How to choose a pilates retreat: seven questions to ask before you pay

“Pilates retreat” now describes everything from a serious week of daily reformer work to a yoga holiday with one mat class on the Tuesday. The photos look the same. The way to tell them apart is to ask boring questions before you pay.

1. Who is teaching, and how many classes?

Ask for the teacher’s name and how many years they have taught pilates specifically. Ask how many pilates classes are in the week — not “sessions”, which can mean a walk. A retreat that is about pilates has a class every day and can tell you who is teaching it.

2. Reformers or mats, and how many people per machine?

If reformers are promised, ask how many there are and how big the classes are. Ten reformers and ten people is a class. Four reformers and sixteen people is a queue.

3. What exactly is included?

Get the list in writing: accommodation, which meals, which transfers, which classes. The word “inclusive” hides more than it reveals. The honest retreats price the extras on their own lines so you can see what you are choosing.

4. Fixed dates or your dates?

Group retreats run on fixed dates with a cohort, which some people love and others cannot make work. Rolling retreats run on your dates and you meet whoever is there. Neither is better; know which you are buying.

5. What happens to the deposit?

Ask when the deposit is taken, when the balance is due, and what is refundable if you cannot come. Hotel rooms booked for you are often non-refundable; a good retreat says so before you pay, not after.

6. What is the room, honestly?

Ask for the name of the property and look it up yourself. If the retreat will not tell you where you are sleeping, ask why.

7. What is the rest of the day?

A class is an hour. A retreat is a week. The best ones are specific about what the other twenty-three hours look like and whether you are free in them. If you want a schedule, choose one with a schedule. If you want the sea, choose one that leaves you alone.

The cost side of this — what a fair nightly rate is made of — has its own article.

Do it somewhere warm, for as long as you like

the Isla retreat is a reformer class every day on Koh Samui, on the dates you choose — from three nights, with your ride to the studio and back included and a room you pick. Nothing is charged until a person has confirmed your room. If you would rather start with one class, the timetable is the place.