A yoga retreat could be the perfect motivation to stay healthy

As January settles in and resolutions give way to good intentions followed by niggling guilt, booking a Yoga retreat holiday for the Easter break may be the perfect way to motivate yourself to stick to the new, healthy course you’ve plotted, writes Ellie O'Byrne. 

Goa, a west Indian State with long, glorious beaches on the Arabian Sea, may have made its name as a party paradise for a whole generation of hippies in the seventies, but if psychedelic trance and hedonistic beach parties sound like a far cry from the “new you” you’re aiming for in 2016, the regimen of communal exercise, diet and meditation offered by one of the countless Yoga centres offering retreats in Goa may help you find inner peace along with a healthy glow and some spring sun.

For the dedicated yoga practitioner, the chance to practice their discipline in India, the birthplace of yoga, is in itself a draw, but with an average daily temperature of 28 degrees in March and April, the promise of some warm sun would also make an incentive to bite the bullet and sign up.