Yoga holidays on a Greek Island
since 1989
Aliki - Paros
Foto Christos Skandalis
Come and join us for one week Hatha Yoga on Paros;
one of the most beautiful islands of Greece.
Yoga to reduce stress and to help the immune system.
What kind of yoga?
Basic no nonsense traditional Hatha yoga, with very strong influences from Iyengar.
Special focus on alignment, the spine, the use of props, connecting mind-breath-body,
and the positive influence of yoga on the nervous system.
Yoga to reduce stress and help the immune system. No chanting and no preaching.
Yoga for every-body;
it does not matter if you are very stiff or very flexible,
very strong or not at all, not even if you have specific limitations
due to physical problems. Due to a car accident I had in 1998, in which I broke my spine,
I became an expert by experience for people with back problems.
I recovered myself after the accident, by doing yoga
and living a calm and simple live on the island.
I teach small groups of maximum 14 persons (also before Covid-19),
so I can give enough personal attention and correction to everybody.
No competiton
You work on your own personal level. Individual correction.
Use of props to adapt poses to do them better and/or longer.
Every-body is different.
Yoga holiday
Yoga holiday, relaxing, enjoying, but no bootcamp.
Classes 10:00 - 12:30 and the rest of the day free to enjoy the island,
the beach, the sea, the sun and the relaxed Greek lifestyle.
Early birds can go for a swim or a walk before yoga class.
If it is your first time to come, don't worrie about the 2 1/2 hour class, time will fly, you will see.
We start and finish with a bit of breathing, inbetween we do postures/Asana's.
I will also take time to explain and show what to do and what not to do,
and there is room to ask questions. Before you realize it, class is over.
Time flies, that's what everybody tell's me.
Food
- Breakfast is included and will be served 8:00 - 10:00.
- Also incuded is a Greek welcome- and goodbye-dinner with the group.
(* If you are allergic to anything, please let us know.)
The rest of the week you are free to eat where and with whom you want.
There are plenty of nice restaurants near by, on five minutes walking distance.
Many new friendships have emerged from these dinners. The Greek kitchen is very
suitable for vegetarians and the restaurants use fresh and local products, many
times even from their own garden. You can taste the difference, here you can stil find
real food, healthy food, very tastefull food. Aliki is a fishing village, so fresh fish,
is realy fresh fish, just catched today or last night.
During the yoga week there are no restrictions for food and drinks;
you can eat and drink whatever you want. You are the boss of your life and your body.
I just hope you will enjoy your holiday, enjoy the yoga, enjoy Greece and Paros ;-)
The rooms
All rooms are private, we don't do shared rooms unless you ask for it because you are travelling together.
All rooms have a private bathroom, AC, wifi, small refrigerator and kettle to make coffe/tea.
The group
The group will not be bigger then 14 persons, to ensure enough space and personal attention.
Sometimes people come together with a friend, but most of the time people come alone,
which makes this yoga holiday very suitable for solo travellers. If you like to travel alone,
but also like to socialize sometimes a bit, here it is realy easy to make new friends.
Since it is a small group of like minded people. Many of my clients are solo female travellers,
Aliki is a safe place for (solo) female travellers.
Before and after summer
I offer yoga weeks from May - November.
For many years I try to make the season longer and ask people to avoid the high season if possible.
I honestly believe that for many reasons it is nicer out of high season. Most of all it is not busy
and not so hot. Weather is beautiful on Paros more then eight months a year.
Even if there are a few days with less sunny weather, you still have fresh air and seawind,
and a lot of space to enjoy and feel safe. You can also go for (guided) hikes along the coast
or in the mountainsand along the Byzanthine Path, or visit the different villages of the island.
No mass tourism, the most busy time is only one month; July 20 - August 20.
Reservation:
I ask 200 € deposit to make a reservation. This is not refundable, but in case you unexpectedly can not come,
the amount will remain, to be used for one of my other yoga weeks.
I teach 9 weeks from end of April until end of October 2023.
I will do 6 weeks in 2024.
To make a reservation please send an e-mail; oona@yoga-paros.com
with your name and home address, for me to make the invoice.
A video review from a customer.
Aliki Yoga School is international recognized and awarded:
The Dutch Yoga Association
The Belgium/Netherlands/ Luxembourg Yoga Association
The International Yoga Federation
The Greek Yoga Association
The teacher
Teacher Oona Giesen (born 1965) started practicing Iyengar Yoga 50 years ago, at the age of 7. She teaches yoga since 1991, so that is 30 years of teaching experience. Oona grew up with yoga thanks to her mother Jeanne Buntinx and she took her first yoga classes with her and Margriet Post when she was about 7 or 8 years old. She was trained by the founders of the Iyengar Yoga movement in the Netherlands. Her first yoga holiday, in 1973 in France, with her parents visiting Agnes Hillen-Mineur was the inspiration for what she is doing for almost 30 years now: organizing yoga holidays. With an emphasis on holidays; no bootcamp, no preaching, no worshipping and no telling you what to do, what to eat, or what to think; we are all adults. No nonsense yoga. Most important for this yoga holiday; you are there to have a good time and to feel good and hopefully even better about yourself.
the yoga - Program 2023
Yoga to reduce stress and to help the immune system. Yoga for every-body, all levels. After this week of yoga hopefully you will have a better understanding of your body, and of your body's possibility's and limitations, and the signals it gives you. The aim of yoga is not to perform the most difficult yoga poses. With that you can easily overdo it and cause injuries and hurt yourself. The aim of yoga is to learn to listen to your body and finding more space, strength and balance, by doing exercises. Being aware of your body during yoga allows you to expand your limits without hurting yourself. Coming to that edge of tension and then softening, rather than pushing, allows us to become more flexible. Making connection between breath, mind and body is calming down and makes you feel better with yourself.
For program 2022 click on the button:
our footprint on Earth
Aliki Panorama Hotel is a member of Clean Blue Paros. We commit to use as little as possible plastic and to try to keep the environment as clean as possible. For example we don't use plastic bottles or plastic straws, but straws from paper and corn. Also we provide a glass bottle in the refrigerator of your room, that you can refill with filtered drinking water in the hallway. So you don't have to use (and carry) plastic bottles of water.
For the same reason we don't provide small bottles with shampoo and showergel. We do provide soap (in paper).
THE ACCOMMODATION:
You will be staying in Aliki Panorama Hotel, situated only 300 meters away from the seafront, beautiful beaches and fishing village Aliki.
The hotel has 13 rooms with 31 single beds, but in some rooms we can make a double bed, if needed. Most rooms have 2 beds, some 3 or 4. Half of the rooms have balcony with sea view, the other half have a view towards some nice small Greek white houses (with the typical Cycladic style architecture), the swimming pool and the mountains
There is a bar open for sunset drinks, a (not so big... 4 x 7 mtr. ) swimming pool with sun terrace and a fully equipped yoga studio.
We provide towels for the bathroom and the swimming pool but not for the beach. So take your own beach towel with you, or buy one in Aliki. You don't need to bring anything with you for the yoga, we provide everything needed for the yoga. Just comfortable clothes to wear.
Oona's Yoga School was chosen by 2 million members of L(uxury)T(ravel)G(uide) to offer the best yoga holiday in Europe for 2018!
The LTG Europe awards identify the best holiday destinations, hotels, spas, golf clubs, travel agencies, lifestyle companies, and much more throughout the continent.