Adopt the holiday pose: Cape Town cashes in on the yoga tourism trend

Hit on one yoga-aligned post and your insta-feed will forever feature yoga retreats offering everything from three-day silent juice cleanses to a week's urban sophistication, all with a healthy dose of downward dog. Yoga retreats are a growing tourist attraction in the Cape, drawing in young and old from around the country as well as Europe and the US.

"It used to be that most of my guests on the retreats were students from my daily Cape Town classes, but that's changing," says Joelle Sleebos, who hosts retreats in and around Cape Town in summer, and in Europe in the northern hemisphere's summer.

Either three- or five-star, depending on the accommodation, her retreats follow the same formula: wake up to two hours of vinyasa practice, brunch, free time, a snack, a late afternoon yin session and supper.

The meals are usually plant based, prepared by a private chef who also hosts nutrition and food workshops.

Most of Joelle's Cape retreats are held an hour or two outside of Cape Town and take place over the weekend. She calls these "connection retreats".

"Guests really have the opportunity to connect with themselves," says Joelle.

"Through stress, work or family commitments, people can disconnect from themselves and how they feel. Our retreats help give them the space to realign and then reconnect in a healthier space."

The week retreats are run in Sardinia and Mallorca and this year, for the first time, in Bali.

Yoga retreats are expensive. For Joelle's retreats, prices start at R5,500 for the weekend. The Sardinia retreat starts at €1,700 (about R27,000). Sailing, massage and the like can be added. But when measured against what a luxury Sardinian holiday would cost, it begins to look very attractive.

Lara Pfleiderer is switching things around — she's offering luxury retreats in Cape Town itself. Starting in April, her retreats will be hosted at Icaria, a beautiful Le Corbusier-like villa in Bantry Bay.

Guests have a week of morning and afternoon yoga, plant-based food with chef Arabella Parkinson of Eat to Thrive and a natural beauty workshop with Lara. The cost starts at €1,400 and the retreat is aimed at Europeans coming to Cape Town for a week or two.

Here, they get the full urban experience — dinner at Fyn, brunch at the Oranjezicht City Market, a day on the beach or a trip to Babylonstoren, while having access to a wellness-reset.

Nicholas Sadlier of Steadfast Africa, a luxury niche travel service, says this is not new. "We've had a lot of inquiries from clients abroad who want to come and enjoy the typical South African offering, be it safari or beach, but with a yoga-specific focus. We're working with teachers to tailor-make retreats."

Amy Attenborough (no relation to the Attenborough brothers) offers Wild Wellness Safaris, connecting nature and asana. Her retreats include game drives, forest bathing and tree meditations. For busy execs from London or New York City, it's a complete soul reset, with additional "wild animal" stories to take home.

According to a report released by the Global Wellness Institute last year, wellness tourism is now worth approximately $639-billion (R9.2-trillion). That's a lot of money.

However, though yoga teachers are often good at helping with breath work and guiding warrior poses, in some instances administration and hosting travellers are not their strong points.

"I was approached by a company called U-Retreat," says Joelle. "They manage all the logistics and administration around hosting a yoga retreat - booking the villa, the chefs, the marketing. It's a very clever business model."

The next step is beyond safari and introspection to even more niche offerings: Re-Unite Yoga Festival in February is a kite-surfing yoga retreat.

In the early '90s, holidays included walking, cycling and cooking tours of Tuscany. Now they're all that, but with the added benefit of balance.