Hello readers! Breaking into your midterm news cycle for a little announcement: My 2027 Yoga + Writing Retreat schedule is now live. Every year I co-host a handful of yoga and writing retreats with yoga teacher Emily Shapiro. The yoga is totally optional — you are welcome to come and not yoga at all (or not write at all). These retreats bring together intentionally small, extremely interesting groups of people for a week-ish somewhere special, all places I’ve traveled to and care deeply about.
Here’s where we’re going this year:
VIETNAM, April 25 - May 2, 2027
Six days of yoga and writing, beginning in happening Hanoi and then up in stunning Sapa, Vietnam’s northern hill region. My retreat cohost and yoga teacher Emily Shapiro and I just did this retreat in September, intending it to be a one-off… but it was SO GOOD we’re doing it again. We spend two days eating and (coffee) drinking our way through Hanoi before driving up to Sapa, where we swim, hike, read, write, and generally restore. It’s hard to overstate how gorgeous Sapa is — the vistas are so striking they feels a bit like it’s CGI — and the hills are full of birds and flowers, and in the spring will be in full bloom. I was lucky to call Vietnam my home for the last year, and I’m excited to bring a group back to see some of its most spectacular corners.
GREECE, June 26 - July 2, 2027
A week of yoga and writing on the hidden-away Greek island of your dreams? Yes please. Emily and I keep returning to this wild, windswept isle every year because it truly does feel like the Cyclades’ best-kept secret. The retreat is held on the island of Folegandros, where a single road traverses the island, and most beaches are reached via donkey path. The fish is fresh, the wine is crisp, the hikes are hard, and the air is salty — and this is a little slice of Greek island life that hasn’t yet been overrun by influencers and Insta-travelers. If I had my way, I’d spend my entire summer here.
If an African safari is on your life bucket list, then this is the retreat for you. It’s an expansive one: We meet in Nairobi, then fly you out to a private safari, and then over to Kenya’s Swahili coast. I love Kenya so much I’ve moved back after a few years away, and am always thrilled to bring people to my very favorite places in my adopted home. In Nairobi, we visit orphaned baby elephants and sample the city’s excellent food. On safari, we stay in a private camp on a vast conservancy with all of the Big Five and then some (lions, leopards, cheetah, elephants, zebra, giraffe, and on and on oh my), plus gorgeous views of Mount Kenya and diverse bird and plant life. Finally, we fly to Lamu on the coast, staying in a fishing village where there are no cars (only donkeys for transport), where artisans still make wooden dhows by hand, and where your dinner is whatever the local fishermen caught that morning. Lamu is a place unlike anywhere else on earth — you won’t want to leave it, or Kenya, behind.
I hope you can join me somewhere in the world in 2027. Full details and pricing are at the links above. Just reply to this email with any questions, or to sign up!
xx Jill