- 08:15 Closing circle
- 09:45 Breakfast
- 10:45 Check-out and free transfer to Stari Grad Port
The rhythm is approximate and adjusted organically.
Once weekly
- A Sunset Program and a meal in a local restaurant (you are given a packed lunch or post-sunset snack at the retreat on this day instead dinner at the retreat)
Included excursions
Conceptualized daily outings to gorgeous towns, villages and beaches, including:
- Arrival day welcome tour of Suncokret and the surrounding area
- Town visits from Monday - Friday including Stari Grad, Vrboska, Hvar, and Jelsa
- Tour of the UNESCO-protected Stari Grad Plain
- Tour through hidden villages and highlands
- Dedicated free time each day to sightsee, swim and enjoy town and beach time, and enjoy various activities and adventures of your own choosing
- A magical sunset
- Dedicated daily free time in town and by the sea
Instructors
Evening (Eve) Marie
Working together with Evening Marie, you will discover a refreshing, spiritually enriching, and deeply profound retreat experience - one that blends tradition with intuition to render a transcendental journey that is appropriate for both new and seasoned path walkers alike. Evening Marie is a highly qualified holistic yoga therapist with over 500 hours of training and 22 years of teaching practice running back-to-back weekly retreat events who is able to adapt to and challenge varying levels of experience.
Stipe Suncokret
Stipe (Steve) is Suncokret's Co-Founder, Head Chef, and Island Host. A Hvar Island native with a lifetime of hands-on experience in the local customs, culture, and cuisine, Stipe is a certified Agro-Tourism manager and a trained and gifted Chef who creates nourishing meals for our retreat guests, sourced from local ingredients, often those found in his family gardens and fields. Stipe's role at Suncokret as a head chef, local guide, logistics manager, and all-around good guy is a natural extension of the skills, interests, and natural talents he was born with and values.
Tanja Novojevska
Tanja is a traveling international yoga teacher with a background in the fitness and wellness industry. She completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training Ashtanga Vinyasa & Yin Yoga studies at "Bend it Like Buddha Yoga Algarve" in Portugal; and her Advance Yoga Teacher Training in Hatha Yoga at "Yoga Skyros Academy" in Athens, Greece. After experiencing a personal evolution through her yoga practice, she believes that the heart is the most powerful element in the human body and she invites her students to take a journey into the heart-opening practice of yoga.
Bethany Demelza
Certified Yoga, Meditation, and Flow Dance Meditation Instructor Bethany started practicing yoga nearly 7 years ago when she had just had a baby and needed something to feel restored after sleepless nights. But it was when she began to experience a difficult time in her life through loss and trauma that the true benefits of yoga really shone through. Yoga became a channel to connect to herself, to come home to her body, and to set herself free. She knew then that she needed to share this healing technology with others and this is when she enrolled in a yoga teacher training course in 2019.
Mona Bektesi
Certified Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Ever since her first Vinyasa yoga class, yoga has fascinated her with its unique blend of breath and movement. It doesn't matter whether she wants to relax or needs more energy, she feels completely in good hands when she practices. Yoga is now an integral part of her life and is always an exciting path to her center, which gives her strength and peace at the same time. As a yoga teacher, Mona aims to accompany her students to be loving and careful with themselves and to get to know and expand their own limits again and again.
Annie Niswanger
Annie is a yoga teacher & movement educator with a background in dance & performing arts. She completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training in New York City and gained her Personal Trainer Certification through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Her work is rooted in trauma-informed, injury-preventative movement, with an emphasis on helping students feel safe, supported, and confident in their bodies.As a dancer, she has years of experience studying the body through movement. However, it wasn’t until she found yoga that she discovered movement could be medicine.
Retreat location
Suncokret Body and Soul Retreat is based on Hvar Island. It is located in Dol Sveta Ana; a pristine, 12th Century hamlet located just 5-minutes away from the island's oldest settlement, Stari Grad, yet discreetly tucked away from holiday crowds.
Dol is an ancient settlement whose first inhabitants date back to prehistoric times. It is a place that evokes a deeper sense of connection to a simpler, more wholesome way of life and is the homeland of your co-host, Stipe, and his family.
Often compared to Provence and Tuscany, Dol is beautifully nestled into a lush and majestic green landscape, which is pronounced by lavender fields, olive groves, vineyards, and pinewood forest, and beautifully framed by the distant blue sea and sky.
A retreat at Suncokret in Dol Sveta Ana provides an ideal escape from ordinary life to a true organic oasis for the soul.
The retreat center is nestled into a secluded hilltop of Dol, Sveta Ana, which remains unpopulated most of the year. The village features two restaurants and a cafe. There are no ATM's, banks, or shops, but plenty of peace and quiet to help you disconnect from the stresses of modern-day life.
Stari Grad is 2 kilometers from the retreat and can be reached on foot. However, Suncokret Dream offers conceptualized daily outings for the retreat guests so you can just relax and let them sweep you off to the best spots around.
Unique features
General
- Garden
- Kitchen
- Yoga deck
- Yoga shala
Services
- Free parking
- Free Wi-Fi
This Yoga Retreat is vegetarian-friendly
Click to see more vegetarian-friendly Yoga Retreats
Food
During retreat events, Suncokret Dream offers two fresh, tasty and nutritious "Dalma-Veg" meals per day. The meals are inspired by international vegetarian dishes with a distinctive Dalmatian twist and are predominantly made up of fresh, organic, locally-produced island ingredients (often their own), and are prepared with love and care.
The fusion cuisine is conceptualized to support the energetic work of the weekly yoga sadhana practice, and therefore is chakra-balancing, nurturing, and fulfilling.
Tap water, mineral water, herbal tea, and home-made organic cordials are provided with each meal while a morning coffee and an end of the week celebratory glass of local wine can be ordered on request.
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Dinner
- Snacks
- Drinks
The following drinks are included:
- Water
- Coffee
- Tea
- Detox juices
The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten Free
- Seafood
- Lactose Free
- Whole food
- Yogic
Exclusive Gifts
Suncokret Dream has prepared a few special surprises for you, including unique experiences and thoughtful extras to make your journey even more memorable.
Tarot reading
Things to do (optional)
While in Stari Grad: take a taxi boat to a hidden cove along the Stari Grad Penninsula, visit the local handmade specialties shops (there a quite a few), visit the local museums (including the outdoor summer garden of Petar Hektorovic)
While in Soline: indulge in spa treatments at a local spa with a 10% exclusive discount on services as a guest of Suncokret
While in Hvar: take a taxi boat to the neighboring Pakleni Islands, visit Europe's oldest indoor theater, visit the Agave Lace exhibit
In a Fisherman's Village: treat yourself to an outdoor massage by the sea in a quaint fisherman's cove, indulge in a Dalmatian seafood snack by the sea in one of the many outdoor seafood restaurants, people-watch in a boho-chic cafe, and maybe meet some new friends
In Jelsa: enjoy cycling along the coastline or take a water taxi to a hidden nearby cove. There's also a great scuba-diving club that offers beginner's training. In Sv. Nedelja (Autumn location only): hiking to a Cyclopean cave with a hidden monastery. Visit the famous underwater wine cellar for a bite to eat and wine tasting.
Spa treatments
During your retreat time at Suncokret, you may want to enhance your experience by adding on a range of holistic services that can be tailored to your unique needs. If you would like to address a specific well-being issue, or simply pamper yourself with an extra dose of TLC while on retreat, consider adding on one, or a combination of, the holistic therapies, life-empowerment workshops or organic spa treatments to make the most of your time. Please contact Suncokret Dream for details.
What's included
- A free consultation with the holistic lifestyle coach (on arrival day)
- A welcome and closing circle
- A chakra test to assess your overall state of being (at retreat start)
- A daily integrated Chakra Yoga Sadhana practice
- A daily "deep-dive" session with a theme-based practice
- A program manual with journaling prompts to help you focus
- Daily free time to relax and rejuvenate your way
- Free use of a yoga kit (mat, mat bag, block, strap, blanket, cushion, and protective foam mat)
- A wide choice of optional holistic TLC treatments and workshops
- Free transfers from and to the Stari Grad Port
- Conceptualized daily outings to gorgeous towns and beaches
- Ambient facilities
- 6 nights accommodation
- Twice daily fresh and nurturing "Dalma-Veg" meals
- Free water, mineral water, tea, and herbal drinks at each meal, and coffee on request at no extra charge
- A daily helping of seasonal fruits or light snacks
- Free access to tea corners with organic herbs
- Open access to books, magazines, games, and art supplies
- Free use of a beach towel and foam mat
- Essential toiletries
- The comforts of staying in a home away from home
- Wi-Fi access in all rooms and throughout the facility
Included Exclusive Gifts
Tarot reading
Ask any question and let the Tarot intuitively guide you to discover the answers that are secretly hidden deep within your psyche.
What's not included
- Airfare, airport transfers, ferry crossing and anything else
- not mentioned as included in the stated package
How to get there
Recommended Airports
Transfer not provided
Split Airport
48 km away from your destination
Arrival by airplane
Please book your flight to arrive at Zagreb Airport (ZAG). From there you can book a connecting domestic flight to Split Airport (SPU). From Split, you will have to take the ferry to get to Stari Grad. You will be picked up by Suncokret Dream from the Stari Grad port at 4:30 p.m. to be transferred to the resort.
From Zagreb Airport (ZAG), you can also book a bus transfer with Flixbus to Split which takes approximately 2 hours and then a ferry from Split to Stari Grad. When you arrive at the Stari Grad port, you will be picked up by Suncokret Dream at 4:30 p.m. to be transferred to the resort.
Arrival by bus
Outside the Split airport, a bus operated by Croatia Airlines departs from just outside the terminal door. You buy the ticket from the driver, 4 EUR. It takes about 30 minutes to get to the city center. There is also a local bus that goes to the bus station in Split to and from Trogir every 20 minutes from a stop on the road in front of the Airport Terminal. The price of the ticket is approximately the same.
After you have reached Split Port, you will need to get a ferry transfer from Split Port to Stari Grad Port. You will be picked up by Suncokret Dream from the Stari Grad port at 4:30 p.m. to be transferred to the resort.
Arrival by ferry
After your bus transfer to Split Port, you will need to get a ferry transfer from Split Port to Stari Grad Port. The airport bus stop is just next to the old town. From there you can see the ferry, a short walk away. Next to the ferry / bus / train / taxi station are ticket booths for Jadrolinija, the ferry company, where you can buy your ferry tickets. Alternatively, you can buy your ticket at the booth in the ferry terminal itself or online. You will be picked up by Suncokret Dream from the Stari Grad port at 4:30 p.m. to be transferred to the resort.
Arrival by taxi
From the Split airport a taxi to Split old town costs about 33 to 40 EUR. You can book a taxi online. Once you have reached Split Port, you will need to get a ferry transfer from Split Port to Stari Grad Port. You will be picked up by Suncokret Dream from the Stari Grad port at 4:30 p.m. to be transferred to the resort.
Cancellation Policy
- 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 21 days before arrival.
Reviews
For this organizer you can guarantee your booking through BookYogaRetreats.com. All major credit cards supported.