There are places in the world that invite us to experience travel differently.
Places where people have gathered for prayer, pilgrimage, ceremony, and reflection for hundreds — sometimes thousands — of years. Places where mountains, rivers, temples, and ancient stones carry stories that long predate our arrival.
At True Nature Travels, we believe retreat is about more than simply getting away. It is an opportunity to slow down, become more present, and experience a destination with greater intention.
Across many of the places where we host retreats, some of the world’s most remarkable sacred sites are right outside our door.
From the mountains of Peru to the holy waters of India, the temples of Bali to the rugged coast of Ireland, here are 10 sacred sites you can experience while traveling with True Nature.
Excursions and activities vary by retreat and may be included, optional, or available as pre- or post-retreat experiences.
Machu Picchu — Sacred Valley, Peru
Few places capture the mystery and majesty of the Andes quite like Machu Picchu.
Perched high in the mountains, the Incan citadel brings together remarkable stonework, dramatic peaks, and a landscape deeply intertwined with the worldview of the civilization that created it.
Many of our Sacred Valley retreats offer the opportunity to incorporate Machu Picchu into the journey, either as part of the retreat experience or as an extension. The experience often begins by traveling through the Sacred Valley and Ollantaytambo before continuing toward Machu Picchu.
For many travelers, it becomes far more than another stop on an itinerary.
There is something about standing among these ancient stones, surrounded by mountains and mist, that naturally calls us into stillness.
The Ganges at Haridwar — North India
For millions of Hindus, the Ganges is not simply a river — it is sacred.
In Haridwar, at the foothills of the Himalayas, pilgrims have gathered for generations to pray, bathe in the river, and participate in the daily Ganga Aarti. As lamps are lit and prayers rise from the riverbanks, visitors have an opportunity to witness a spiritual tradition that remains very much alive.
True Nature’s North India journeys offer the opportunity to move beyond a traditional yoga retreat and explore yoga closer to its cultural and spiritual roots.
Traveling through Rishikesh and Haridwar along the Ganges, retreat becomes part practice, part cultural immersion, and part pilgrimage.
To stand beside the river while bells ring and flames flicker across the water is to experience a sacred place not as something preserved from the past, but as something still woven deeply into everyday life.
Tirta Empul Temple — Bali, Indonesia
Just outside Ubud lies Tirta Empul, one of Bali’s revered water temples.
For Balinese Hindus, the temple’s springs are holy, and worshippers come to participate in melukat, a traditional purification ritual using the sacred water.
The temple remains an active place of worship, making a visit an opportunity to encounter Balinese spirituality with humility and respect.
True Nature retreats in Bali are based in and around the Ubud region, putting guests within reach of the island’s temples, ceremonies, rice terraces, and extraordinary spiritual culture.
Bali offers a beautiful reminder that sacred practice does not have to be separate from ordinary life.
Offerings, prayer, nature, ceremony, and community are woven into the everyday rhythm of the island.
The House of the Virgin Mary & Ephesus — Turkey
Near the ancient city of Ephesus stands a small stone dwelling known as the House of the Virgin Mary.
Christian tradition associates the site with Mary’s final years, and today it remains an important place of pilgrimage.
The wider Ephesus region holds layers upon layers of spiritual history. Long before Christianity arrived, the nearby Temple of Artemis was one of the great sacred centers of the ancient world. Later, Ephesus became an important center of early Christianity.
True Nature retreats in the Ephesus Hills offer an extraordinary opportunity to experience this convergence of history, spirituality, culture, and landscape.
It is a destination that reveals how sacred places can change across civilizations while continuing to draw people searching for meaning.
Panagia Hozoviotissa Monastery — Amorgos, Greece
Built dramatically into the side of a cliff high above the Aegean Sea, Panagia Hozoviotissa Monastery is one of the most unforgettable sights on the Greek island of Amorgos.
Dating back nearly a thousand years, the monastery remains a place of Orthodox Christian devotion and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the patron of Amorgos.
Reaching it requires climbing the mountainside toward a narrow white structure that appears almost suspended between rock and sea.
True Nature hosts retreats directly on Amorgos, giving travelers the chance to pair yoga and meditation with the timeless landscape, villages, monasteries, and culture of the Cyclades.
The climb itself can feel like part of the pilgrimage — a gradual transition from the world below into silence, stone, sky, and sea.
Assisi & the Basilica of St. Francis — Umbria, Italy
Set among the rolling hills of Umbria, Assisi has welcomed pilgrims for centuries.
Best known as the birthplace of St. Francis, the town is home to the Basilica of St. Francis and numerous other Franciscan sacred sites.
The teachings associated with St. Francis — simplicity, peace, compassion, humility, and a profound relationship with the natural world — continue to resonate far beyond Christianity.
True Nature retreats in Umbria unfold among medieval hill towns, olive groves, vineyards, and the slower rhythms of central Italy.
A pilgrimage to Assisi fits beautifully within the intention of retreat: walking slowly, listening deeply, and remembering how little we sometimes need in order to feel full.
Croagh Patrick — County Mayo, Ireland
Sacred sites aren’t always buildings.
Rising above Clew Bay in western Ireland, Croagh Patrick has served as a place of pilgrimage for generations.
Christian tradition holds that St. Patrick fasted on the mountain during the fifth century, and pilgrims continue to climb it today. The landscape itself carries an even longer history, with sacred significance stretching back into Ireland’s pre-Christian past.
Our Ireland retreats take place amid the wilderness of Connemara and South Mayo, surrounded by mountains, rivers, lakes, and the vast landscapes of Ireland’s western coast.
Ireland has long been associated with the idea of “thin places” — places where the boundary between the physical and spiritual worlds somehow seems smaller.
Whether approached as pilgrimage, hike, or contemplative journey, Croagh Patrick offers exactly that kind of encounter.
Santiago Atitlán & Maximón — Lake Atitlán, Guatemala
Lake Atitlán lies within the heartland of the Living Maya, surrounded by volcanoes and communities where Indigenous languages, weaving, ceremony, and spiritual traditions remain alive.
True Nature has been bringing retreat groups to Lake Atitlán for many years, offering travelers an opportunity to experience not only the remarkable beauty of the lake but the living cultures of the communities that surround it.
Cape St. Vincent & the Sacred Promontory — Sagres, Portugal
At the southwestern edge of Portugal, land suddenly gives way to the vast Atlantic Ocean.
The region around Sagres and Cape St. Vincent has been associated with the sacred for more than a millennium.
Ancient writers referred to this dramatic coastline as the Promontorium Sacrum — the Sacred Promontory — and later Christian traditions connected Cape St. Vincent with the martyr whose name it carries.
True Nature hosts retreats along the Algarve Coast and in Sagres, surrounded by dramatic cliffs, secluded beaches, and seemingly endless Atlantic views.
Standing here at sunset, facing what ancient people once experienced as the edge of the known world, it is easy to understand why the landscape has inspired reverence for so long.
Sometimes the sacred is a temple.
Sometimes it is simply the place where the earth ends and the horizon begins.
The Dolmens of Antequera — Andalusia, Spain
Thousands of years before cathedrals or temples rose across Europe, people were already creating sacred spaces within the landscape of southern Spain.
The Dolmens of Antequera, located in Andalusia, are an extraordinary collection of massive stone monuments dating from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.
The site includes the Menga and Viera dolmens and the Tholos of El Romeral — monumental chambers connected to the funerary and ritual practices of prehistoric communities.
What makes Antequera especially fascinating is the relationship between the monuments and the surrounding landscape.
Rather than existing separately from nature, the structures were intentionally connected with prominent mountains and natural landmarks, bringing stone, earth, mountain, and sky together into one ceremonial landscape.
True Nature retreats in Málaga and the Costa del Sol of southern Spain offer travelers an opportunity to experience the beauty, history, culture, and contemplative atmosphere of Andalusia.
Standing inside a chamber constructed from enormous stones more than 5,000 years ago is a powerful reminder that the human impulse toward ceremony, reverence, and connection with something larger than ourselves is very old indeed.
Some sacred places belong to a particular faith.
Others remind us that human beings have been searching for meaning for as long as we have been building places to gather.
Travel as Pilgrimage
A retreat creates a different relationship with travel.
Instead of racing from one attraction to the next, we have the opportunity to slow down.
To practice in the morning.
To walk through an ancient landscape in the afternoon.
To learn from the people who call a place home.
To sit quietly somewhere human beings have been sitting, praying, gathering, and wondering for centuries.
At True Nature Travels, we believe our outer journeys and inner journeys are deeply connected.
Whether you find yourself beside the Ganges, high in the Andes, inside an ancient temple, walking a pilgrimage mountain, or overlooking the Atlantic at the edge of Europe, these places invite one simple practice:
Be here. Pay attention. Listen.
You never know what a sacred place may awaken within you.
Ready to explore? Discover our upcoming True Nature retreats and find the destination calling you next.
