Posts Tagged ‘getaway’

Give Your Sweetie a Valentine’s Day Gift for the Two of You with a Kripalu Retreat

Here’s a Valentine’s Day gift that’s an easy drive or train ride from New York City

Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in the beautiful Berkshires has a couples-centric gift for Valentine’s Day. Their special R&R Relationships Retreat from February 9-14 offers a schedule of daily workshops designed to strengthen your ties to the people you care about most.  Throughout the week, you’ll learn effective ways to mindfully communicate and engage with loved ones; experience yoga and movement classes focused on how to better listen to your body; explore tools and practices for self-love, self-care, and self-compassion; and connect with nature on guided snowshoeing excursions.

Photo by: Meryl Pearlstein

If the weather cooperates, you can join in on a walking meditation through the forest on the center’s grounds where you’ll learn how to be at peace with yourself and hopefully translate that experience to your significant other. I found it to be an incredibly insightful hike.  Regardless, you’ll take away a healthier outlook on your relationship while enjoying healthful dining and learning healthful habits.

Forest Bathing - Photo By: Meryl Pearlstein

If the timing isn’t right, you can also book a retreat for the two of you to any of Kripalu’s more than 700 programs a year. They’ll also customize a program to meet your needs with yoga, massage, dance, hiking, canoeing (in warmer weather), and sightseeing in the area. Here are a couple of others in February perfect for couples, Partner Yoga for Couples – (February 14-17) or Loving Like You Mean It: Emotional Mindfulness to Transform Relationships – (February 14-17).

Yoga Studio - Photo By: Meryl Pearlstein

Kripalu is one of my favorites, and it’s been around for 40 years catering to yogis like me who enjoy exploring yoga, mindfulness, outdoor activities and having an extensive menu of indulgent spa and wellness treatments at any time of the year.

Cooking Lessons - Photo By: Meryl Pearlstein

The all-vegetarian and vegan food choices are pretty wonderful, too, and there are cooking classes to teach you how to make the recipes on your own. The morning’s silent breakfast is a fascinating opportunity for self-contemplation or couples’ contemplation.

57 Interlaken Rd, Stockbridge, MA 01262, (866) 200-5203

Keep the Summer Vibe with a Hamptons Getaway

You may have missed the summer’s premier foodie events in the Hamptons, Dan’s GrillHampton and Dan’s Taste of Two Forks tasting showcases, but there’s still much to sample as the summer winds down and fall sets in. For many, this is the perfect time for a weekend to the East End of New York’s Long Island.

Starting with Art and the Great Outdoors

Bridge Gardens Photo: Jeff Heatley

The Hamptons have perfected the art of the garden. And while most of the mansion have theirs hidden away behind their unfriendly privets, the Peconic Land Trust has created one that’s open to the public at any time. Bridge Gardens on Mitchell Lane in Bridgehampton is the kind of oasis among the Hamptons scene that will make you rethink your plans, even on a sunny beach day. In this decidedly uncrowded setting of multiple flower and vegetable gardens you might feel that you’re in an English garden, one hidden and exclusively yours. In fact, you might have the gardens entirely to yourself, a rarity for New Yorkers. It’s a beautiful place to Zen out and ignore the Hamptons traffic.

Take Me Indoors, It’s Still Too Hot

The Parrish Art Museum

Museums also offer a respite from the heat, traffic and crowds. The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill is one of the country’s finest, with a collection of art from local artists. The permanent collection is enhanced by frequently featured exhibits. You’ll want to check out the colorful collection of watercolors painted by abstract artist Helen Frankenthaler during her summer in Provincetown is on display through October 27. A café and bookstore are welcoming and creative as well. In Southampton, the Southampton Art Center offers changing exhibits as well as other performing arts programming.

So You Must Be Hungry

Shinnecock Lobster Factory

Dining is one of the pleasures of the Hamptons.  Each town has its local favorites, some with outdoor dining.  For a quick lobster fix, the Shinnecock Lobster Factory in Southampton, Ed’s Lobster Bar in Sag Harbor, and Canal Café in Hampton Bays have the best lobster rolls around.  At each, you can choose to enjoy your sandwich outdoors or indoors.

Tutto Il Giorno

If you like Italian food, you can go family-style at La Parmigiana or the casual Paul’s Italian Restaurant in Southampton, where the heroes are large enough to be shared and pizzas by the slice include interesting versions such as Buffalo chicken. Or choose to go a bit more elegant at Tutto Il Giorno in Sag Harbor or Southampton or at Doppio la Spaggia in Sag Harbor and East Hampton, each serving up crudo, pasta, carpaccio and other Italian favorites with a special farm-fresh twist. Note: sit outside if you’re sensitive to noise. The North Fork has two Italian eateries worth traveling for: Grana in Jamesport is a rustic, inventive trattoria which plates whatever vegetables are freshest of the moment. Chef Marco Pellegrini of Caci has brought his Umbrian savvy to Southhold to a setting on a farmstead. Here, Chef has a kitchen entirely devoted to pasta making. His green basil tagliatelle is as close to Italian perfection as I’ve ever eaten. Wines, if not from Italy, are all from the North Fork and menus proudly list the local purveyors of the proteins and produce.

The Hampton Maid

For breakfast, two standouts are Hampton Bay’s The Hampton Maid, an inn with a restaurant that only serves breakfast; nearby Azao Cafe adds a bit of Latin American spice to the dishes at this homey restaurant. Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor is a popular choice for breakfast and lunch as well with Mexican-inflected dishes. Check their schedule as they serve dinner, too, on select evenings. And there are two new kids on the block for a morning feast. Hamptons Standard in Hampton Bays, is a sleek, inviting coffee bar, shop, restaurant, and outdoor dining area with gluten-free as well as vegan choices and fun distractions like an oversized Connect Four board for the kids. And, Silver Lining Diner, newly re-imagined in white and yellow tones and now open in Southampton, comes from the skilled folks at Bay Kitchen Bar and Restaurant in East Hampton.

Le Charlot

For a restaurant experience that’s more sophisticated, lunch at Sant Ambroeus, Le Charlot or Silver’s in Southampton is casually elegant with Italian, French, and American cuisines respectively. A true splurge and for the best water views, Le Bilboquet in Sag Harbor has cuisine that’s just as wonderful. Or, go the opposite super-casual route, at the new Union Burger Bar, adjacent to Union Cantina, also in Southampton.

T-Bar

Among the newest restaurants in the Hamptons, Calissa in Water Mill, Elaia Estiatorio in Bridgehampton and T-Bar in Southampton will keep you satisfied with their Mediterranean and American/steakhouse flavors, respectively. At New York City’s Hamptons T-Bar, the outdoor garden offers choice seating in a setting so lovely you’ll hope the warm weather lasts into November. Save these for a splurge, as the prices are as high as the quality. Book late for Calissa so you can dine to live music.

Wölffer Estate Vineyard

If you love wine, the Hamptons are New York’s answer to the West Coast. The North Fork has 43 vineyards, many of which offer daily tastings. Wölffer Estate Vineyard and Channing Daughters Winery on the South Fork offer two gorgeous settings where you can tour, taste, or enjoy an open-air yoga class.  Pick up a bottle of Wolffer’s acclaimed “Summer in a Bottle Rosé” at their Wine Stand if you’re short on time or plan to spend the afternoon at their vineyard and enjoy a charcuterie and wine lunch. Their newest chilled red from the finca in Mendoza is a blend of Torrontes and Malbec grapes. Wölffer also has two restaurants, Wölffer Kitchen in Sag Harbor and Amagansett, where you can sample their many varietals as well as enjoy their farm-to-table expertise.

The Maidstone Hotel

Don’t feel like driving? Have a taxi bring you to The Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton. The hotel offers a charming Scandinavian-influenced setting on the town’s historic mall. Here, you can spend the night, drink some fabulous wines and Aquavit, and enjoy the cozy hotel restaurant, all without worrying about joining the car parade on Montauk Highway. And where else but there could you enjoy Swedish meatballs next to a fireplace while in the Hamptons? You can bring your puppy, too, as they even have a doggie dining area.

Maidstone Gardens

Winter Getaway from NY: Ski, Yoga and Culinary Retreat in Vermont

Yoga Ski Vermont GetawayHow rare is it when you find that one program that combines your passions all in one glorious weekend? Amy Leydon, yoga teacher extraordinare from Boston, has put together a ski, yoga, and culinary weekend March 12-15 at Good Commons in Plymouth, Vermont. For those of you who know me, I’m a committed yogini, who loves to travel and eat, and has spent quite a lot of time in Vermont, working with hotels, enjoying family retreats, and visiting my son at the University of Vermont.  Does this package have my name on it or what? Although I’m not a skiier, the retreat is close to Killington and Okemo where cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, and other winter activities (like shopping in Woodstock!) and spas (again, Woodstock!) are offered.

Amy schedules a number of retreats over the course of the year, with the next one a warm-weather locale, Martha’s Vineyard in June.  I haven’t met Amy yet, but her acclaim as “Best Yoga Teacher in Boston” by Boston Magazine tells me that the six classes I’ll experience this weekend will all be fabulous.  And I hear that she plays great music, too. I wonder if there’s a piano in the house.

For more information, http://amyleydonyoga.com/yoga-ski-and-culinary-weekend-2015/

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