Finding ease at La Crisalida in Spain
Caroline Sylge reviews a health and wellbeing retreat on the Costa Blanca, where she finds birdsong, lighthouse hikes and much-needed horizontal time
I booked a week’s retreat at La Crisalida during the wettest British March we’ve had in years and couldn’t wait to escape the drizzle of my life. Set a 10-minute walk from the beach in the coastal town of Albir in southern Spain, the retreat offers an affordable sanctuary where you can arrive and leave on any day you want and everything is optional – something that appealed to me hugely, as I knew I needed a lot of horizontal time following an intense year with work.
I was greeted with friendly smiles and an interesting schedule on arrival, but quickly planned to skip such things as the rebounding classes and opt instead for some walks, yoga, a bit of core work and lots of downtime.
“This is a popular place that’s usually busy, but it never felt stressy. There’s a community vibe of understanding amongst the staff and guests that lets you get on with being just who you are and doing just what you need”
Sunshine greeted me at 7am on my first morning, and I got up to join a gorgeous guided two-hour hike to the lighthouse in the Sierra Helada, the nearby protected nature reserve. There were craggy sandstone rock formations all around us as we walked under blue skies, enjoying the sea views and chatting to fellow guests, who included lots of women travelling solo, friends who had met here and returned every year, and a mother of three grown-up children treating herself to a break following her 60th birthday.
Back for breakfast for 9.30am, I decided to choose the smoothie only, saving my appetite for the tasty, easy-to-digest plant-based buffet meals at lunch time and at supper. You can juice fast here for as little or as long as you choose, but I already knew my body does not get on well with lots of cold raw juices, so I was glad to find that on the two days in the middle of my week that I decided to go liquid, I had the option of a soup rather than the juice in the evenings. Every meal I had was tasty, but the pesto pea soup and the nut cakes were a particular delight, and it was so freeing not to have to shop for or cook meals for a whole week.
My daily sessions in the infrared sauna (which are free, but you must pre-book) were a highlight for me, heating my detoxing body and easing body and mind. I often read my book lying on one of the benches. I also loved bathing in the hot sun around the sheltered smaller pool, which is heated and full of soothing magnesium, or if I wanted privacy, on my own lounger at the back of my studio room.
There’s nothing luxe or fancy here, but my bedroom was spacious and white-walled with a comfy bed and sofa, a bathroom with a shower over the bath, and a kitchenette area where I could make my own tea and fill the hot water bottle provided - a real comfort, as when I’m detoxing, I often feel quite cold.
Treatments peppering my week included a relaxing body scrub, some reflexology, and – the highlight – two deep tissue massages with Juan Carlos, who got right into my back, neck and head.
This is a popular place that’s usually busy, but it never feels stressy. Rather, there’s a community vibe of understanding amongst the staff and guests that lets you get on with being just who you are and doing just what you need. You can eat communally if you feel like being sociable, or just quietly keep yourself to yourself, or even take yourself off to a small table outside, no problem.
Yoga on my week was mixed in style and teachers, pitched at either ‘intermediate’ or ‘all levels’, and either led by the multi-disciplinary ‘health mentors’ who doubled as personal trainers, or by yoga teachers devoted to their practice who came in for one-off sessions. I set myself up with my own yoga space in my sitting room to do my own practice and enjoyed dropping in and out of classes.
Of these, I particularly enjoyed an authentic kundalini session with visiting teacher Raphaela, a gorgeous yin yang yoga class with Amanda on the roof terrace with birdsong and sunshine, and a thorough session of jivamukti yoga with a smiling and bronzed Diana.
During my week, Diana also hosted a fun evening vision boarding session where I had a wonderful time, cutting out flowers, colours, nature, scenes and depictions of delicious food and drink as I envisioned my future.
By day five I felt the need for pure alone time, so I walked to Altea town along a marbled coastal pathway. It was worth the traffic noise to reach the pretty old town and experience it out of tourist season. I treated myself at The Plant Shack to a cheeky expresso and power smoothie, then walked up to the blue-domed church and through the narrow ancient streets of the old town, then headed back along the seafront to dip my feet in the sea before heading back to what I now saw as my sanctuary.
I confess by the end of my week I wasn’t ready to leave. Just a few more days/weeks of relaxation, no shopping, no deadlines, and no computer please! Savouring a delicious fruit cocktail before supper at a white-clothed table on my last night (something that happens once a week here each Friday), I knew I could happily return.
