Retreats & day escapes in Northern Suburbs

A day spa in the gardens of a Gooseberry Hill property that began life in the early 1900s as Kalamunda's first girls' high school. Five treatment rooms, three of them for couples, with massage, facials and Omnilux light therapy, hands and feet, eye, head and scalp treatments, crystal body treatments, prenatal treatments, waxing and tinting, and day packages built from them. Tuesday to Saturday, 9.30am to 5.30pm.

A rammed-earth retreat house in the timber town of Dwellingup, purpose-built in 2012 for small groups of up to eighteen: eight ensuite bedrooms, a large common room and kitchen, and the Bibbulmun Track at the boundary, under a kilometre from town. Yoga studios, art teachers and craft groups book the whole house for weekend retreats — myoga's Iyengar weekends and Art Outdoors' painting retreats among them — and self-cater or bring in local caterers.

Frieda runs yin and vinyasa classes in Claremont and Cottesloe and takes the practice into the bush: yoga hikes — 'yikes' — such as a four-kilometre walk at Bells Rapids followed by a slow-flow class and afternoon tea, and a hike to the Golden View lookout above Mundaring Weir, forty-five minutes east of the city. Longer retreats run in Balingup and overseas. Private one-to-one classes and corporate yoga and pilates round out the calendar.

Mandy Francisty runs day retreats around Perth and weekend retreats further afield — the next in Pemberton — built from slow-flow and restorative yoga, yoga nidra, meditation, breathwork, journaling and a vegan, gluten-free lunch, each day on a different theme. Based in Two Rocks, where there is venue hire, a sauna and ice bath and weekly yoga, she is a yoga and pilates teacher, breathwork practitioner, NLP and EFT therapist and personal trainer, and takes private bookings for hens, birthdays and teams.

Guided hikes from two hours to five days, most of them in the Perth Hills, Yanchep and on Rottnest, with longer trips to Denmark, Karijini and Esperance. The wellness-leaning walks — 'Wild & Well Perth', 'Zen in the Cave' — pair the trail with time to sit, and more than half of guests come alone. Day hikes are priced from free to $349, multi-day trips from $1,590; cancellation is free with 48 hours' notice, and one per cent of earnings goes to mental-health and land-restoration causes.

A seven-bedroom retreat house for up to twenty guests on five and a half acres of orchard near the Moore River estuary, fifty minutes north of the city. Groups take the whole property — two lounges, meditation spaces, a games room, fireplace — with an eight-metre air-conditioned yurt for yoga, meditation, breathwork and sound. Facilitators hire it for weekend retreats and the house hosts its own calendar of events; the downstairs layout is step-free.

The Centre for Attitudinal Healing's bush retreat an hour south-east of Perth, used by community groups, families and teams. Accommodation runs from a cottage to shared quarters for 23 or 46, with a hall for meetings and meditation, a fully equipped kitchen, an outdoor meeting grove, a winter bonfire area and walking trails through the property. Published rates: cottage $500 a night, the 23-bed wing $1,600, the 46-bed wing $3,000, and hall hire $500 a day Monday to Thursday.

A dedicated sound space on five acres of jarrah bush beside a nature reserve in Sawyers Valley, on the same property as Sawyers Valley Retreat. The public calendar runs sound sessions on the new and full moons, solstice gatherings, yoga, mantra and chant, storytelling evenings and slow-stitching workshops, and the temple takes private group bookings and retreats. Published event prices sit between $111 and $180.

A Perth women's community running retreats since 2012, best known for the Wild Woman Weekend — four days and three nights of ceremony, dance, workshops and singing in bushland at the foot of the Darling Scarp in Serpentine. Facilitators Tracy McFie and Larissa O'Neill have held the weekend for thirteen years. Fully catered with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options; $1,666 all-inclusive, alongside mentoring and smaller gatherings through the year.