Tapestry
A Full Sensory Retreat to Morocco
In collaboration with Riad Botanica
May 5th-13th 2025
Weaving culture, community, and the sensory into an unforgettable adventure. Welcome to Tapestry. A full sensory awakening in Morocco.
During our 9 days together you'll experience the very best of Marrakech, Agafay, and Essaouira.
From an exclusive experience at the famous (and rightfully so Bacha Coffee) to oral storytellers, seaside yoga and mindfulness experiences, and a sunset aperitivo followed by an exclusive dinner in Agafay, Tapestry is an unparalleled encounter with art, design, mindfulness, and joy.
YES PLEASE!Authentic-Slow Tourism
Join Selena Garefino for a very special 9-day sensory tour of Morocco. Tapestry is your invitation to weave the ancestral with the every day. This sensory tour is curated to awaken and engage the whole of you. We'll explore art and culture, color and sound, scent, movement, and breath. From the bustling colorful markets of Marrakech to the tranquil sea of Essaouira--we'll traverse a diverse external terrain while going deep into our personal terra incognita, our unmined depths to connect with self, with place, and with one another.
A unique travel experience taking you to people and places you would not see on your own.
During your stay you'll engage with local oral storytellers, explore design and bringing next level beauty into your every day. We'll be exploring ancient techniques, stories, and practices and dancing with the modern through upcoming designers and experiences. This tour is truly like nothing else.
9 Days for a Full Spectrum Experience
Morocco is such a rich place with such vastly different landscapes and trying to see too much of Morocco in one trip will rob you of a genuine encounter. With this in mind we are moving less and savoring more. You'll begin your adventure with several days savoring the simple by the sea at a stunning hotel, fully equipped for stellar Katonah Yoga® practices to nourish the whole of you. We'll wander the ancient streets with local cultural guides.
In Marrakech you'll dine at exclusive restaurants in, indulge in mindfulness and yoga practices to awaken you, explore this colorful ancient Red City and experience local artisans, storytellers, and invitations like nothing else.
Movement & Contemplative Practices
"There is no world apart from the body and and hence of the senses" Andrieu
Tapestry is a full sensory exploration. We'll engage with scent, with art, with music, and with the body. During your journey you'll be guided through myth in motion practices weaving ancient story and simple yoga practices for those that wish to enrich their experience with movement.
Your adventure inward will be supported by breath practices and meditations in gorgeous locations. This is not a "yoga retreat" it is a sensory retreat exploring our emplacement. Beyond embodiment it is how we experience the body and self within our larger environment. The practices will be creative and deeply nourishing for the whole of you. Together we'll weave a narrative thread from the first practice to the last.
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Tapestry...
Weaving Ritual Life is a series of rituals in the ongoing ceremony we call "living." Together we'll explore making ritual out of the everyday
Weaving Community and the individual. We'll explore our individual and collective stories. The ancestral and the present. Exploring threads of self, threads of the universal and the tapestry we weave in community.
Weaving the Ancestral We all walk and kneel upon a "prayer mat" woven by our ancestors, by our prayers, by past pains we have alchemized. We'll investigate the ancestral and the Universal. Our dreams and the ever present here and now.
Weaving the Sensory Our journey is a full sensory experience. Weaving cultural explorations, color, sophisticated architecture, music, scent, movement practices, somatic explorations of the body, dance, food, artistry and more. Our quickest path to presence is via the senses. In a world where we are pulled to numbness by speed and overwhelm this retreat is an invitation to slow everything down and savor the sensual.
Weaving Beauty beauty matters. It breaks spells. It shakes us from the our slumber and invites us to re-engage with awe. During our time you'll engage with potters, up and coming designers, interior design, and artistry collectives that make weaving beauty into the everyday their purpose.
Let me begin by saying, if I could give Selena and this trip fifty stars, I would in a heartbeat. I understand how cliche it is to say, “This trip changed my life!” But it truly did. Selena provided a safe space to reconnect with my body, mind, and spirit as emotions I couldn’t fully understand at the time bubbled to the surface. She left us with a simple statement, “Love your life,” that had profound impacts I haven’t fully grasped. The internal movement this created within me is something I will be forever indebted to. I will be returning in the future. Selena changed my life. If you’re considering going, even a tiny bit, hold tight to it and don’t let go. It’ll make you love your life again. I promise.
Sarah M
I came on for a vacation with my notebook and yoga mat and left with so much more than I ever could have bargained for. I left empowered, excited, with a new perspective and new tools to guide me home to myself and towards my dreams. I left refreshed and with a new sense of deep rest and inner knowing. Since being on retreat with Selena I have had a steady home practice. The connections I made on this retreat have only strengthened in time. It’s truly an experience you will carry with you. -
Mckenzie
What is Included
- You will be hosted by the stunning Riad Botanica and our exclusive partner in Essaouira.
- A very special luxury welcome gift to tantalize your senses from our exclusive partners
- Optional Post or Pre Retreat Travel Support to Extend Your Stay
- Local vetted English speaking hosts.
- All breakfasts
- 1/2 board. We have several very lux dinners included in your stay and some lunches. There is space for you to explore and these meals you'll select on your own are very budget friendly.
- Very special experiences in both Marrakech and Essaouira. Listen we're not willing to spill the beans on everything. We want to surprise and delight you. This is an invitation to be SURPRISED and DELIGHTED. Just know we are here to stoke the flames of your awe.
- Airport Transfer *airfare not included. We will do two airport pick ups in Marrakech. Upon booking you'll receive these pick up times to help you choose your flight.
- Professional images of your trip the ultimate keepsake to be delivered within 8 weeks of trip completion.
Your Accommodations
You will be hosted by the renowned Riad Botanica, voted the 8th best hotel in Africa by Conde Nast & our carefully selected partner in Essaouira. Riad Botanica is a Marrakech dream.
We have carefully sourced our accommodations and handpicked the very best to suit our needs. We work with valued partners on the ground with long standing relationships with local people. We use the term host rather hotel or "tour guide" because our hosts are truly our interpreters, cultural guides, and so much more.
Travel That Promotes a Journey Inward
Our mission is to offer slow travel experiences that allow you to indulge in the sensory, to revel in your inner landscape while exploring the exterior terrain. To come closer to yourself by interweaving story, music, creativity, spirituality, the sensory, and cultural experiences.
Curated Tours and Cultural Experiences
Expert local guides are with us every step of the way to ensure a rich and smooth experience. You will meet local weavers and artisans, cook and dine with locals, and experience local music, spices, and artistry.
Movement Classes
Expertly crafted yoga and somatic movement classes to support our explorations. Selena's unique blend of oral storytelling and yoga will engage the fullness of you mind, body, spirit, and imagination.
Oral Story
Story is the oldest form of education. It is the "wildest way to tell the truth" (Shaw). During our week together Selena will weave ancient story into our explorations. These stories are bone memory. They are a net that holds us all. They are a reminder of our interconnectivity. A good story can teach you how to live.
Slow Travel
We believe in slow authentic travel experiences that nourish reciprocal relationships between guests and hosts as well as honoring communities and the environment. Mass tourism is a global problem with harmful effects on communities and we are a movement of travel professionals working to change how we travel.
We're not checking off boxes of sites seen we're pausing to feel and sense and experience individually and communaly.
Come Join Us
About Selena
Cultural Anthropologist, Oral Storyteller, Yoga & Movement Teacher, Retreat Leader, Photographer, and Travel expert
Selena has guided retreats and small group travel for 11 years. She is a sociocultural anthropologist, oral storyteller, yoga, breath, and somatic movement teacher, personal development coach, photographer and writer.
Her mission is to offer the kinds of experiences that beckon you home to your spirit, to yourself, and to your body while immersing you in rich sensory landscapes offering one of a kind experiences to delight the whole of your sensory experience.
She is dedicated to making the everyday artful and inviting her clients into experiences of divine play with curiosity and awe.
Selena is an Italian American travel advisor and retreat leader living in Tuscany Italy.
There's only one teaching...
Love your life.
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