I didn’t need a retreat. I’m healthier and happier than I’ve ever been in my life, in a job I love and a city I adore. But when an email landed in my inbox inviting me to join a seven-day surf retreat in Bali, I did everything I could to make it happen.
Retreats are often seen as an emergency measure when life gets hard, but there’s something next-level transformative about spending a week looking after yourself when you’re already feeling your best. To spend your days floating from yoga class to surf lesson to spa treatment, in a peaceful headspace and a setting designed to restore, was a transcendent blessing – and I’ve vowed to myself that when life does deal me an inevitable blow, I’m heading straight back here to heal.
An introduction to Goddess Retreats
Founded way back in 2003, Goddess Retreats is an award-winning women’s-only oasis offering boutique, individually crafted retreats – seven-day escapes that pair indulgent accommodation with holistic healing. With various retreat frameworks available – from Pilates retreats to slower-paced healing retreats featuring daily sessions with spiritual and somatic healers – the bespoke itineraries combine personal growth with cultural immersion, next-level spa treatments, wholesome (and delicious) food, and a lot of laughter.
“I wanted to create a space where you could do work and have it be meaningful without it being too prescriptive or aggressive,” explains Goddess Retreats founder Chelsea Ross, as we make our way to one of her favourite surf spots one morning.
My first encounter with Chelsea is on the first morning of my retreat – she’s just emerging from the surf, carrying a board that glimmers with holographic rainbows and smiling a warmth that radiates through her deep brown eyes and draws everything into her orbit. One of my fellow Goddesses runs up to hug her, yelling, “Chelsea!!!” I later learn that they’d met earlier in the year on a ski retreat that Chelsea hosted in Japan to celebrate her 55th birthday. If Goddess Retreats could design the perfect poster girl, it would be her.
A world-first retreat style
Chelsea grew up between Canada, Australia and Southeast Asia, spending several years living in Bali as a child. After studying and working in one of the best hotels in Hong Kong, she decided to move back to Bali and fell in love with surfing at the age of 27.
“There were no women out in the line-up back then, and since surfing is an oral tradition, there was no way of learning unless you had someone in your life who was willing to teach you.”
When a friend suggested Chelsea start running surf retreats for women, she turned the idea around in a month – hosting her first retreat from a hotel in Seminyak. Now, she owns and operates two beautiful sanctuaries in Bali (one in Seminyak, one in Ubud) and has helped more than 18,000 women reconnect with themselves through her beautifully designed, super-restorative retreats.
“There are way more intensive retreats out there: intensive yoga retreats and intensive fasting retreats and meditation retreats and vipassanas – and I’ve done all those. What I’ve learned is you don’t need to run away to the Himalayas and sit in a cave and drink herbal tea for a week to have real transformation.”
And she’s right – the ethos of Goddess Retreats is all about abundance, with wellness, peace and transformation being natural byproducts. Spa treatments are unlimited (yep, you’re reading that right), schedules are flexible, and at breakfast time you’ll find turmeric-loaded health shots and creamy pots of bircher alongside loaded smoothie bowls and French toast dripping in maple syrup. In the goodie bag in your room when you arrive, you’ll find a “dream life manifestation planner” that helps you map out what a perfect future looks like to you, alongside a letter explaining that every woman is on her own path, encouraging you to honour exactly what you need in the moment.
Empowerment through joy
“To live the happiest life, you need to truly understand what excites you – the more we’re conscious of that and align ourselves with that, the happier our lives will be. That’s why we designed the bliss days to be totally self-directed, so people can choose exactly the kind of day that lights them up,” Chelsea tells me.
The “bliss day” takes place on day four of the retreat, and guests can choose between eight different activities – from a sound bath in the Pyramids of Chi to a cycling adventure or batik workshop. There’s also the option to spend three hours in the spa, then enjoy a floating lunch in the private pool of your villa – dealer’s choice. I chose a stand-up paddle session and spent my morning splashing around in the ocean, catching beautiful, tiny waves and developing a new skill in the beaming Bali sunshine.
The flexible, empowering ethos of Goddess Retreats becomes apparent long before you arrive. At the airport, I’m met by one of the retreat’s delightful drivers, Wayan, who asks me, “What kind of Goddess are you this week?” Although the brand was born as a surf retreat (the first all-female surf retreat in the world), it’s since evolved into so much more.
Although the space alone would be reason enough to visit the Seminyak sanctuary – a collection of beautiful colonial-style villas framed by banana leaves and bougainvillea – the service is what will draw you back. Every little thing has been thought of: from the carefully curated bowls of petals beneath the massage beds to the smoothies delivered to your daybed after a big day in the surf, and the lavender bedtime tonics left by your bed every evening.
A day in the life on a Surf Goddess Retreat
For the resident Surf Goddesses, a typical day involves a 6.15am yoga session, breakfast by the pool, a two-hour surf lesson, a wholesome lunch, free time for spa treatments, an optional afternoon workshop (cacao ceremony or restorative yoga), then a super-nourishing dinner around a table filled with laughter. The structure is there, but all activities are optional: if you'd rather sleep in then spend your day in the privacy of your villa with lunch delivered to you, just say the word.
We were lucky enough to be blessed with beautiful weather throughout, but the second-to-last day was truly picture-perfect. From Sanur Beach, we took a tiny boat out to the reef and surfed clear, uncrowded waves that seemed to last forever. A family of clouds hung around the foot of the mountain, but otherwise, the sky was completely clear, sunlight sending sparkles dancing across the ocean’s glassy surface.
“For me, I just know this is my dharma – to help as many people as I can find happiness,” Chelsea tells me as we head back to the retreat for lunch, salty and sun-kissed and exhausted. “After a surf like that, you realise that you don’t need much to be happy. The sun, a wave, a good chat – that’s really it.”
Chelsea explains how a yoga mantra – a Sanskrit shloka from the Upanishads – guides her through life: “May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.”
I arrive at Goddess Retreats feeling pretty damn happy, but after a week of surfing and stretching and resting and playing, indulging and connecting, I leave floating on a cloud.
You can browse retreats and book yours over here.
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