International Yoga Festival

Get your asanas sorted during Rishikesh's International Yoga Festival at the Parmath Niketan Ashram. The "yoga capital of the world" is an appropriate setting for a whirlwind tour of the major types of yoga and an awesome place to visit.

This annual festival always attracts great yogic masters from all over the world, who arrive by the banks of the Ganges to demonstrate and explore the major traditions of yoga (hatha, raja, karma, bhakti, mantra, laya and jnana). The town boasts numerous yoga schools to view (of varying standards of ethics and expense), as well as plenty of places to visit when your chakras are fully aligned.

Apart from the yoga schools, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the many ashrams in Rishikesh that offer courses on meditation, yoga and Hindu philosophy. The hatha yoga and pranayama meditation classes at Sri Ved Niketan Ashram are well known. The Shivananda Ashram, opposite the Shivananda Jhula, is also a favourite - but needs booking well in advance. Other well-known ashrams include the Yoga Niketan Ashram, the Omkarananda Ashram, the Vanmali Gita Yogashram and the Dayananda Vedanta Ashram. We don't recommend these above any others - they are just pointers for research.