I love travel, I love yoga, so why not doing both?! Truth is: it is quite difficult to practice yoga on the road.

You don’t always have the space, you don’t always have the time, you don’t want to disturb the people around you…you have 1000 excuses but here are some tips that I found great for myself to keep practicing yoga while travelling this last year when I was in Australia! Because it’s not always easy to practice when you have 6 other persons sleeping in your bedroom or no garden to practice outdoor in nature. There are always solutions and here are some!

Practice where you stay

Whether you are in a hotel room, a hostel bedroom or an Air Bnb, you must be able to find a little space to do yoga. You may have to move some furniture, isolate in the bathroom (hoping that nobody will disturb you), in the kitchen, on the terrace, it can literally be just everywhere you got some free squares. If you want to practice alone and you are not alone, it is the hardest because 1) you don’t necessarily want to be disturbed and 2) you don’t necessarily want to be watched. There are some options here: you can either put a little note saying: Don’t disturb or have some wireless headphones, clearly saying: Leave me alone. After if you don’t mind doing it with someone else, you can still say to people around you that you are going to do a class (if you feel good to teach) or look at a yoga video on Youtube at this time, this day, and see if people want to join. That can be a serious motivation to achieve that goal.

Practice outside

Yoga has spread everywhere nowadays and there is no city in the world that doesn’t have a yoga studio (unless you are going in a very isolated place, sorry, your bad). So you can find a nice yoga studio around you (thank you Google) and practice with some fellow yogis. Good thing is with this option: it helps you meet people who love the same thing as you in the area you are spending you holidays (which is quite nice) and why not discover new types of yoga or new teachings. The second option is the one I love most when the sun is high in the sky and the little birds are singing everywhere: going to the park. Look around you the closest park. Have a stroll around, look for a nice little spot where no one is going to disturb you and sit there with your mat, or not! What if someone sees you and wants to join then why not? It will be a fun story to tell and another impromptu new friend that maybe you’ll see later around or another buddy for your regular practice in the park!

Should you travel with all your equipment?

I would say it is not an obligation. There are always ways. If you are in a hotel room, you can put a towel on the floor or ask the reception if they have a yoga mat (these days, most hotels have some and lots of them give the classes themselves too). If you are going to a studio, you can surely rent or borrow one. If you are going to the park, find a nice fluffy spot on the ground. That was about the mat.

About the other equipment like yoga straps or yoga blocks, it is definitely not necessary when you are travelling, even if you are travelling long time. If you absolutely need them, you can find objects to replace them like big books for blocks and a long scarf for straps. But you can also find variations to all the poses you want to do to do it without.

How many yoga pants should I bring during my trip?

I personally noticed during 1 year of travelling that 2 pairs were mooooore than enough. At some point, I had 4 or 5 and I had to give some of them because it was just too much for my backpack. You are not a dirty person but unless you are sweating during your yoga practice like you were in a sauna, you don’t need to wash them at the end of every practice. If you still want to wash them after each practice, you can because you have 2 of them! How great is that?!

And I think that’s it! Tell me if you have more tips or some things to add to this list but I think that the most important think to remind when you are practicing yoga on the road is…having fun! Even if you get disturbed and you don’t like that, don’t take it too seriously and let it ruin your day. If you didn’t practice for one day or two because you were hiking like crazy or else, there is no problem too, you are on holidays!