Panarea Mini Retreat
July 21-24 | Panarea, Italy
Join The Path founder/CEO and expert meditation teacher Dina Kaplan for a fun, relaxing meditation retreat in her all-time favorite place in the world, Panarea. This retreat is focused on cultivated joy, and together in community you will enjoy guided meditations to calm, clear and inspire your mind, dinners under the stars, and the joy of living amidst the sparking Mediterranean Sea in a place that feels — like living in a fairytale.
Includes meditations, breakfasts, dinners, mindful exercises to cultivate joy, & daily activities including a private boat tour with a captain, hiking, snorkeling and more. Guests are responsible for travel, lunches, and lodging. We have negotiated a very special group rate at the hotel where we will be staying, La Piazza.
SCHEDULE
We will be based at the spectacular Basiluzzo Villas overlooking Panarea’s harbor, clear blue waters, and a volcano on a nearby island.
Our days will include guided meditations and positive psychology exercises led by The Path founder Dina Kaplan, guided hikes, a private boat tour with spectacular swimming and snorkeling, mindful (optional) magical swims right from our hotel, nighttime meditations under the stars, and organized meals & optional aperitivos (no alcohol required; Dina will enjoy seltzer!).
Our retreat will begin Sunday evening (July 21) and end Wednesday morning (July 24), but you are welcome to come early or stay late (or never leave).
COMMUNITY
The Path retreats are known for fostering community, and this retreat will nurture a spirit of kindness, friendliness & openness. As you meditate, you become more authentic, more “you,” and with this, it becomes easier to connect with others on a deep level.
In Panarea, we will live with no pretense, only the relaxation of being our true selves, and feeling accepted and supported as we are. Our retreats are renowned for forming life-long friendships, and we expect this Panarea retreat will do the same — we’re excited already!
MEDITATIONS
During this retreat we’ll step through phases of cultivating joy.
Our meditation terrace has views of islands & volcanos nearby!
Day 1 | We’ll start by calming our minds, releasing circling thoughts and beginning to settle into spaciousness and openness. We’ll do this through a series of focusing mindfulness meditations designed to bring us towards stillness.
Day 2 | Next we’ll move towards a state of non-judgement, learning and practicing how to live without judging — ourselves and others. We will train our minds for this through meditation and a powerful positive psychology exercise.
Day 3 | On this day we will cultivate kindness towards ourselves and others, and practice a new positive psychology exercise to release lingering anger, bringing us towards a state of gratitude and loving-friendliness.
Day 4 | On our closing day, our meditations will bring us further towards openness, joy and non-duality, a joyful feeling of connection with others, including friends, loved ones and all living beings.
You will emerge from this retreat feeling calm, centered, relaxed — and inspired to continue living with more ease, joy, & delight.
Join us:
About The Path
The Path teaches meditation for the modern mind. We've taught thousands of people to meditate around the world, including at SXSW, Sundance and at events and companies across the U.S, Asia and Europe. The Path hosts weekly meditations, courses, retreats, social events, a certificate teacher training program and private one-on-one meditation coaching. We help you become more aware of yourself and your impact on others while making you happier, more relaxed, more focused — and better able to make decisions in all areas of your life.
About Dina Kaplan
Dina is a certified meditation teacher and leads meditations around the world at conferences, for large and small groups, brands, corporations and individuals around the world. She has studied and practiced dozens of meditation techniques, including Vipassana, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Vedic (or “mantra”) meditation, loving-kindness or (“metta”) meditation and more.
Before founding The Path, Dina was co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the tech start-up Blip.tv in web video. Before Blip, Dina was an Emmy-award winning television news reporter for local NBC stations. Prior to reporting, Dina worked as an associate producer for MTV News and at the White House as Director of Research for the Office of the White House Counsel. Dina was named one of Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs and Fast Company’s Most Influential Women of Web 2.0. She has a column about meditation for entrepreneurs on Forbes.com and has written articles for the New York Times, today.com, Time Magazine’s Motto, Marie Claire, Medium, Town & Country and more.
Dina has taught classes at Columbia Business School, Columbia Journalism School, NYU’s Stern School of Business and NYU’s ITP program for engineers and designers. She has spoken at SXSW, the World Economic Forum, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, Le Web (Paris), TEDx Athens, DLD (Munich), Cannes Lions, Monaco Media Forum and CeBit.
Getting to Panarea
If you enjoy ferry rides, you can take a direct ferry from Naples to Panarea:
SNAV 2:30pm (5 hours 5 min)
Siremar 8pm (11 hours 35 min)
Dina goes to Panarea each summer and strongly suggests:
1. Fly to Catania - many European cities have direct flights. (If you can’t decide where to fly from, Madrid & Rome have flights to Catania :)). If you are arriving day of, please make sure you land in Catania in time to make the 4:30pm ferry.
2. Bus, taxi, shuttle or helicopter from Catania airport to Milazzo (or helicopter directly to Panarea).
a) Buses leave at the following times: 9:10am, 11:00am, 12:30pm, 3:30pm, 5:00pm, and 7:00pm. The bus costs 15 Euros. Click here for the Giunta bus schedule. The ticket booth is directly outside the airport, on the right, and it’s easy to snag tickets just before. You MUST buy a ticket before boarding. Italians love tickets and won’t sell them on buses, only in advance.
b) Shuttles leave at the following times: 9:10am, 11am, 12:30pm, 3:30pm, 5pm, and 7pm. The company is Alibrando and the price is 25 Euros; click here for more info and to book a shuttle. Look for the Alibrando logo shirt. If you can’t find the shuttle driver at baggage claim, call them at 0909288585 - if your phone doesn’t work just ask anyone at the airport to call for you (people are friendly - most are heading on vacation, and anyone working at the airport will know the Alibrando drivers in bright shirts!).
c) Taxi. There are many private taxi options. A taxi will cost (approximately) 165-188 Euros.
d) You can also take a helicopter directly to Panarea! This is $500 and you can book it here.
Almost there!
3. Ferry to Panarea (yay). You’ll take a Liberty or Siremar ferry. Please purchase the ferry ticket in advance.
Click here to book a ferry. Or go direct to Liberty (which has the most options) here. (17-29 Euros)
Ferries leave Milazzo at the following times: 6:00am, 7:00am, 8:00am, 9:40am, 1:00pm, 2:30pm, 3:45pm, and 4:30pm. The last ferry leaves Milazzo at 4:30pm, so make sure you get to Milazzo in time to make this if you arrive day of. You will only need 10 minutes from your taxi / bus / shuttle arrival to board the ferry, or if you purchased your ticket in advance you’ll only need around 3 minutes. All transportation drop-offs are right next to the ferry terminal.
Note: You can also come one day early and spend the night on Vulcano (It’s lovely, and the last ferry to Vulcano leaves Milazzo at 7:10pm! You’ll then take a very short ferry from Vulcano to Panarea in the morning).
You will then arrive in Panarea, a magical island with no cars - only cobblestone pathways, wonderful restaurants and crystal clear water.
You can also take a train or flight from Rome to Calabria and take a ferry from Reggio Calabria to the nearby island of Lipari and then a very quick ferry from Lipari to Panarea!
The ferries from Reggio Calabria to Panarea are at 8:45am, 12:55pm and 7:10pm and are on Liberty boat lines. You can book the ferry here.
If You’re Flying to Europe
If you’re flying to Europe, we suggest flying to any city with a direct flight to Catania. (Or you can take a direct overnight ferry from Rome).
If you don’t know where to fly, Rome may be easiest because there are a lot of direct flights from Rome to Catania!
If you fly to Rome, you can stay at any hotel of course, but if you’re looking for a recommendation, Dina loves:
Boutique Hotel Campo di Fiori (mention Dina Kaplan and they may offer a good rate!). This is directly in the heart of the old city, in Campo di Fiori (did you guess that?). Best rooftop in Rome (shhhh don’t tell too many people).
Hotel San Anselmo (mention that you are a “friend of St. Stephen’s” (Dina’s high school) and they may offer a good rate. This is in the quieter Aventino area of Rome, right by Orange Park, Dina’s favorite park in the world.
Hotel Villa San Pio (mention that you are a “friend of St. Stephen’s” (Dina’s high school) and they may offer a good rate. This is also in the quieter Aventino area of Rome, right by Orange Park. This will be less expensive than the above hotels but is still lovely.
REFUND POLICY: 100% refund until May 15th. 50% refund until June 1st. No refunds after that (we have a contract with the hotel we must honor).