Fancy a holiday with yoga?

With yoga holidays becoming a trend now, coupled with World Yoga Day coming up next week, expat entrepreneur in the city, Aine Edwards, talks about organising a unique trip — a yoga retreat from Chennai to Ireland, where she teams up with her dad, Liam Edwards. Though planned for September, Aine has already chalked out the itinerary.

“When you think of holidays, what comes to your mind is seeing different places, trying out the cuisine, interacting with locals, et al. But no one thinks of a yoga holiday!” exclaims Aine.

Two years ago, when she worked as a scuba instructor in Maldives, Aine organised a yoga holiday to the island country. “While I was working, I realised that though people are holidaying, they are not enjoying the vacation to the fullest. That sparked off an idea in me to combine vacations with complete mind-relaxation techniques. Since I am passionate about yoga, I organised a trip with six people who came on board,” she reminisces.

Though one has a lot of memories to cherish from holidays, what Aine aims to do is to provide benefit to people from the holidays — “During a holiday, most of us will be tired of constantly travelling from one place to another without time to relax. They continuously think of the next day’s plan and how to utilise the time, etc. So, I want to take people on holidays where they benefit as well as visit places... half the day will be spent reflecting, while the other half will be spent touring around,” she says, adding, “Tourists normally think of a yoga holiday in India, but why not do the reverse — take a group from India to Ireland, for a retreat on the scenic coastline!”

So, why Ireland? She smiles, “It’s my hometown. Plus, the weather is amazing in Ireland. It’s not necessary that we should do yoga only in India. It can be done anywhere that enhances mindfulness. The place I am planning to take people is a farmhouse in Ireland — a very quiet place with less pollution. The place is also very conducive for healing.”

The yoga holiday will be in September, for a group of 10, including yoga teacher, Shantala T. Medappa, from Coorg. “I have chalked out the 10-day holiday itinerary. The first two days in Cork, next two in Dublin, and a six-day yoga retreat at an Irish country,” Aine concludes.

The father-daughter duo has already started planning on doing another yoga holiday in Maldives in 2018.