What To Expect From An Active Holiday

When I told friends that I was going away on an active retreat, the general consensus was – ‘ew‘ – and you know what? I get it. When I first heard of the concept I imagined being woken up at the crack of dawn by an angry man with a whistle, before being made to sprint up a hill for 10 miles. Perhaps I’ve just watched too many episodes of The Biggest Loser? I’m sure there are some retreats out there that lean more towards to the bootcamp/’drop down and give me 20‘ side of things, but my 10 days away with New Horizon Escapes were thankfully extremely pleasant and there was no angry man with a whistle to be seen. Here are a few other things I learnt from my time away…

Nothing is compulsory. Along with images of ‘Whistle Man’ I also thought that there may be someone shouting in my ear as I coughed and spluttered my way through my second push up of the session (one year of training and push ups are still bloomin’ hard!). In reality no-one was pushed to do anything they didn’t want to do. Fancied sitting on a beach instead of hiking up to a view point? *raises hand* No worries at all. Wanted to have a lie-in instead of sunrise yoga? Go ahead. I may have missed a couple of gym sessions as I was off getting a massage. Priorities.

You don’t end up knackered. Although the 10 days were peppered with the odd rest day here and there, most days included at least two types of physical activity; usually one being less strenuous than the other. Think a light hike in the morning, paired with Crossfit in the afternoon, or Muay Thai first thing with sunset paddle boarding later on. In my head I was fully prepared to be cream-cracked by day two, but the agenda was cleverly set so you were never overworking an area of the body that might already be sore. Genius. I think the most I seized up was on the 18 hour journey home after a deep tissue massage. Yep, I’m back on my favourite topic again… 

Everyone is in the same boat. The retreat that I went on ended up being all women which made the whole thing feel like one giant hen do/mother’s meeting. Everyone there enjoyed working out; some through yoga others through weights or running, which meant that instantly everyone had something in common. Before I left I imagined everyone to be these super lean, model-esque beings who could deadlift 100kg and although I’m sure that some of the women there could do exactly that, everyone had their own strengths and weaknesses and it was never intimating to workout in front of everyone. If I had a penny for every time an encouraging ‘You go girl!‘ was thrown across the room…

Homeward bound. You know that post-holiday feeling where you’ve got a bit of a tan going on, but your face is spotty from having a fizzy drink with every single meal – living life on the edge! – and you just feel like a bit of a lump because your gym shoes remained untouched in your suitcase despite your good intentions? Yeah, that’s me every time I travel. Well it was quite nice to go on an adventure, see somewhere new and yet come back feeling fresh and good and really darn relaxed. Thumbs up, all round.

Photos by Denis Plesca