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If You Find Dolphins Relaxing, You Should Consider Doing Yoga With Them

Where: 3400 Las Vegas Blvd S [map], Las Vegas, NV, United States, 89109-8923

When we first learned that The Mirage was offering yoga classes inside their underwater dolphin viewing area, we wondered just how productive those classes would actually be. Isn't yoga supposed to be about focus and self-discipline? Last time we visited an aquarium, we were so excited we literally ran from tank to tank.

The unconventional yoga space has multiple windows looking into the "habitat," so students will be more likely to be spying on the dolphin families than fine-tuning their poses. As for the dolphins? They see people every day—whether sitting in rows on the bleachers, or twisted into a pretzel on the floor, an audience is an audience. This is nothing new for them.

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Do Your Downward Dog Down By The River at The Inn at Palmetto Bluff

Where: 476 Mount Pelia Road [map], Bluffton, SC, United States, 29910

If you can't head to India for a yoga retreat this summer, an alternative could be waiting for you in South Carolina. The Inn at Palmetto Bluff may be more known for its golf course, but it's offering a Lotus on the River wellness weekend that will get yogis all twisted—in a good way—outdoors. The hotel claims that South Carolina's naturally warm air and moisture will detoxify you as you strike a pose alongside the May River.

The three-day yoga getaway will include plenty of time for you to practice your flying crow pose. But the weekend will also include meditation, lectures from guest speakers and a full-moon kayak expedition.

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Going Raw at the Hotel Wales with Juicy Naam

Last week, a small sign planted on a sidewalk called our attention to a new health-centric eatery located inside a boutique hotel. No, there was no hipster scene-y appeal, nor did the eatery have some hot celebrity chef's name attached to it. But we like to think of the Juicy Naam—a popular Long Island-based raw food and juice bar that quietly opened inside the Upper East Side's Hotel Wales last month—as Madison Avenue's answer to The Donut Plant.

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Escaping The Snow (Or The Idea of Snow) at Rancho Pescadero

Where: Todos Santos, Mexico

Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving company's dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway; at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.

Everyone's sick of snow right about now whether you're actually living in it or just watching the news reports. Which is why we're dreaming of a sunny getaway to Mexico right now. And we've got the place all picked out--Rancho Pescadero.

Located an hour north of Cabo San Lucas on the beach in Todos Santos, Rancho Pescadero boldly declares its "got a spanking new approach to what a luxury boutique hotel experience can be." But in looking at these website pictures, we don't think this spot should mention the term boutique hotel, which in our minds means tiny rooms with arty decor in a slim building in a big city.

Instead, Rancho Pescadero, which has doubled in size just a year after opening to add 15 new suites to the original 12, seems more like a private estate on the beach, except it has two pools and poolside bars, cabana beds, a spa, a seasonal organic restaurant and a brand-new 2,000-sq.ft. yoga and Pilates pavilion.

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Five More Yoga Hotels to Do Your Downward Dog

We already gave you the lowdown on some top spots for hotels with om-inducing yoga offerings. But yoga is becoming such a popular amenity that we had to scope our some more places where you can do your lotus pose. We found five additional hotel yoga sessions that will infuse you with prana, or life force.

Check out our top five picks for hotel yoga after the jump.

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Five Yoga Hotels to Do Your Downward Dog

Can’t join the 10,000 people expected to turn out for Yoga at the Great Lawn in Central Park on June 22 to help yogi-to-the-stars Elena Brower set the U.S. record for the largest yoga class ever? You can opt instead to team up with yoga enthusiasts on both coasts at the Standard Spa, Miami Beach, and at the Standard, Hollywood to participate simultaneously in free yoga classes that will stream live from the main event in New York.

Looking for more than just one day of yoga? You're in luck as hotels have been implementing yoga into their spa and fitness offerings for quite some time now. Here are our five picks for alternative places to get a good yoga workout.

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Get Your 'Downward Dog' On With COMO Hotels' Yoga Retreats

If you want a vacation that's good for your body and soul (and probably doesn't involve too many fancy cocktails), the yoga packages that the COMO Hotels are putting on might be the thing. With four more week-long retreats scheduled for 2009, it's just a matter of picking which corner of the world you want to jet to in order to practice yoga for five hours a day — with experts, of course, in a romantically relaxing setting.

The exact details of the yoga retreats depend on which destination you choose, but they all include six nights' accommodation, the yoga training, various meals and airport transfers, plus several include some cultural excursions as well. You can choose from the Parrot Cay on Turks and Caicos (an October course), Uma Paro in Bhutan (July 12-18) or COMO Shambhala Estate in Bali (mid-December).

Package prices range from $3,515 in Bali to $5, 681 at Parrot Cay. And while the yoga idea does sound like a great getaway vacation, we are a little concerned that there may be a bit too much emphasis on the whole health thing — they even want you to eat healthy organic food the whole time. That's fine for some, but we still think a proper beachside vacation should include a few indulgences.

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The Standard Miami Offers Better Sex and Karma

Where: The Standard - 40 Island Ave [map], Miami Beach, fl, United States, 33139

Since this week is American Heart Month, we here at HotelChatter are profiling Fitness Hotels--hotels that make it feasible for you to keep up with your fitness regime, or start a new one, while you are on the road or on vacation. Know of any fitness hotels to spotlight? Get physical with our tipline.

Years ago, yoga aficionado and hip hop mogul Russell Simmons once said he first got into yoga at the Jivamukti Center in Manhattan because he liked admiring the tushies in front of him during downward dog.

"I would first go to yoga because there were so many hot girls. It is so typical when you are in downward dog to have some cute girl in front when you gotta keep your mind on god," Simmons said.

Men with a similar fondness for derriere will be delighted to learn that The Standard Miami is hosting a soul-searching weekend of bootie and beans.

February 24th to 26th, The Standard is hosting author and Jivamukti yoga co-founder Sharon Gannon for a workshop discussing vegetarianism and the art of far east body movement. Gannon will lead a yoga class as well as have a book signing for her newly penned Yoga and Vegetarianism: The Diet for Enlightenment. Yep, another celebrity book hawking! Donna Karan is a fan and so is Sting! But do note: This book pimping is all in the name of low impact planet destruction.

Guests can enter into a transcendental reality starting at $225 a night for a missionary room and climax starting $925 a night for the full spread room. The book is $14.95. Consider the better sex and good karma your instant rebate.

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Tides Zihuatanejo Hosting Yoga Retreat with Celeb Instructor Tom Morley

Where: Playa La Ropa S N, Zihuatanejo, Mexico

Do you love Mexico? Do you love Yoga? Then maybe you should consider signing up for the Yoga Retreat series at the Tides Zihuatanejo which is taking place from October 3-7, 2008. (Or if you can't stand yoga and its yoginis, then you may want to hit up the resort another week.)

The retreat is being led by celebrity instructor Tom Morley, one of LA's hottest yoga instructors who has taught such celebs like Reese Witherspoon and Helen Hunt.

For over 10 years, Morley has redefined the traditional approach to yoga by adapting the practice to individual preferences. Morley draws from a range of yoga styles (such as vinyasa and yin), breathing exercises, meditation, partner yoga and dance to bring a vibrant sense of joy, humor and ease to each session.

Now he's taking his teachings to Playa la Ropa beach at the Tides Zihuatanejo.

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