A 23-acre, seven-bedroom holistic mountain retreat located on land once owned by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt will open in the Malibu Mountains in California in Q2 2016.
Aja Malibu bills itself as a “luxury-boutique mountain retreat for the health and wellness-seeking connoisseur,” and is the lifelong dream of owner Inannya Magick, an Australian mystic and artist who has spent seven years transforming the property into a ‘Garden of Eden’ sanctuary.
The retreat features just seven bedrooms, as well as seven chakra-themed gardens – and is available for seven-day retreats. Aja’s holistic focus includes plant-based cuisine, spa therapies, rituals and ceremonies and workshops.
The spa is located in a crystal-infused cave setting, and therapies use homegrown herbs as well as a combination of flower, colour, light, sound and crystal therapies. Treatments include a Chakra-Tune Up Massage, seasonal Watsu Water Massage, cranial sacral therapy, acupuncture, a Crystal Cavern Ozonated Hot Plunge and dual vibration therapy.
The retreat features an apothecary room where guests can play and make their own herbal elixirs as well as enjoy DIY bath, body and beauty workshops.
Aja is designed to be a “home with a heart” rather than simply a hotel, and features details like statues and artefacts collected from Magick’s travels in North Africa, Nepal, Peru, Indonesia, India and the Australian Outback.
The walls and walkways are embedded with thousands of crushed rose quartz crystals, designed to channel the energy of the heart.
Aja uses reclaimed FCS-certified timbers, sustainable cooling systems, solar-powered radiant heat and organic sheets, towels and robes. All shampoos, conditioners and soaps are natural and toxin-free, and are compatible with the retreat’s water system, where bath and shower water is recycled for use in the garden.
The Aja Chakra Tune Up Diet is a low-glycemic, gluten-, wheat-, dairy-free, low-nut based programme designed to support a cleanse and detox, while providing high-level nutrient saturation. The menu is harvested on-site from the property’s biodynamic vegetable and medicinal herb gardens.
Guests take part in daily wisdom workshops, tea ceremonies, edible garden tours, experiential nature exercises, fire and moon ceremonies, meditation and daily hikes in the local canyons.
Prices at the retreat start at US$10,000 (€9,069, £7,087) per person for seven nights, which includes 28 spa treatments as well as workshops, materials, food and naturopathic supplementation.
