Kyoto Yoga Tour

I'm entering an era in my life where I am seeking unique and unusual travel experiences.  I still love cycling and hiking trips but now I am open to diversifying my travel adventures.

When Carrie Meyer, a yoga instructor at It's All Yoga Studio, announced that she offers a 10 day tour of Kyoto combining daily yoga practice with tours of the city, the light-bulb in my head lit up.

"Wow!" I said, that sounds really cool and unique.  I mentioned this trip to Peter Saucerman and Susan Twining who attend yoga sessions with me and they thought this would be a fun trip.  They never been to Japan before.

Susan mentioned the trip to her sister, Kris, and a few other friends and before we knew it, Carrie had the required 7 people to sign on which is the minimum number she needed to do the tour.

Historic Kyoto with over 1,200 temples and gardens was fortunately spared from bombing during WWII.  It is an amazingly beautiful city and I consider it to be the Florence of Japan.

Carrie, who lived in Kyoto for 3-4 years back in the '90s, put together a 10 day tour featuring her favorite places.  We stayed in two hotels during the tour - first a western-style hotel and the second, a traditional Japanese ryokan hotel.

We visited some incredible temples, gardens and special places, with each succeeding day exceeding the previous day's experience.  She took us to a wide variety of restaurants which Kyoto has no shortage.  Some were really unique and all were outstanding.

On the two free days we visited Nara, another major historic city, and a bicycle tour of Kyoto on the other.

Each morning, we started with yoga in the Imperial Palace Park.  I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming when laying on the grass in front of the Imperial Palace.  Unbelievable is an understatement.

The tour was well paced, very interesting, the food outstanding, and most of all - FUN!  The camaraderie among the group was great.  The total experience was beyond awesome!

To view the album, click on "Kyoto Yoga Tour" below photo:

From Kyoto Yoga Tour