Xinalani Retreat

Xinalani means "seeds" in Nahuatl, and the name is the whole brief. When the project started in 2008, the vision was a tropical haven for individual and group yoga retreats, teacher trainings and mind-body workshops. The people who run it describe themselves as hosts creating havens for conscious travelers. They say they have refined the place over the years with feedback from more than 200 yoga teachers.

The setting does much of the work. Xinalani sits among ten acres of vegetation on a private beach 250 yards wide, about 12 miles south of Puerto Vallarta's airport. There is no road in. Guests arrive by boat, from the Boca de Tomatlán pier or with a transfer from the airport. The property was built with organic local materials and finds alternatives to air conditioning. It shares its ground with iguanas, parrots, macaws and woodpeckers, and humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins pass offshore.

The practice spaces include two palm-thatched studios with bamboo floors set in the jungle above the ocean, an aerial yoga studio, a hot yoga studio and a sand terrace facing the beach. Week-long retreats are led by visiting teachers. Anna Lindstrom's Free Your Body Free Your Mind works through fascia-focused vinyasa, myofascial release, yoga nidra and sound baths. Alchemy Unfolding, with Adi Amar, runs October 24 to 31, 2026, limited to 25 people. The Reset keeps its afternoons open. The wider calendar ranges from Kundalini and Ayurveda to cacao ceremony and Temazcal.

Meals are healthy, Mexican and, in the kitchen's own word, gourmet, with vegan and gluten-free needs accommodated. Guests stay in open-air or air-conditioned rooms, eco-chic suites and beach casitas with plunge pools, or in dorms. Day passes let visitors come for the beach, pool and a morning yoga class. The staff are hired mostly from nearby towns, with training and scholarships.