Journey to Ease with Tara Lemerise

It’s common to get caught up in the churning demands of life that require us to take action and exert effort in the doing. A retreat is an opportunity to step outside of your regular routines in order to reflect on the places where effort serves you and where it does not.

Jamaica, with its easy-going energy, is the perfect place for this kind of reset. While there is a beach day included in this retreat schedule, the real magic of Good Hope Villas is in the surrounding forests, green hills and lush valleys. You’ll find peace in the pristine river winding its way through the 2000-acre property and the wonder of the bioluminescent Luminous Lagoon. Unlike other Caribbean beach retreat locations, there is a feeling of being held by the forest and enjoyment to be found in the simple luxury of the beautiful accommodations. Even traveling to Good Hope Villas is easy! One flight and a short car ride will get you to our vacation home for the week.

The yoga practices on this retreat will encourage you to slow down and listen for the calling of your heart. This is a place where you’ll feel the energy of the earth calling you to steadiness in yourself. Surrounded by the flourishing green landscape in the open-air yoga studio, Tara will help you create a sanctuary in yourself as she guides you to explore how your body wants to move or be still. Slow flow, contemplative meditations, and long-held Restorative Yoga postures are the vehicles for self-inquiry and support.

Not all yoga happens on the mat and the schedule for this retreat includes options for a night visit to experience the magic of the bioluminescent Luminous Lagoon, time at the private beach 15 minutes from the retreat center, river tubing, pottery classes with well-known Jamaican potter David Pinto, as well as hiking and horseback riding on the trails. You can also book spa treatments, take naps in your well-appointed room, and relax by the pools on site.

Journey with Tara and a supportive and encouraging community of like-minded folks to find soul-settling ease while you take exquisite care of yourself on this epic yoga vacation. Join us to rest deeply, move freely, and come home to yourself.

Jamaica Retreat

6 nights accommodations
3 meals per day (excluding alcoholic beverages) starting with dinner on the first night and ending with breakfast on the last day
Group Ground Transportation to/from Donald Sangster International Airport (MBJ) to Retreat Center
Karma Yoga Service Project
Daily classes: Hatha Yoga and Restorative Yoga
Complimentary rentals for SUP and/or Kayak
Beach bonfire celebration
River and beach access
Use of yoga room & facilities
Personal retreat time (rest, explore, walk, read, and just be)

Accommodations

Nestled on a 2000-acre historic property in the beautiful Jamaican countryside.

Surrounded by lush hills and valleys, a pristine river running through it, and the sun shining on the majestic landscape, this retreat location calls you to slow down, listen, and let go.

This retreat venue also includes a private section of the beach with a beach house that is 25 minutes from the venue for your ocean getaways during your stay. Here you will have a sense of Total Jamaica – the mountains and the sea. Complete fulfillment.

Whether you are practicing yoga, overlooking the endless mirage of lushness, eating the fresh local cuisine, hiking or horseback riding the trails, or learning pottery while overlooking the river, this Jamaican sanctuary is all about the full experience that can happen while on retreat.

Tara Lemerise, E-RYT 200/E-RYT 500, is a yoga teacher based in the Washington, DC area and is a life-long seeker. What she has wanted and needed has changed over time, including community, freedom, boundaries, healing, compassion, achievement, truth, spiritual connection, creativity, stability, and intellectual discourse. In every case, the tradition of yoga has always offered her whatever she has been seeking.

Tara discovered yoga when she was studying philosophy and religion in college in 1999. Over the past 25 years of yoga study and 19 years of yoga teaching, she has engaged with great love and reverence with many different styles of yoga, including Ashtanga, Iyengar, Anusara, Yin, and Kriya Yoga.

Three things Tara values the most in her own practice and in her teaching are agency, self-trust, and empowerment. Students can feel this encouragement in her teaching and consider her to be a well-traveled guide, not an authoritarian who promises all of the right answers. Tara’s teaching is full of joy and compassion. She is an inclusive and responsive teacher, offering classes with dogma free authenticity in harmony with honor for tradition and inspired by relatable stories rooted in yoga tradition that feel relevant to everyday life.

Testimonials

“Tara is a gifted yoga practitioner and instructor who organized a once a lifetime retreat experience in the Costa Rican rainforest that provided me ample time to practice yoga, relax and enjoy the gorgeous surroundings.” – Mary Lou M.

“My time on Tara’s retreats is always incredible. I returned from our last retreat in Costa Rica with a few new friends, some healing in my heart, magical moments in nature, the courage to move forward with the next step in my life, and amazing memories.” – Carrie D.

“Tara is a master teacher as well as a calm and steady leader. She creates a community of support where every person on her retreats feels valued and included. You will not regret working with Tara.” – Mary B.

The gift of this retreat center is it allows you to do what you feel you want to do. There is space to be quiet or high energy, space to wander in nature or soak in the river or pool. Read a book, stare into space all day, or get up and be so active that you are exhausted by the end of the day.

Some of the possible options include:

Pottery
Painting
Stand-up Paddleboard
Horseback Riding
Kayaking
River and Beach access
Spa Services

*Price of activities are not included in tuition

Please be sure to review Our Policies.
For technical questions or alternative payment options, please contact us.

Getting There

You will be booking your flights for the Donald Sangster International Airport (MBJ). Before booking tickets, please be sure you have received your official confirmation note that the retreat has met its minimums. There will be one group airport shuttle each way based on our flight window guidelines. Be sure your flights align with the provided flight windows if you wish to use the group shuttle. The drive time to the center is approximately 2 hours.

Travel Insurance

We cannot emphasize more the importance of travel insurance. As we all know, especially as travelers, “life happens.” Whether it’s family, work, mother nature, or a change of heart, it is important to be prepared in case you need to unexpectedly change your travel plans. Often for less than $150, you can purchase a travel insurance policy and be protected in the event that you need to make a change or need to be covered financially prior to or during your trip.

We have partnered with two insurance companies: Trawick International and CSA Travel Insurance (available for U.S. Residents only).

Read more about our insurance partners and their policies here. We encourage you to research the insurance company and policy that best meets your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Do you have questions about traveling abroad? After you register, we will provide you with a Participant’s Package with helpful information. Also, be sure to check out our Participant FAQs. If you have other questions, feel free to write to us at info@truenaturetravels.com and let us know how we can help!

Click Here to Register Now!

Shared Accommodations – $3595 USD

Single Accommodations – $4895 USD

A non-refundable $35 Payment Processing Fee will be added to the tuition rate upon registration.

If you select Deposit Payment, depending on when you registered, your remaining balance will be processed with your credit card on file on the dates indicated on your Confirmation Letter.

Registering 6 months or more prior to the retreat date your balance will be broken into 2 payments (6 months prior to retreat + 3 months prior to retreat)

Registering less than 6 months prior to the retreat, payment of the full remaining balance will be processed 3 months prior to the retreat.

Registering less than 2 months prior to the retreat, full payment will be required upon registering.

**Additional payments can be made at any time through your account up to the final auto payment date.

For technical questions or alternative payment options, please contact us.

Cancellation

Initial deposits and the $35 registration fee are non-refundable and non-transferable.
50% of payments are refundable up to 90 days before a retreat excluding the initial deposit and the $35 registration fee.
89 days prior to a retreat, tuition is non-refundable and non-transferable.
Full tuition is refunded* if the trip is canceled due to low enrollment. The $35 registration fee is not refundable.
True Nature Travels is not responsible for any loss incurred due to currency conversion rates.