SUPPLE SILVER HOLIDAY

SOUTHERN BOHEMIA, LIPNO LAKE

CZECH REPUBLIC

16-23 June 2023

(alternative date 23-30 June 2023, see below)

This is our VERY FIRST Supple Silver holiday, and I’m very excited to be able to invite you this year and that we are able to travel again! We had to cancel our trip in 2020 due to Covid, and I haven’t dared to try planning anything again until now, so let’s hope nothing will stop us this year!

I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching the over 60s — they are a fabulous, resilient, friendly and warm group, and they deserve their own holiday, if only to deepen the friendships that have been sown during class time and seasonal parties. The programme will be slightly less physically demanding than my usual yoga holidays (a bit like my Supple Silver classes, wink wink! 🙂 ), but you will still get plenty of exercise — it will be an active week! You are of course always free to choose what you do and do not want to do.

In spite of its popularity among continental Europeans, southern Bohemia, and the Czech Republic as a whole (perhaps with the exception of Prague) remain a bit of an unexplored territory for the British. This will be our fourth BraveBodies holiday in this fabulous region, but this time in a brand-new location, a four-star resort right by the Lipno lake. The area is getting more developed and more interesting by the year while offering access to stunning nature around, and I thought it would make the perfect place for a wholesome holiday experience. I am confident that you will fall in love with Lipno, and with Southern Bohemia, at first sight!

Wait, why is it called a holiday? Aren’t you running a retreat?

Technically, a retreat is a place you go to “hide” to practice, practice and practice some more. The main focus of retreats is improving your skills and deepening your knowledge of a particular discipline. You don’t usually leave the residence during this time. Many retreats offer 4 or more hours of exercise per day, morning and evening, with time to relax in between, and not too much more.

I, too, want you to improve your practice, self awareness and become stronger and fitter, but I also want you to have a lot of fun! Especially considering you will have travelled a considerable distance and there is so much to see and do here. I don’t really want you to retreat, I want you to have a great time! Make new friends, drink some great beer, eat something a bit naughty and walk it off among pines and mossy boulders… just make the most of it. Moreover, if you normally only do an hour of structured exercise per week (which tends to be the case for many), putting your body through four or six hours a day is a bit of a shock to the system. Two hours is plenty, and that’s what we will do. A good workout in the mornings, followed by thirty or forty minutes of breathing work, meditation or other calming activity… and then, off we go! A holiday it is.

Tell me more about the exercise.

Two hours give us some time to spend on things we couldn’t fit into a typical class. We will learn more about anatomy, learn a bit more yoga in greater detail, improve our knowledge of Pilates and brush up on principles of correct movement and alignment. There will be some partner work, too. We will play around more! This year I will also spend time teaching hypopressives, a breathing practice with roots in yoga which aims to restore function to the pelvic floor and the abdominal wall. It is certainly a great skill to acquire and a very beneficial exercise to do on a daily basis – it has the potential to sort out not only your pelvic floor, but also your posture, through vigorous work with the diaphragm. I look forward to sharing this simple and effective technique with you. It is doubly useful for the “silvers” — pelvic floor issues begin to get rather pesky as a lifetime of stressing it out in various ways takes its toll! We will work on turning back the clock a bit.

So, what else will we do?

At Lipno, we are truly spoilt for choice. Apart from a swimming costume (hopefully the weather will be warm enough already), pack some sturdy boots and trainers as we will be walking and hiking. There are hundreds of trails around the lake, castles to visit nearby, and lots of water-related attractions. For those of you who like to cycle, there are many brand-new cycling paths, too. I tested them last summer and it was a fantastic experience — two hours on the bike just flew by. The terrain is not too hilly around Frymburk, so you won’t have to get off your bike too many times! But it all depends on what you will feel like doing, so nothing is set in stone.

We will of course also do a day trip to Český Krumlov, the second most popular destination after Prague — for a good reason! It’s a beautifully preserved medieval town governed by a large castle, with cobbled streets and countless taverns and restaurants, perfect for a chilled day of enjoying Bohemia’s best. There will also be an option to do rafting down the Vltava river — this has been, for many, a highlight of the whole stay, so something not to be missed!

I’m not sure I want to do so much running around, do I have other options?

You don’t have to take part in anything you don’t want to do, and if you feel you just want to put your feet up and chill out at the resort or stroll into Frymburk town for a beer or a piece of cake, you are completely free to do that. I always plan a full timetable for everyone to help you get the most out of your stay, so I hope you will join in on everything, but I’m not going to micromanage your time. No offence taken if you make other plans! We will have a day off, too. I understand that you may not feel energetic every single day — just don’t miss too much!

Where are we going to stay?

Our resort is called Lakeside Village which is right by the lake and has great access to it. We will stay in a combination of two houses (8 people and 5 people) and potentially also their apartments (depending on numbers). Each type of accommodation has wi-fi, TV. a fully equipped kitchen, a dishwasher, and the houses also have a wood-burner should we want to warm up in the evenings.

In the main building, there is a also private spa with a hot tub, a Finnish sauna and a tepidarium which we can book for a reasonable price.

Please visit their website for photos and more information!

What will a typical day look like?

The timetable will look something like this:

7:30 am — 8:00am breakfast

9:00-10:30am — yoga, Pilates, or a combination of both, and/or a bit of cardio

10:30-11:00am — hypopressives, meditation

11:30am-12:30pm — brunch/lunch

12:30 – 2:00pm — siesta time

2:00pm — a trip somewhere amazing! If going further afield, we will leave earlier.

7:00-8:00 pm — return

9:00-10:00pm — social time, if we still have energy (games, TED talks, films etc).

10pm — bedtime

This is just to give you a rough idea, we don’t have to be always this rigid. Some changes may be necessary depending on the weather, but the summer in the Czech Republic is usually reliably warm and sunny, so fingers crossed and we’ll have sunshine the whole week.

My partner doesn’t do yoga or Pilates, can I still bring him/her?

Yes! They are welcome to spend the morning as they please, and will still have plenty to do with us for the rest of the day. If they are fans of water sports (or beer :)), even better! You may still want to secretly pack some stretchy clothes and challenge them to have a go at least once! They may find they are missing out.

So how many meals a day are we having?

This time, it will be a light breakfast, brunch and snacks. During my previous holidays, I had always also organised dinner, but that tied us to our hotel too much and we found it a bit restricting. There are so many places to eat in the area that it would be a pity not to take advantage of the local cuisine. We will also be out and about and may choose to stay away past dinner time. That said, there is also the option to dine at the resort, too, so there is plenty of flexibility to accommodate us all.

I am a vegetarian, will I have veggie options?

Both vegetarians and meat eaters will be catered for. If you are vegan or have any other dietary restrictions or food allergies, please let me know in advance.

And how do I get there?

There is a one-hour time zone difference (CZ is ahead) so keep this in mind when planning your journey. As I write this (13 Feb 2023), the most sensible travel option is flying with EasyJet to Prague from Luton. This is currently very affordable (about £110 round trip). The hours are also sociable, with the flight arriving in Prague at 16:30. The returning flight arrives in Luton at 18:00 so again, an ok time to get home, and a comfortable time to fly out of Prague. In the past, a shuttle was organised for everyone going to the airport here in the UK, and it worked out really well. Especially with Luton being harder to get to by train, it’s a good idea to use the shuttle — it will save everyone time and money.

There will be a shuttle arranged to collect everyone from Prague airport coming on this flight. It is a roughly 3-hour drive to get from Prague airport to Lipno, so you will still be able to have your dinner upon arrival.

There are also flights from Gatwick but the arrival time is much later (9:30pm), so it’s not nearly as convenient. There is also the option to fly to Salzburg or to Vienna, but if you do, you will have to arrange your own transport to the resort. Some of you may choose to travel sooner to spend a few days in Prague, and make your way to the resort on your own. If that’s the case, let me know and I will help you find the best connection. There is a good website for figuring out how to get around the country by public transport, unfortunately only in Czech… most of it is self-explanatory but let me know if you need help.

So, how much do I need to save up?

Early bird: £760 double room, £1,020 single room
if booked by 15 March 2020 (a deposit will count, too)

Late bird: £820 double room, £1,080 single room

A non-refundable deposit of £300 must be paid at the latest by 31 April 2020, with the rest payable no later than 1 June 2023. I wouldn’t advise to wait until then though, last time the retreat sold out within a month. If you are thinking of coming and need some more time to decide, at least get in touch so that I have you on my list.

IMPORTANT: I am running another holiday at this venue back-to-back for my yoga and Pilates groups, on 23-30 June. Should there not be enough participants in the Supple SIlver group to run this week, you are most welcome to join the second group. All exercises will be adapted to suit you.

What is included:

Shuttle from and to Prague Airport (cca 3 hours)
4* accommodation for 7 nights
Breakfast, lunch, snacks and water during the day
Exercise classes, hypopressive workshop
Rafting trip

I would also like to add that you can approach me with any personal musculo-skeletal issues or queries, or if you want to improve your technique in anything that we do, and I will give you some extra attention in our free time (within reason) to help you as best as I can.

And what is not included :

Local transport — but buses and trains are very inexpensive
Flights
Dinners
Local activities and sight-seeing costs

How much extra money will I need?

As of 16 February 2023, the exchange rate is 1 GBP to 26.7 CZK. You can check the current rate at www.xe.com.

FOOD

If you budget £15 per day for your dinner (with a drink), that should be just fine.

There are many good restaurants in Frymburk and around Lipno in general. Lots of nice traditional food as well. The Czech cuisine is a bit like the German one: lots of pork, beef, duck but here at the Lipno lake also local fish, potatoes of all kinds, cabbage and sauerkraut, dumplings and sauces, and lots of desserts with poppy seeds, curd cheese etc. A bit on the heavy side but very tasty. If you are veggie, all restaurants should have decent options for you. Czechs are well known for picking wild mushrooms, and Southern Bohemia has lots of them in the summer, so local fungi will definitely be on the menu in many places as well! Also, our beer is excellent and cheaper than water!

TRAVEL

Travelling by public transport is pleasantly cheap. For example, a trip by bus from Frymburk to Krumlov (40 mins) costs around 38 crowns, about £1.50. Trains are similarly inexpensive. Budget about £30 for local transport for the week, maximum. You may want to budget a bit more if you want to use taxis to get around locally on your own.

If you are thinking of spending a few days in Prague before or after our holiday, you may want to make arrangements to get to Prague by yourself. There is a good coach company which runs coach trips between Český Krumlov and Prague for less than £10 (for a three-hour journey), and you get refreshments, newspapers and a selection of movies on board! I love it. You can look them up here: https://www.www.regiojet.cz

ACTIVITIES

Image result for cyklistika lipno

We may want to hire bicycles on some days, and there are also options to rent kayaks, pedalos etc., all pretty affordable. You may want to bring some money for souvenirs and gallery/castle visits in Český Krumlov and Rožmberk, and when out and about.

Here are some slideshows to show you what else is waiting for you — no subtitles unfortunately but you can enjoy the scenery: