Winter in the Mediterranean is a lovely time of harvesting olives and oranges. There is a vibration of joy in the air and everyone is busy. At our home, an old olive mill itself, amidst this activity we offer yoga and walks.

Yoga, Walks & Health

Juliet Green, resident Sivananda trained teacher with experience of Iyengar and Desikachar (Viniyoga) teaches yoga and meditation. There will be three walks offered in the week, guided by experienced walker David Lister. All through the winter wild flowers emerge - it's like a perpetual spring time. Group size will be small so tuition will be close to one to one. The classes are suitable for beginners or people wishing to extend their yoga practice beyond asanas.

Food

You have the choice of vegetarian full board - we cook with fresh grown local produce. Or if you self cater we provide breakfasts and dinner on your first night.

Accommodation

Your stay is in our villa style Stafilia apartment or studio and in our own home (this last choice does not give self catering). There's no supplement for singles.

Your Health

Some days you might take the opportunity to use our library or take advantage of our health therapies. We offer aromatherapy massage, Kinesiology to find the cause of dis'ease' and then to find the solution. We are, in any case, there to help you with life issues that may be holding you back right now.

When can I come?

We have no set times for our holidays, you can come any day of the week and stay for one week or more. Flights are via Athens so there's an opportunity to see the Parthenon too.

What's the weather like?

Warm on sunny days: 20^oC but there can be showers when it will be cooler usually about 15^oC, so pack a light weight waterproof jacket and a fleece. Slippers are useful for inside the house.

The price for a week is Self catering £410, full board - breakfast, light lunch, dinner £500.

Experience the real Crete on a holiday with a difference, combining scenic walks in the stunning countryside, relaxing beachside yoga and delicious local cuisine. Feel invigorated and refreshed as you not only revitalize your body, but your mind and soul too. Along with its scenic surroundings, western Crete offers a warm and friendly welcome. Our hosts, walking guide and yoga teacher will help us recover from the stresses of everyday life with a mixture of gentle activities during the course of our week. Full length walks with local guides during the day followed by yoga with Juliet in the evenings as the sun sets over the sea.

This holiday is hosted by http://www.solosholidays.co.uk. Please visit their web site for more details and booking.

Being in stillness is relaxing and energising. This stillness in your life you can find in yoga and in meditation. The rhythm of walking can also bring a quietness to you. There can be a natural break point in a walk where we sit down, and spend time just listening to goat bells and birdsong. Some people often close their eyes. That contact with nature – either in the outside world or your inner self - helps you to move away from stresses. Just the memory of being in stillness can help you achieve this stillness in all situations.

Each day we have yoga, totally non-competitive and designed just to stretch you, then after a late breakfast, a walk in stunning countryside. In the evening there is meditation – a time to really focus on yourself. This holiday is for you - no one else!

Venue: Mithimna Beach / Olive Mill
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 4 evening meals and no airport transfers.

We see so many people on holiday who lead stressful lives so we've designed a holiday to help. You can simply relax and do nothing or dip into recuperative morning yoga to help you unwind and/or evening meditation. Find your feet and go on guided walks or be with the lapping waves at the beach.

Three treatments/massages are yours; we also listen to you.

You may wish to opt for additional home cooked meals (all vegetarian/special diets) so you don't even have to think about menus and tavernas – a real retreat. You can arrange this when you arrive.

Juliet is a qualified Sivananda yoga teacher and aromatherapy masseuse. She loves cooking. David is a Kinesiologist with an intuitive understanding of health. He leads the walks.

Come, relax and give yourself a break.

Venue: Mithimna Beach / Olive Mill
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 4 evening meals and no airport transfers.

Anna started teaching Iyengar Yoga in London in 1997. She was drawn to the method due to skeletal problems that would not respond to conventional treatment. She has used yoga to help rehabilitate herself after serious illness and surgery.

She now lives with her partner and son teaching classes in the Brighton area. In 2010 she studied with the Iyengar family in Pune. She continues to work and learn with senior teachers in England.

Anna's classes often focus on learning rather than simply 'doing'. With a light-hearted atmosphere and plenty of humour she encourages students to challenge their habitual ways of doing things. Having come to terms with her own physical limitations has made her an understanding and empathetic teacher. Anna has a natural love of teaching that is evident in her classes.

In 2012 Anna is taking the Junior Intermediate Level 3 Iyengar Yoga Teaching Assessment. Each class on the holiday will be of 90 minutes, tailored to suit the needs of the group.

Venue: Peli, Kastelli
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 4 evening meals and no airport transfers.

Sue has been teaching Iyengar Yoga in the Oxfordshire Area for more than 20 years. She holds the Junior Intermediate Level 1 Iyengar Yoga Teaching Certificate.

Sue is a regular visitor to India and has studied with the Iyengar family in Pune and is booked to return in 2012. She also continues to work and learn with senior teachers in England, regularly attending Judi Sweeting's teachers' classes and Margaret Rawlinson's workshops and holidays. Sue is also a fully qualified Midwife and teaches a very successful and popular "Birthlight Yoga Class" to pregnant Women.

Sue knows that the power of Yoga plus the care and experience of her teachers have helped her to achieve a complete recovery from serious personal injuries - her yoga practice has been a constant and enormous  benefit in her healing process.

Sue aims to instil and pass on her life experience to students through her knowledge and teaching of Yoga.

Over the course of the week we shall be working together to move students to another level through practice, help and guidance. In the three-hour morning session we shall work in-depth in standing poses, twists, seated poses and back arches. These will be explored in detail and students will be helped and encouraged to develop the intensity and integrity of their own practice. The one and a half hour evening class will be a quieter, winding-down experience where even with only a limited previous experience of Pranayama and contemplative Meditation it will be possible for students to achieve enhanced inner strength and peace. Inverted and recuperative poses will be features of the evening session.

Venue: Peli Hotel, Kastelli
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 1 evening meal and Chania Airport transfers.

"Stepping into the Light", with Chrissie Astell, is a wonderful 'multi-dimensional' holiday experience.

Mornings are full of shared wisdom, self-discovery, exploration and inspiring exercises, guided meditations, pair work, deep healing, fun and laughter.

We'll explore how we can each develop practical tools and spiritual practices that will ground us, connect with angelic energies, enable us to self-reflect with truth and transparency and attune with the angels to discover our own spiritual impulse, accelerating us forward on our personal journey. Together, in a safe and sacred space, we will look at ways of connecting more deeply for those who feel the call to serve with the angels, at whatever level.

Afternoons are free to relax and soak up the sun, enjoy the beaches or walk in the mountains and embrace the healing energies of the wonderful Island of Crete.

Chrissie Astell is a best selling author, qualified teacher, healer and Spiritual Facilitator with over twelve years experience of leading workshops, courses and talks, with students all over the world.
For more information see www.AngelLight.co.uk

Venue: Peli Hotel, Kastelli
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 4 evening meals and no airport transfers.

Margaret has been teaching yoga for over 20 years and is firmly grounded in the precision and depth of Iyengar yoga. She has studied with BKS Iyengar over the years but also brings the richness of her extensive experience in other fields too – especially Chinese medicine, which she has been successfully practising. She has also worked and studied in China in both acupuncture and Tui Na (Chinese osteopathy). Margaret believes we can find self-healing for the mind, body and spirit in the complete yoga practice which incorporates asanas, pranayama and meditation. The classes will allow you to find new insights and openings but joyfully and with a sense of fun.

Venue: Peli Hotel, Kastelli
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 1 evening meal and Chania Airport transfers.

Tessa has been to Crete several times as a student on yoga holidays hosted by Juliet and David and is excited about teaching here for the first time this year. The holiday will be at Hotel Peli, a small family run hotel on the edge of Kastelli, close to the lovely sandy beach of Mavros Molos.

There will be two yoga classes daily – a 3 hour class in the mornings where students will work together to deepen their understanding of the poses and 1.5 hours in the evenings when the classes will be of a quieter, more meditative nature.

Tessa has practised yoga for many years and been a fully qualified Iyengar yoga teacher since 1997. Iyengar yoga is taught with great attention given to precision, alignment and timing within the postures – it is a natural way of using the body known to improve strength, flexibility, balance, breathing, co-ordination and relaxation. Props (mats, belts, blocks, etc) are used when necessary to assist the students perform the postures safely and without injury.

She says yoga has transformed her life - her practice keeps her strong and healthy and gives her a wonderful sense of well-being. The reason she teaches yoga is to share her experience with others.

Tessa looks forward to seeing you there for a wonderful week of yoga and relaxation!

Venue: Peli Hotel
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 1 evening meal and Chania Airport transfers.

Viniyoga is a classical form of Hatha yoga in which breathing is controlled and linked to the posture work. So each movement is co-ordinated with the breath. The yoga postures are modified in the class to meet the individual needs of each participant. The emphasis on breathing is important in all aspects of this gentle form of yoga and bring a focused and meditative experience to the work which can be relaxing and energising. Postures and breathing help to reduce physical and mental tension, improve mobility, increase strength and stamina and can help physical and mental health. Fiona Ashdown is a senior teacher in the tradition from Krishnamacharya and Desikachar.

After the morning yoga and breakfast there will be a 2 to 3 hour guided walk ending at a taverna or beach, with Juliet and David who will introduce you to the stunningly beautiful Cretan countryside.

Why walks? Because Fiona likes walking. We'll let you in on a secret, she also likes the flumes at Chania's water park – they're seriously good!

Venue: Mithimna Beach
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 4 evening meals and no airport transfers.

I went to my first yoga class when I was about 15 years old. Later as a student I read philosophy and studied different spiritual traditions. The seeds were sown for my developing interest in the philosophy and art of yoga.

When I was drawn to train as a yoga teacher with Yoga Scotland in 1991, it was to delve more deeply into the philosophy, to further my spiritual search. I had never been any good at sports and had no background in anatomy and physiology.

I could never have guessed that a few years down the road I would be teaching a practice very much based on the physical work... observing the body as it is, on the ground, being breathed. In particular, my studies over the last 14 years with yoga tutor and osteopath John Stirk have helped me discover the connection between body, mind and spirit. The experience in the postures brought an awareness I couldn't have found in any book. The meditation, the non-doing is there in the doing.

Lots of yoga students are drawn to the yoga for the benefits of the physical exercise and I am keen to present my classes so they are accessible to everyone, regardless of their fitness level. Many people find they benefit especially from the relaxation and many then go on to develop an interest in the spiritual practice.

My personal journey was from the spiritual search to the physical practice. Whichever way, I think there is no separation. The practice is the meditation. We use what we have, where we are.

These days I am interested in how science is proving what the yogis discovered through their efforts thousands of years ago. My daily inspiration comes from my family, my students, the music of Krishna Das, and the books of Osho. And of course the yoga!

Venue: Peli Hotel, Kastelli
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 4 evening meals and no airport transfers.

I went to my first yoga class when I was about 15 years old. Later as a student I read philosophy and studied different spiritual traditions. The seeds were sown for my developing interest in the philosophy and art of yoga.

When I was drawn to train as a yoga teacher with Yoga Scotland in 1991, it was to delve more deeply into the philosophy, to further my spiritual search. I had never been any good at sports and had no background in anatomy and physiology.

I could never have guessed that a few years down the road I would be teaching a practice very much based on the physical work... observing the body as it is, on the ground, being breathed. In particular, my studies over the last 14 years with yoga tutor and osteopath John Stirk have helped me discover the connection between body, mind and spirit. The experience in the postures brought an awareness I couldn't have found in any book. The meditation, the non-doing is there in the doing.

Lots of yoga students are drawn to the yoga for the benefits of the physical exercise and I am keen to present my classes so they are accessible to everyone, regardless of their fitness level. Many people find they benefit especially from the relaxation and many then go on to develop an interest in the spiritual practice.

My personal journey was from the spiritual search to the physical practice. Whichever way, I think there is no separation. The practice is the meditation. We use what we have, where we are.

These days I am interested in how science is proving what the yogis discovered through their efforts thousands of years ago. My daily inspiration comes from my family, my students, the music of Krishna Das, and the books of Osho. And of course the yoga!

Venue: Peli Hotel, Kastelli
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 4 evening meals and no airport transfers.

Rosie has been practising yoga for 13 years and has trained in Vajrasati, Iyengar & Hatha styles. She holds teaching certificates in Vajrasati Yoga and 'Yoga for ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome', and is Yoga Alliance 500 hour accredited.

Vajrasati Yoga: 'Vajrasati' is composed from the two ancient Indian words 'Vajra' -thunderbolt/diamond and 'Sati'- awareness. The meaning keeps revealing more depths, but generally it is taken to mean 'unobstructed awareness', or 'letting go' to find a deeper connection (yoga) with what we do.

Rosie Waters has been teaching since early 2008, and currently runs 3 drop-in classes in Sussex; she also teaches private groups and individual students. She has taught 3 holidays in Spain over the last two years.

Rosie's teaching focuses on using the breath to deepen and extend the body, mind and spirit. She encourages students to work meditatively, listening closely to their own bodies and breath, and using their inner resources to develop postures only as the body allows, and without grasping. Her current experience includes teaching more mature and less able students.

On this holiday the morning will begin with a 'Daybreak Meditation' as the sun rises. This will be followed by an invigorating morning yoga session, fully benefitting from the pure sea air and beautiful relaxing surroundings – awakening the senses and preparing us for the day ahead.

The evening sessions will be gentler, more meditative, and will include Pranayama (work with the breath) and mantra. The day will close with a short late-evening meditation for those who wish to 'ground' themselves before sleeping.

This holiday is suitable for men and women of all ages and levels of experience, including beginners.

Venue: Peli Hotel, Kastelli
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 4 evening meals and no airport transfers.

Nick's practice is inspired by Iyengar yoga which emphasizes precision and proper alignment.
Having been a student of yoga for 18 years and a teacher for 12 years, Nick has studied with the Iyengar familiy in Pune, India, and many other teachers.
He has also incorporated elements from other styles such as Sivananda and Astanga.
The combination of asanas and breath awareness in yoga is wonderfully designed to make the body strong and supple and the mind calm and receptive.
The course is suitable for beginners and long-term practitioners alike. The morning class will be dynamic and introduce a wide variety of asanas. The evening class will focus on restorative postures, relaxation, pranayama and meditation.
Enjoy the ancient art of practising yoga.

Venue: Mithimna Beach
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 1 evening meal and Chania Airport transfers.

My yoga journey started in 1990 with helping my prolonged back problems, and this proved to be a momentous decision in my life. I started with Iyengar Yoga and have continued to practice with this method ever since. It is an approach that is very complementary to my physiotherapy background focusing on alignment and finding out how and where the body can move into postures, with the use of props where needed. I have been teaching Iyengar yoga since 2002 and it is important to me that students enjoy my classes so they are encouraged to explore and extend their boundaries in their practice. I teach in Skipton, Yorks and assist in a neurology therapy class with my senior yoga teacher, Alan Brown.  I studied in Pune, India in November 2011 being taught by members of the Iyengar family. This was a truly inspiring experience giving me a greater appreciation of the spiritual and philosophical aspects of yoga and also in making new friends from the large International Iyengar yoga community.

My teaching in Crete will include a 2 hour morning asana practice each day plus a one hour early evening practice of inversions, supported asanas or pranayama (guided breathing), with one free day. We will have time for exploring the local area, walks, swimming in the hotel pool and generally relaxing and enjoying the ambience of the region. Anybody who is feeling energetic is welcome to join me in sea swims, bike rides and local runs as my other passion is triathlon both as a participant and a coach. However, I do relaxing very well too!

My Core Philosophy:

Seize opportunities that life has to offer and live each day to the full. Seek fulfilment, joy and contentment. Be aware of obstacles and limitations and navigate through these bravely with both instinct and mindfulness.

Venue: Peli Hotel, Kastelli
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 4 evening meals and no airport transfers.

My yoga journey started in 1990 with helping my prolonged back problems, and this proved to be a momentous decision in my life. I started with Iyengar Yoga and have continued to practice with this method ever since. It is an approach that is very complementary to my physiotherapy background focusing on alignment and finding out how and where the body can move into postures, with the use of props where needed. I have been teaching Iyengar yoga since 2002 and it is important to me that students enjoy my classes so they are encouraged to explore and extend their boundaries in their practice. I teach in Skipton, Yorks and assist in a neurology therapy class with my senior yoga teacher, Alan Brown.  I studied in Pune, India in November 2011 being taught by members of the Iyengar family. This was a truly inspiring experience giving me a greater appreciation of the spiritual and philosophical aspects of yoga and also in making new friends from the large International Iyengar yoga community.

My teaching in Crete will include a 2 hour morning asana practice each day plus a one hour early evening practice of inversions, supported asanas or pranayama (guided breathing), with one free day. We will have time for exploring the local area, walks, swimming in the hotel pool and generally relaxing and enjoying the ambience of the region. Anybody who is feeling energetic is welcome to join me in sea swims, bike rides and local runs as my other passion is triathlon both as a participant and a coach. However, I do relaxing very well too!

My Core Philosophy:

Seize opportunities that life has to offer and live each day to the full. Seek fulfilment, joy and contentment. Be aware of obstacles and limitations and navigate through these bravely with both instinct and mindfulness.

Venue: Peli Hotel, Kastelli
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 4 evening meals and no airport transfers.

Before moving to Crete 16 years ago we both became interested in our health. We continued our self discovery, exploring new approaches to health. We found we could look after ourselves better and live life in a more relaxed, positive and natural way. Your week will include an eclectic mix of self help techniques to keep you feeling better and to be responsible for your wellbeing. Here you'll find good food, relaxation, get in touch with your sense of fun and be stimulated by new ways to help yourself live well. Try it and see, we think you will be glad you did.

Venue: Olive Mill
Price: Cost per person for one week £480. Includes 4 evening meals, buffet lunches and no airport transfers.