Ayurvedic Foot Massage: What Is the Traditional Experience Like?
After a day exploring Sri Lanka's temples, beaches or hill-country trails, a traditional foot treatment can be a welcome opportunity to slow down. Ayurvedic Foot Massage is a traditional oil-based practice that focuses on the feet, soles, toes and sometimes the ankles...
Ayurveda Retreat Food: What Do You Eat in Sri Lanka?
Ayurveda Retreat Food in Sri Lanka is often a combination of freshly prepared local dishes, seasonal ingredients and traditional Ayurvedic dietary practices. Instead of elaborate international buffets, many retreats focus on meals made with rice, vegetables, lentils,...
Kizhi Treatment in Sri Lanka: What Happens During the Therapy?
Warm cloth bundles filled with herbs, powders or specially prepared rice are gently applied across the body. This distinctive Ayurvedic practice is known as Kizhi. Kizhi treatment in Sri Lanka is offered at Ayurveda centres and wellness retreats as a form of...
Ayurvedic Steam Therapy: What Should You Expect?
Warm oil treatments may be one of the most recognisable parts of an Ayurveda retreat, but another traditional therapy often follows them: steam. Known as Swedana or Svedana, Ayurvedic steam therapy uses controlled warmth to encourage perspiration. Depending on the...
Abhyanga in Sri Lanka: What Happens During an Ayurvedic Oil Massage?
Warm herbal oil, rhythmic movements and an unhurried treatment environment make Abhyanga one of the most recognisable therapies travellers encounter at Ayurveda retreats. But Abhyanga in Sri Lanka is more than an ordinary massage with oil. In traditional Ayurveda,...
Shirodhara in Sri Lanka: What Happens During the Treatment?
A photograph of Shirodhara is easy to recognise: someone lies quietly while a thin stream of liquid flows from a vessel suspended above the forehead. But what does the experience actually feel like? If you're considering Shirodhara in Sri Lanka, it's useful to...
Ayurvedic Herbs in Sri Lanka: Inside a Traditional Herbal Garden
Walk through a herbal garden in Sri Lanka and Ayurveda suddenly becomes much more tangible. Instead of seeing oils in bottles or dried herbs beside a treatment table, you see living plants: leaves growing beneath tropical sunlight, roots hidden beneath the soil,...
Ayurveda Retreat vs Wellness Retreat: What’s the Difference?
Search for a wellness holiday in Sri Lanka and you'll quickly come across terms such as Ayurveda retreat, wellness retreat, yoga retreat and spa resort. They can sound interchangeable, but the experience can be very different. The biggest difference in an Ayurveda...
What Happens at an Ayurveda Retreat in Sri Lanka?
Booking your first Ayurveda retreat in Sri Lanka can feel very different from booking an ordinary wellness holiday. You may see photographs of herbal oils, peaceful treatment rooms, yoga sessions and tropical gardens. But those images don't necessarily explain what...