City & destination guides
Where are the best places in the world to practise yoga?
11 min read · Updated July 28, 2026
The short answer
The best place to practise yoga depends on what you want from it: dense studio scenes and famous teachers in cities like New York, Los Angeles and London; immersion and lineage study in Rishikesh or Mysore, India; and retreat-centred practice in Bali, Costa Rica and coastal Portugal. Strong teaching exists in every major city.
Which cities have the strongest yoga scenes?
Scale and specialisation travel together. New York offers every lineage within subway distance and the deepest bench of senior teachers in the US; Los Angeles leads on movement innovation and outdoor practice; London anchors Europe's scene with strong Iyengar and Ashtanga rooms. What a big-city scene really buys you is choice — of teacher, level, hour and price — which is exactly what a first year of practice needs.
Smaller scenes reward differently: Austin and Portland trade breadth for community, and shoulder-season classes in southern European cities cost half their London equivalents.
Is it worth travelling to India to study yoga?
For immersion in the source traditions, nothing substitutes. Rishikesh concentrates ashrams, teacher trainings and daily-practice culture on the Ganges; Mysore remains the home of Ashtanga's morning-practice tradition. Go with realistic expectations — quality varies as much as anywhere, and the same school-vetting questions apply with extra force where marketing outruns regulation.
Where should you go for a retreat-centred trip?
Three coasts dominate for good reasons. Bali combines teacher density with low costs and a year-round season; Costa Rica pairs surf with a mature retreat infrastructure; Portugal's Alentejo and Algarve offer Europe's best value-to-weather ratio outside July and August. Compare retreats by teacher and schedule before destination — a strong week with the right teacher in a modest venue beats a beautiful villa with anonymous teaching.
Common questions
- Which US city is best for yoga?
- New York for depth and lineage teachers, Los Angeles for innovation and outdoor practice, and honourable mentions to San Francisco, Austin and Boulder for scenes larger than their populations suggest. Best is personal: match the city's dominant styles to yours using each city's hub page before assuming bigger is better.
- Why is Rishikesh called the yoga capital of the world?
- Concentration and history: ashrams and schools line the Ganges where the Beatles studied in 1968, the town hosts the International Yoga Festival, and daily practice saturates ordinary life. It earns the title on density rather than exclusivity — serious study happens in Mysore, Chennai and beyond too.
- Where can you practise yoga cheaply abroad?
- India remains the outlier: drop-in classes and ashram stays cost a fraction of western prices. Bali, Thailand and Guatemala offer strong retreat value; in Europe, Portugal and Greece undercut the north meaningfully. Everywhere, donation-based classes and community studios exist — city hub pages list them alongside premium options.
- Is travelling for yoga necessary at all?
- No. Online live classes put senior teachers in your living room, and every sizeable city has honest, skilled teaching. Travel adds immersion and removal from routine — valuable, not essential. The practice is portable by design; the destination is an amplifier, never a requirement.
References
- Global Wellness Institute (2024). Global Wellness Institute. Supports: Wellness tourism flows by region. Accessed July 25, 2026.
- Government of Uttarakhand (2025). Uttarakhand Tourism. Supports: Rishikesh ashram and festival infrastructure. Accessed July 25, 2026.
- Yoga Alliance (2016). Yoga Alliance / Yoga Journal. Supports: US practitioner distribution underpinning city-scene comparisons. Accessed July 25, 2026.
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