Home Destinations Six Superb Villas for Sunrise Yoga

With bikini season well underway in Europe, yoga is a fast and fun way to get a beach ready body. There is also no better way to greet the day on holiday. Six stunning villas that offer the opportunity of yoga onsite are at their very best in the summer months. The backdrops vary from cityscapes to secluded beaches. What unites them is being utterly unforgettable.

A Portuguese townhouse might not be the most obvious choice of yoga retreat, but Casa Fuzetta in the bustling Algarve port of Olhão is full of surprises. A funky and flexible twelve bedroom manor house, it is steeped in history but boasts all modcons. Its crowning glory is the panoramic roof terrace with yoga decks. Guests can practice their downward-facing dog with the sounds of seagulls and the lively city awakening all around them. There’s room for up to 16 practitioners to join an instructor on the deck.

Casa Fuzetta – Algarve

Another wonderful mansion in a very different setting can be found on the pretty Spanish island of Menorca. The Prestige villa offers many spaces for dawn yoga indoors and out across its lush 250 acres, and can easily arrange instructors for visitors. The unbelievable sense of natural seclusion it creates is perfect for a serene lotus pose. It boasts a high spec gym and massage rooms for taking the work out or the relaxation a stage further, as well as a spectacular outdoor heated pool.

How many lucky travellers get to take a yoga class in their own medieval Italian castle? That is exactly what Castello Bonaparte in Perugia can offer. A simply wonderful and incredibly luxurious retreat, it is the perfect party palace, with the opportunity to rent the tower as well as the main residence to greatly increase the already generous accommodation. The entire second floor is a lovely covered terrace that is ideal for yoga instruction. Outside, the rose and jasmine-lined ancient courtyard offers an environment of perfect harmony with the tree pose.

Castello Bonaparte – Umbria

Many people have discovered yoga in the Greek islands, where the peaceful natural beauty has long been a magnet for yoga instructors and pupils alike. Private Mykonos, which takes its name from the ultra-fashionable jewel of the Cyclades, is the ultimate place to live out fantasies of learning yoga like a celebrity. The newly built structure gleams under the Greek sun. With a fully fitted gym and massage spaces, there are many inspiring places to set a yoga class, not to mention swimming pools and Jacuzzis to complete the relaxation process afterwards.

Private Mykonos

There’s no better way to heal and improve body and mind than a yoga class before breakfast in one of these six world class settings.

By Emma French, Travel Writer