There’s something special about leaving your busy life behind and going to a peaceful place in California to stretch, breathe, and simply slow down. Yoga and meditation retreats here aren’t just relaxing getaways; they originate from a rich history of seekers who look for healing, self-discovery, and lasting inner change.
Yoga Meditation Retreat California
The idea of going on a retreat began in California around the 1950s and 60s, when spiritual teachers from India brought their wisdom to the West. One of the first and most well-known yoga gurus was Paramahansa Yogananda, who started the Self-Realization Fellowship in 1920. He built peaceful retreat centers where people could learn yoga, meditate, and connect with their true selves.
Later, in 1962, the Esalen Institute in Big Sur added a new twist by bringing together yoga, meditation, personal growth, and creative healing in one powerful space. These early retreats weren’t about luxury only; they were also about changing how we live, think, and feel.
Today, that same spirit lives on! From the forests and beaches to the quiet desert hills, yoga and meditation retreats across California still offer a chance to be away from the noise, reconnect with yourself, and find a little more peace.
Let’s check out the yoga and meditation retreat centers of California –
Sagrada Wellness
About –
Sagrada Wellness was started in 2006 by a couple named Scott Currie, an architect who loves building peaceful places. The dream was to create a quiet and relaxing space where people could take a break from their busy lives.
This retreat center is on a hill surrounded by trees and open skies in Central California, where they host many yoga and meditation retreats. The retreats are for people to enjoy healthy food, calming nature, and simple living. Their goal is to help guests feel rested, clear, and more connected to themselves.
Retreat Offerings –
- Savory Yoga Retreat – This is a 3-day weekend getaway mixing morning yoga, candlelight restorative sessions, and wholesome farm‑to‑table meals in their architect-designed retreat home.
- Living Inspired Retreat – It’s a 5-day experience (4 nights) focused on reflection, movement, meditation, nourishment, and vision-setting through pranayama, asana, nutrition workshops, cooking lessons, and silent days.
- Calm, Resilient & Wild Retreat – This is a 3-day retreat led by Dr. Alice Kerby, using somatic practices to calm the nervous system, which includes gentle movement, guided practices, and creative exercises.
- Qi Gong & Hiking Retreat – It’s a 4-day journey into energy cultivation with daily Qi Gong, forest hikes, herbal tea ceremonies, and vegetarian meals.
- Thanksgiving Yoga Retreat – This is an annual event focused on gratitude and renewal during the Thanksgiving holiday season.
- New Year’s Yoga & Live Music Retreat – It’s a yearly celebration that combines yoga, meditation, hiking, and live music to welcome the new year in a peaceful environment.
- Weekend Warrior Yoga Retreat – This is a spirited weekend made for those who want a more active retreat, including yoga, movement, and outdoor time.
Website – https://www.sagradawellness.com/
Ratna Ling
About –
Ratna Ling Retreat Center was started by Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, a Tibetan teacher who brought ancient Buddhist wisdom to the U.S. His dream was to build a peaceful place where people could take some time away from their busy lives and focus on healing, learning, and quiet reflection.
Yoga Meditation Retreat Northern California was designed as more than just a retreat centre. It’s a living community where meditation, yoga, and simple living go hand in hand. Rinpoche wanted a space where spiritual teachings weren’t just studied, but also lived.
Ratna Ling offers retreats and workshops that mix Buddhist wisdom with modern wellness practices. The guests enjoy yoga, meditation, beautiful nature, healthy vegetarian meals, and a calm space to reset and grow. Everything is guided by values like kindness, mindfulness, and care for the earth!
Retreat Offerings –
- Path & Purpose (5‑Day Yoga Intensive) – It’s an in-depth daily yoga practice that aims to align purpose, body, and mind.
- Sacred Connection Retreat – Nurturing Mind, Body & Soul – This is a weekend retreat created to improve your spiritual and physical awareness.
- Restoring Balance with Steadiness & Ease – It focuses on finding inner equilibrium through yoga and meditation.
- Ease & Effort: Finding the Balance – This retreat involves tension release and relaxation practices.
- The Radiance Retreat: A Weekend of Vitality – This one includes yoga sessions crafted to energize and uplift your spirit.
- Cultivating Patience – This retreat is guided by Khenpo Kunga Dakpa from India, who teaches about patience through meditation.
- Appreciating Beauty: Meditation in Nature – It’s a retreat focused on mindfulness and natural awareness.
- Joy & Appreciation – Winter Meditation – This is a meditative holiday gift created to build gratitude.
- Regenerate the Earth – It’s a nature and service-focused gathering focusing on earth-centered practices.
- Women’s Self-Care Retreat – It’s designed to develop self-compassion and community among women.
Website – https://ratnaling.org/
Ananda Meditation Retreat
About –
Ananda Meditation Retreat was established in 1968 by Swami Kriyananda, a dedicated student of the well-known spiritual teacher Paramhansa Yogananda. When Swami Kriyananda first walked this land, he deeply felt the blessings of his guru and knew this was where he felt God and could start the Ananda Community.
He felt a special peace in the hills near Nevada City, California, and believed it was the perfect place to help people slow down, reflect, and connect with their selves through meditation and yoga retreats in Northern California.
The vision of this place is to offer a quiet and natural space where anyone can learn meditation, practice yoga, and live more simply and spiritually. It’s surrounded by forests, gardens, walking trails, and ponds.
Retreat Offerings –
- Personal Retreats & Seclusions – These are self-directed stays on your chosen schedule where you can enjoy silence, meditate, hike, journal, and re-find inner clarity.
- Karma Yoga Program – It’s a low-cost stay in exchange for 20–30 hours of weekly joyful volunteer work, which is ideal for those who wish to serve while practicing in this spiritual community.
- Supported Silent Retreats – These are multi-day silent retreats with guidance from experienced leaders conducted in a peaceful forest and garden setting.
- Meditation & Prayer: Keys to a Successful Life – This is a weekend retreat focused on mixing meditation and heartfelt prayer for awareness and inner clarity.
- Women’s Retreat – It’s a weekend retreat with Hatha yoga, meditation, nurturing meals, and creative workshops developed for rest, renewal, and community.
- Revitalize Your Consciousness (Men’s Retreat) – This focused retreat offers yoga, meditation techniques, affirmations, and guided practices to restore energy and mental clarity.
- Special 10-Day Retreat (Young Adults) – It’s a fall retreat customized for college-aged participants for an intense life experience in community along with spiritual leaders.
Website – https://meditationretreat.org/
Ojas Retreat Center
About –
Ojas Retreat Center is a quiet place made for rest, healing, and new beginnings. Its doors were opened in 2021 by Gabrielle Kali Om, a yoga teacher with over 20 years of experience.
Gabrielle’s dream grew from a deep spiritual feeling and the guidance of her teacher, Sri Dharma Mittra. She spent ten years bringing this dream to life. The name “Ojas” means strength and energy in Sanskrit, just like the fresh energy you find when you visit a retreat.
It is surrounded by nature’s beauty and trails for hiking and biking, a perfect spot to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with yourself. This yoga meditation retreat Southern California welcomes everyone from yoga lovers to groups who wish for inner peace and healing, offering a calm space to grow and feel renewed.
Retreat Offerings –
- Dharma Yoga Retreat – It’s a 5 days of yoga, meditation, vegan cooking, community, and nature activities experience led by expert teachers.
- Trauma-Informed Retreat – This is a gentle weekend retreat with flow and yin yoga, meditation, and sound healing for healing and relaxation.
- Tantra for Women – It’s a 4-day retreat focused on self-discovery, healing, and reconnecting with your body and feminine parts.
- Elemental Wisdom Retreat – You can experience nature’s elements through storytelling, rituals, drumming, and vegetarian meals in 3 days of this retreat.
- Womb Massage Training – It’s a 6-day course teaching sacred massage techniques to balance the body and mind.
- Grof Breathwork Retreat – This is a 4 days of retreat with guided breathwork sessions to support healing and self-awareness.
Website – https://www.ojasretreatcenter.com/
Big Bear Retreat Center
About –
The Big Bear Retreat Center is located in the forests of Big Bear, California. This retreat center was started with a simple idea to create a welcoming space for healing and mindfulness. In 2017, during a silent retreat, Bill Resnick, a psychiatrist and mindfulness teacher, met Valerie Cusson and Robb De Forest. The three connected over a shared dream of building a retreat center rooted in nature and inclusion.
In 2018, they found the perfect spot for the retreat center with 100 acres at 7,000 feet, and that’s how the center was born. Their mission is to serve not just spiritual seekers, but also BIPOC communities, LGBTQIA+ folks, veterans, first responders, and teens. The center offers silent meditation retreats and programs in both English and Spanish for everyone to slow down and feel safe within themselves.
Retreat Offerings –
- Awakening Mindfulness and Compassion – It’s a 6-day silent retreat with sitting/walking meditation, talks, movement practices in a hybrid format, available (in person + online).
- Coming Home to Our Senses – This is a 5-day silent insight meditation with guidance, movement, in hybrid option.
- Simplicity and Stillness: Cultivating the 5 Spiritual Strengths – It’s a 7-day silent insight meditation, which is conducted in a hybrid format.
- Dharma Dharma: The Unfolding of Nature – It’s a 5-day meditation retreat in the Thai forest tradition, and includes camping options as well.
- The Sacred Path of Connection & Belonging – This is a 5-day women’s nature retreat for female-identified adults, including LGBTQIA+ people.
- LGBTQIA+ Retreat: Belonging and Thriving – It’s a 6-day retreat for developing self-compassion, mindfulness, movement, and music.
Website – https://bigbearretreatcenter.org/
Sivananda Yoga Farm
About –
The Sivananda Yoga Farm is hidden in the peaceful Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California. It’s been a special place for yoga lovers and seekers since 1971. It was established by Swami Vishnudevananda, a devoted student of the famous yogi Swami Sivananda.
Swami Vishnudevananda came to the West in 1957 with a simple but powerful message from his teacher – “People are waiting.” This inspired him to share yoga and meditation globally. The ashram was created as a calm and natural home where people could take a break from their busy daily life, practice meditation, yoga, and grow from the inside.
Right now it is led by Swami Sitaramananda, a close student of Vishnudevananda, who nurtures a lively community here focused on simple living and mindful thinking.
Retreat Offerings –
- Yoga Vacation – You can enjoy twice-daily yoga classes with guided meditation and chanting sessions, which are complementary with healthy organic vegetarian meals.
- Self Healing Retreats – These retreats are a time to relax and restore yourself with daily yoga and meditation, engaging in selfless service, and enjoying peaceful nature spots like the pond and labyrinth to support your personal journey.
- Stress Relief Courses – You can participate in workshops that teach you relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, and yoga postures to reduce stress and bring a sense of calm and balance into your life.
- Family Yoga Camp – It’s a wonderful opportunity for families to bond through kid-friendly yoga classes, meditation, outdoor games, nature hikes, creative arts, and fun group activities that bring everyone closer.
- Seva Study Program – These are study programs of 1-3 months in the yogic lifestyle by living at the ashram, joining daily yoga and meditation classes, and dedicating time to selfless service.
Website – https://sivanandayogafarm.org/
Esalen
About –
The Esalen Institute was started in 1962 on the cliffs of Big Sur where the mountains meet the ocean. It was founded by two friends, Michael Murphy and Richard Price, who believed that life had more to offer than what we see on the surface. They wanted to create a place where people could grow physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
They took inspiration from both Western psychology and Eastern wisdom, mixed ideas from great thinkers like Aldous Huxley and Alan Watts. With natural hot springs flowing nearby and open skies above, Esalen became a comfortable space for people to study yoga, meditation, self-awareness, creativity, and healing.
What started as a bold experiment in human potential became a world-famous retreat center. They offer workshops and retreats that help people slow down, go inward, and reconnect with themselves, others, and nature.
Retreat Offerings –
- Personal Growth & Healing Workshops – These retreats are made for self-exploration, creativity, and growth through yoga, breathwork, meditation, creative expression, and nature-soaking.
- Open Classes (included with stay/workshop) – These are daily drop-in open classes for all guests, including subject topics like “A Brief History of Esalen”, “Bathing Rituals of Self-Renewal”, “Body Language”, yoga/somatic movement, and more.
- Esalen Massage – It’s a signature mix developed in the 1960s and offered to workshop participants and day-pass guests.
- Esalen’s first online retreat – “Building Bridges of Belonging: Healing from Racism and Social Transformation” was focused on mindfulness, storytelling, and reflection for racial justice issues.
Website – https://www.esalen.org/
Bottom Line
The Golden State isn’t just a destination—it’s also a place of being when it comes to yoga and meditation retreats California. In case, you’re meditating by the cliffs of Big Sur, practicing sun salutations under desert skies, or sitting in stillness among redwood trees, each retreat here will offer you renewal with intention.
And, if you’ve been longing for more than a weekend escape, crave stillness, depth, and a space to come home to yourself, then California yoga meditation retreats are calling! Not with noise, but with a quiet invitation to upcoming retreats.
