Located on top of a hill in the Greek mythical Peloponnese town Sparta, situated next to the ruins of a Byzantine castle called Mystras lies an oasis rich in both Chinese healing philosophies and the traditional Greek practice of the five elements, a magical spa and health retreat which having only been open just over a year offers an holistic approach to wellbeing and health. Euphoria Retreat invited me along for 3 days to experience some mental, physical and emotional harmony away from London life to reconnect with my inner self and nurture my love for some inner peace, something that can easily be pushed to the side when living in a big city.

Day 1:

After a super early flight we land at Kalamata airport and are greeted by our driver who drives us the 45 minutes drive to Euphoria. The first thing that I notice is the beauty of the place, the stylised architecture is breath taking as are the views looking over Sparta town. After a welcome drink we are show to our room which has a magnificent forest view but as we are here for only a short time its straight into the programme which starts off with a 3GL annalist. Euphoria’s nutritionist, Antonia Vasilakou, she took a pin prick of blood to do a test to check your levels of antioxidants in your blood and then tailor makes a daily smoothing or snack around the results which they serve at 12 and 5.30pm everyday.

I’m then whisked off to meet the retreats Medical Director who goes over some questions with me all based on their 5 elements philosophy followed by one of the most incredible tests I’ve ever had done. Its called Bioresonance, now this is a type of therapy used in holistic or complementary medicine. It uses a machine to measure the frequency of energy wavelengths coming from the body. Those measures are then used to diagnose disease. Promoters say it can also cure certain diseases. To use bioresonance, electrodes are placed on the skin and hooked up to a machine that “reads” the energy wavelengths coming from the body. This is process of diagnosis. And my results showed areas I thought I may have a few issues with; my stomach and skin (I suffer from acid reflux and Rosacea). I was pretty blown away by this and it mean that the treatments I had over the next few days would focus on healing these areas.

It was then time to experience lunch. I’m always a bit nervous when I go to healthy retreats as the food can always be a bit of a let-down. However, there was certainly a lot of attention payed to detail from the infused water, which was infused with rosemary and thyme, all good at aiding digestion and is pretty tasty. With each meal you could choose three courses from the a la carte menu plus there is a menu of the day so there is a lot of choice and with little restrictions on what you can have, apart from the obvious - refined sugars, fried food and hardly any salt – I’m sure the diet side of my stay is going to be very pleasant.

At the end of the day I’ve realised that this is no ordinary spa and it goes a whole lot deeper than this, it’s a place of healing and transformation, deeply authentic in its nature and philosophy with their core concept drawing inspiration from a number of sources, East and West with the main focus on the Ancient Greece’s five elements – fire, earth, water, air and aether. This is incorporated into the architecture and design of the place from the indoor swimming pool which has a dome shaped hut in the middle which is 4 feet deep so when you dive under the water you can hear sounds of the ocean and dolphins which is meant to give you a comforting feeling of being in the womb, and let me tell you it did. I’m not a fan of indoor pools but this is like no other. Then there is the spiral staircase in the middle of the spa which takes you to different places throughout the spa whether it be the pool area, which has both an outside pool and inside pool which then leads into a relaxation area where they serve our 12 and 5pm snakes daily.

On the other side are treatments rooms like the salt therapy room, known for healing respiratory problems and relaxing the mind or the Hamman, steam, plunge pool or a sauna that is shaped like a womb. The top floor of the spa is where the daily yoga, meditation, Pilates or circuit sessions take place and then by night you can enjoy a hot tub on your own taking in the breath-taking view of Sparta.

At the end of my first night I was shattered so it was a relaxing dinner and then straight to bed. The silence of the place almost hurt my city girl ears.

Day 2:

My first day here felt pretty full on but today was a lot more chilled and I got to really enjoy some of the amazing facilities on offer as well as enjoy some of the treatments. Now, at the heart of all the treatments at Euphoria lies the five elements so according to your results from the Bioresonance depends on what your treatments will focus on. I enjoyed the 5 element balancing treatment which was basically a relaxing massage which focused on the area I have issues with – in my case a restless mind and too much acid in my stomach.

Circuit training in the studio where daily classes run from Yoga to meditation

Each day I decided to make the most of the complimentary yoga, Pilates, circuit training and meditation classes so I finished the day off with some Qi Gong and another relaxing meal in their Gaia restaurant followed by an early night. However, although I’d been feeling refreshed and relaxed I didn’t actually sleep that well and kept having very light and vivid dreams even though my head felt very clear, it’s almost like my sub conscious was trying to clear itself as well as my conscious.

Day 3:

On our last day at the retreat I had a bit of time to catch up with the owner Marina Efraimoglou to find out a little more about the retreat and why she wanted to open the place, with a back ground in investment banking and feeling burnt out from that as well overcoming cancer in her late 20s she felt like she had survived for a reason and after travelling across the globe discovering different types of yoga, meditation, healing and alternative remedies she felt that maybe the reason she survived was to bring peace and harmony to others through this retreat incorporating the fascinating world of Chinese medicine and the five elements

‘ I was beginning to work in transformational healing by leading workshops and retreats, I visited many healing places and spas around the world and each time I was filled with ideas and inspiration but I also felt like something was missing. Not so much the amenities and treatments, but in the soul of the place. Too often, the process of transformation was linked to sacrifice and denial, key features of Eastern philosophies. I discovered the answer lay in my Greek heritage. ’

It took a decade for her to find the right location which explains why everything that is here is here for a reason, even down to the patterns on the pillows and the colours painted on the walls where they took images of religious icons, pixelated them and then the patterns and colours you could see from the pixelated picture were used around the hotel. Its no wonder there is such a magical energy about the place.

And getting back to my sleep, I had more weird dreams but this time Mick Jagger and David Bowie popped up. Having had a Clear head for busy minds treatment (50 minutes of healing) I think the energies from that and just the energies at Euphoria retreat are very strong. Whether you believe in spiritual healing and natural energies or not you can’t hide from the fact that there is something different about Euphoria as you feel them around the whole place. There really is no escaping them.

Outside on the roof over looking the town of Sparta

I felt sad to leave and felt like I was just at the beginning of my spiritual journey at Euphoria but was also not sure how it would feel to go back home to the chaos and all the stress I’d left behind. One thing I do know is that Euphoria has certainly given me some good tools to tackle these situations and create a little bit more holistic balance in my life. And guess what? It’s all down to me on how stressed I want to be. I can either let it absorb me or I can let it wash over me and disappear into the distance. I think I’ll aim for the latter in future.

I didn’t realise it but the weeks, months and years of daily stress had shut me off creatively and It wasn’t until I got on the plane and started reading a book that all of a sudden I felt like a sponge and something had been unblocked inside of me and I was now open to receive what I wanted to receive.

There are spas and then there are life changing experiences and Euphoria Retreat falls into this. A truly magical place that brings you inner calm, outer beauty and a personal journey of transformation at one of the most idyllic locations on the planet. As they say: your life, your journey and after spending 3 nights here I feel like a new journey is ahead of me.

Words Kylie Olsson

Pictures Erica Bergsmeds

Where: www.euphoriaretreat.com

Cost: Euphoria Discovery 3-night retreat, full board, some treatments included, flights not included 2,490 euros per person.

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