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Mount St. Alphonsus Retreat Center: Gain By Going Without

Leisure travel isn't always about lazy days and hedonistic nights. Sometimes a spartan environment is the best way to have the transformative experience one often hopes to achieve on vacation. Here, Victor Ozols reports on one such journey.

I recently went with a group for a weekend retreat at Mount St. Alphonsus Redemptorist Retreat Center, and while I was hesitant to go in the first place, I'd do it again in a minute. For a city slicker like me, it was kind of a hard sell. The idea of heading two hours outside of New York City to the tiny town of Esopus, New York to spend my days in exercise and meditative reflection and evenings in no-frills rooms once occupied by seminary students didn't sound like much a party. In fact, it sounded more like rehab. But in giving up the generic trappings of luxury travel - martinis, plasma TVs, bed linens with whatever thread count is currently in fashion - I gained an amazing feeling of serenity and relaxation that all the spa treatments in the world couldn't match.

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