Why you won’t find yoga on our wellness vacations
Unless we’re going to India, that is. In other words, this is the story of why I’ve launched Provenance.
As a travel journalist, I’ve visited a lot of countries, looking for stories that are unique to the place I’m in. Pre pandemic, everyone wanted to know about authentic experiences, and wanted to know where locals ate and drank, etc.
Except very quickly “authentic” became same. Every city shared stories about its cool, independent cafes, its awesome craft breweries and its hip urban art. So if everyone’s doing it, how is it original?
The same happened with wellness travel. Wellness very quickly came to mean yoga. Didn’t matter if you were in Hawaii, or Croatia, or India – where yoga originates. It didn’t matter if you didn’t like yoga, or didn’t know what a chaturanga is, or what the connection is between yoga and the place you’re visiting. If you wanted a getaway that would help you relax, you were doing yoga.
When I visited places like Japan, or Sweden or Morocco, I’d end up talking with the guides or locals I met about wellness – maybe an agricultural crop used for skin care, or a cool walking trail that lets people connect with nature and relax, or public bathing ritual that’s a really cool way to catch up with friends.
Wellness very quickly came to mean yoga. Didn’t matter if you were in Hawaii, or Croatia, or India – where yoga originates. It didn’t matter if you didn’t like yoga. If you wanted a getaway that would help you relax, you were doing yoga.
Each of these places have their own traditions and techniques, and each taught me about the land and the locals, about their values and how they care for themselves, their communities and the Earth.
Why aren’t wellness trips designed to explore these sorts of things, I asked myself and others in the travel industry? Well… now they are. :)
“Provenance” means place of origin, and that’s the guiding principle for every trip I’ll be leading.
We’ll experience forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku – an exercise to connect with nature, physically and mentally – from the place where it was born: Japan. Literally immerse ourselves in the healing power of thermal waters when visiting Iceland – a ritual so entrenched in Icelandic culture, during the pandemic, locals lined up at midnight on the first day lagoons reopened. You know argan, that “Moroccon oil” that has made its way into seemingly every beauty product? We’ll visit a farm in the North African country to learn how it’s grown and harvested, and how they discovered the oil’s power. When we’re in India? That’s when we’ll do yoga!
Provenance will take you back to the beginning of all of these traditions to explore the roots of wellness and how they’ve helped people feel better for centuries.
And yes, we’ll also see the Instagram worthy sites, eat where the locals dine and have an all-round unforgettable holiday.
Intrigued? I hope so. Because there’s lots more news coming very soon. :)
