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.

The grounds themselves are breathtaking. Occupying 400 acres of forests and fields overlooking the Hudson River Valley, one could easily spend the entire weekend walking on wooded trails that wind past shady groves scented with the fragrance of wild thyme. But you'll need to save some time to explore the main building (pictured), which is more like a castle than any dormitory I've ever seen. The 100-year-old structure has 92 guest rooms (with shared bathrooms), a variety of chapels, cafes, and meeting rooms, and a fully-staffed basement cafeteria. The food, while far from Michelin-star territory, is fresh and abundant, and if you like cafeteria food like I do, you'll be more than satisfied.

The retreat is open to both individual travelers and groups, and the experience you have will depend on whatever your plans call for. What made my particular visit so meaningful were our pre-sunrise outdoor meditation sessions and the long walks through the forests and glens of the grounds. Being able to surprise a group of a half-dozen deer grazing in a field at dawn, only to watch them bound away one by one into the mist, was worth the (very affordable) price of admission.

Mount Saint Alphonsus is a holy place, and there are religious remnants throughout, but there was no proselytizing of any kind, and people of all faiths were welcomed as equals. So for a blissful two days, we meditated, we worked out, we ate, and we went to bed early, and I returned to Brooklyn carrying just a little more serenity in my heart than I had when I left.

Related Stories:
· Mount St. Alphonsus Redemptorist Retreat Center [Official Site]
· Religious Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Victor Ozols]

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