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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Making (sound) waves in the woodlands of Tuscany
Founded in 2014 by Lena Evstafieva and Jerome Hadley – a contemporary art collector and musician husband-and-wife team – Villa Lena has always proposed a different take on the Tuscan idyll. The location, to start, is off the beaten track in several ways: anchored by a towering, glamorous 19th-century brick mansion in lieu of a medieval casa colonica, and set on 500 hectares of hilly woodland in Pisa province. From its inception it has hosted artists’ and creative residencies, and art still plays a fundamental role in the landscape and the experience (thanks to the owners’ previous professional lives, the clientele often includes a high-flying musician or filmmaker type or two). Retreat themes here have ranged from painting en plein air to perfume-making.
In July, Evstafieva will host Savasana & Sound with Jordan Ashley, the founder of Souljourn Yoga, and breathwork specialist Allison Bagg. In the mornings, guests will hone their asanas and get their blood, and breath, going; in the evenings, Bagg will “paint” soundscapes using guided meditations, singing bowls and more. Osteria San Michele, the restaurant, is open to the public, and draws them from far and wide (Villa Lena has done sustainable agriculture from the beginning, and the meals are beautifully plated as well as wholesome). They also make a rather fabulous sparkling rosé, so the breaks from self-revelation don’t have to exclude a bit of self-indulgence. villa-lena.it, rooms from €320; Savasana & Sound Retreat from €2,149pp for four nights
Connecting in Colombia
“When is a retreat not a retreat?” asks Portia Hart, the British-Trinidadian creator-owner of Blue Apple Beach, an 11-room hotel on Tierra Bomba, an island not far from Cartagena. The answer: when it’s conceived with the central mandate not of solitude but of connecting – to fellow guests, the landscape, and the local community. Blue Apple Beach may have all the trappings of a party place, from the poolside DJs to the vibrant onsite workshop and boutique; but it’s also a certified B Corp business, run much of the time on renewable energy to offset the carbon output of the diesel-powered boats that provide all non-locally grown goods (there’s no bridge, or infrastructure, connecting Tierra Bomba to the mainland). Kitchen waste and water are composted and reused; used glass collected from across the country is repurposed as building material.
The six-day, five-night Reset + Connect retreat in June combines classes, workshops and excursions designed to get people to commune with each other and with locals. The guests – limited to just 10 – will be walked (literally and figuratively) through the history of the village of Bocachica by local guides. By day, they can choose from hypnotherapy, therapeutic breathwork and EFT (or “tapping”, said to activate meridional energy to process negative emotion). Each guest has a one-on-one session with retreat co-leader Bianca Dusic, who left a high-flying job in hospitality in 2021 to found bWithin, a life- and health-coaching practice. Accommodations are simple and cheerful; the gorgeous jungle-island landscape is the real luxury. 24 to 29 June; blueapplebeach.com, rooms from $265; retreat from $2,700pp, full board for five nights
(Mindfully) wild weekends in Somerset
In 2015, sister and brother Lara and Seth Tabatznik converted an estate in Somerset into an ambitious regenerative estate – a place “to reconnect with nature, self and others” – on land that had been the site of a 13th-century hermitage. Last November 42 Acres, as the site is now known, launched a series of self-guided contemplative retreats, in which guests were encouraged to explore and immerse in both indoor and outdoor spaces in silence and at their own pace.
Last month, the Tabatzniks added a series of Wild Weekends to the calendar – two-day guided programmes, during which guests can explore the grounds with educational walks on wildlife and foraging for food or medicine, swim in the estate’s seven-acre lake, and take meditation and movement classes (indoor and outdoor). They also have the option to participate in rewilding projects already underway.
There’s a woodland sauna to use pre- and post-swim or stroll. The accommodations range from spacious converted barns and coach houses sleeping four, to the very sweet “Tiny” boat at a wood dock at the lake’s edge, complete with its own little kitchen space and outdoor bathroom. 42acres.com, Wild Weekends from £345pp
Cornwall brings the wellness wave
For a bit of a smorgasbord weekend, in June the Bedruthan Hotel & Spa in Cornwall will host a three-day Waves of Wellness Festival. The schedule is crammed with activities both mindfulness- and momentum-centric: Devon-born surfer and yoga instructor Sophie Hellyer will lead wild ocean swims, while pro rugby players-turned-breath coaches Anthony Mullally and David Jackson have the performance breathwork and hot- and cold-therapy workshops covered.
Art as therapy will be explored via beading workshops and sustainable-craft making at Create Cornwall, the hotel’s on-site arts studio. Plus there’s Pilates and guided foraging walks and ice baths, crystal sound-bath meditations, and – quite intriguing, this – silent disco-and-yoga sessions (stereo headphones provided), led by a local psychologist. You can dip in for a day, or buy a weekend pass. 14 to 16 June; bedruthan.com, adults from £110, weekend passes from £285
