Finding Peace and Mindfulness at a Mountain Wellness Retreat in Hatta

Whenever I've mentioned to friends living outside Dubai that it can be a surprisingly spiritual place, I've been met with raised eyebrows. However, as a decade-long resident of the UAE, I've found that it's where I've deepened my yoga practice, discovered therapies such as sound healing, and found a warm circle of friends who share a similar outlook. After a particularly stressful start to the year, I asked myself: Could I stay back in Dubai over the summer and find the peace I was craving? Heading to a weekend retreat at JA Hatta Fort Hotel in Hatta, I was about to find out.

Bags packed, my best friend Bhavna and I embarked on the 90-minute drive to Hatta, a mountainous exclave of Dubai. I've been up this road several times for hikes and have trekked to the Hatta sign a couple of times during the winter months. The Hajar Mountains are teeming with wildlife, and you're likely to meet oryxes and goats along the way.

The sprawling green property JA Hatta Fort Hotel itself houses deer, tortoises, peacocks and rabbits. Unlike the tall, glass-fronted resorts you typically see in Dubai, here you have individual, rustic mountain-style cottages. Check-in was seamless, and we were given early access to our room, which was helpful as I had some work to tie up before our retreat schedule began. Elsewhere in the 79-room hotel are two pools that guests signing up for the wellness retreat can use.

After a short icebreaker exercise, our guide for the weekend, Tania, led the group in an hour-long hatha yoga session. The session set the stage for what was to come throughout the weekend, including a therapeutic practice I hadn't heard of before: metaphorical card reading. But first, we broke for dinner. We sat down as a group for a lovely Indian meal at Jeema restaurant, savouring fusion pani puri, cauliflower soup, aromatic lamb biryani, summery mango ice cream and a tart. While the retreat is open to all, it was mostly attended by women during my visit, with only one man. We swapped life stories over dessert and headed back to the hall for the card reading.

While I've done my share of therapeutic and wellness practices, this was my first introduction to metaphorical cards, which consist of images, symbols or words representing different concepts, feelings and situations, and are used in coaching and therapeutic settings. To say the experience was moving and emotional would be an understatement. Tania spent a lot of time with each of us, ensuring the experience was at once personal and communal. We were also encouraged to journal and reflect on what our cards showed us. It was 11pm by the time we finished our readings, and we decided to walk it off. We took a stroll around Hatta, visited local supermarkets and picked up some knick-knacks. It felt like a step back in time for those like my friend who grew up in the Gulf, as Hatta retains the old-school charm of the UAE and other Gulf states in the 1990s. We walked all the way up to the dam, which I also recall as being beautiful in the winter daylight.

We slept soundly after an intense start to the retreat programme. Inspired by Tania, I nudged Bhavna to join me for a morning yoga and meditation session in our cottage. We also met some of the animals on site, including large tortoises who turned out to be the same age as I, rabbits with their kittens and beautiful deer that we had the chance to feed. Next we decided to take a long walk, but wound up lost on a small mountain trail, making us realise just how vast the property is. We retraced our steps and made it back to the hall in time for the final session: family constellation therapy. Developed by German psychotherapist and former Catholic priest Bert Hellinger, the method can help identify family dynamics and heal intergenerational trauma. At this property, it took the form of an interactive group therapy exercise involving role-play by each participant. By the end of the nearly three-hour session, I felt like I'd known everyone in the group for a long time.

Suddenly, it was time to go home. We got some snacks and walked over to HW Studio Cafe on the property for peppermint tea, which I highly recommend. The spiritual reset, for me at least, has been very real. My only regret was not bringing my lovely dog Kira along, as I realised too late that the property is pet-friendly.

We attended the retreat in July, and it was priced at Dh800 per person based on two people sharing a room, or Dh950 for single occupancy. The rate included a one-night stay at the hotel, breakfast and dinner at Jeema Restaurant, refreshments and all the guided wellness sessions. Guests need to bring their own yoga mats. The two-day retreat runs several times a year, and the next dates are yet to be confirmed.