Worry-free Travel

Luxury girls' getaway offers guests free flights from Dallas to Belize

Ladies, it’s time to pamper yourselves. If you’ve found yourself in a rut and are looking to awaken the mind, body and soul, consider partaking in Reset Retreat, a unique women’s wellness retreat that takes a holistic approach to its comprehensive program.

The Austin-based company, started by three adventurous women, is offering a luxurious getaway for women to reset in Ambergris Caye, Belize. The exclusive island excursion includes staying in a beachfront cabana, nutritious meals, daily yoga, life coaching, massage and spa treatments, town exploration, and local charitable activities.

“Amergris Caye is stunning, has unique adventure activities, ranks high on the safety scale from the U.S. State Department and is extremely close to the United States,” explains Reset Retreat co-founder and Austinite Cierra Savatgy-King.

“We saw Amergris Caye was frequently listed as one of the best luxury vacation spots and knew that it would provide an excellent setting for our guests to decompress.”

Savatgy-King met Reset Retreat co-founders Natalie Jenkins and Crystal Veness on a week-long sailing trip in Croatia.

“We started to discuss our struggles with personal expectations, not feeling ‘good enough,’ feeling stuck in life and the difficulty of changing negative patterns. Things so many women feel but rarely discuss openly,” says Savatgy-King.

“We didn’t know each other and didn’t know if we’d ever meet again, so immediately the protective walls dropped. We openly shared and realized we were all going through similar hurdles.

“We were in this stunning location with all our senses firing, and we knew we would never forget these personal growth conversations. The uniqueness of the situation and the beauty of our surroundings were inspiring.”

That vacation turned into a “fierce brainstorming session” about developing growth opportunities for women through unbelievable experiences, thus resulting in the creation of Reset Retreat.

The inaugural retreat — a huge success — was held in February 2015. Much of what worked in the initial excursion will also be included in the upcoming retreat, which occurs November 4-9, 2015.

Reset Retreat ensures women feel comfortable and facilitates learning in a fun way. A highly knowledgeable nutritionist, yoga instructor and life coach will be on hand during the getaway, and daily exercises will focus on personal growth, discovery and detox. The retreat also offers a day trip to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve on a private catamaran, where guests can swim alongside sting rays, turtles and nurse sharks, which Savatgy-King ensures are “docile and sweet creatures.”

The retreat is held at an intimate boutique hotel on the north part of the island, directly on the beach with unlimited access to sun, sand and waves. The price is $3,390 if you are sharing a room with a fellow guest or $3,790 for private accommodations. This includes all of the activities and meals, plus the flight and boat ride from Belize City to Amergris Caye.

But it gets better. From now until June 15, Reset Retreat is paying for confirmed guests’ flights from Dallas, Austin and Houston to Belize City. Reset Retreat will also handle the complete booking for travel arrangements so that your reset is truly worry-free.

For more information, visit the Reset Retreat website and learn more about the participants’ experiences from the February 2015 event.

Guests who book now snag a free flight to Belize City.

Reset Retreat Facebook

Guests who book now snag a free flight to Belize City.

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News for campers

New 650-acre state park coming to Lake Palestine in East Texas

Photo courtesy of TexasLand

Lake Palestine

East Texas is gaining a new state park at Lake Palestine that will include amenities like hike-and-bike trails, campsites, and lakefront access.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation has paid more than $10 million for a 650-acre ranch at Lake Palestine that will be converted into a state park, the agency says. If the park opened today, it would be the 90th state park in Texas.

The ranch, roughly 100 miles southeast of Dallas, had been on the market for a little less than $10 million. Roughly 60 percent of the ranch is wooded, and about 40 percent is pastureland.

The foundation will make improvements to the site, about 18 miles west of Tyler, before handing it over to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in late 2027. That’s when funding from the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund will become available for the department to acquire the property.

The deal preserves one of the last large habitat sites in that part of East Texas and will ultimately expand public access to Lake Palestine. The lake encompasses more than 25,500 acres and touches four counties. White-tailed deer, bobcats, and waterfowl are among the creatures that populate the habitat.

“Opportunities to protect a property like this don’t come along very often, and when they do, timing is critical,” Anne Brown, the foundation’s executive director, said in a release. She said the land will “ultimately become a place where generations of Texans can enjoy the outdoors.”

The Pollard family had owned the ranch, which housed their pecan farm, since 1940. Aside from the pecan orchard, the property includes pine forests, ponds, a seven-acre lake, and Lake Palestine frontage.

Sam Pollard, president of Texas Pecan Nursery, said the property “is part of my soul. It means a lot to me that we can leave a legacy for people to enjoy.”

The foundation says visitors to the future park will be able to enjoy blufftop views of the lake, watch wildlife and birds, and walk around the pecan orchard. They’ll also be able to take advantage of boating, paddling, swimming, and fishing at Lake Palestine.

Rodney Franklin, director of the state park system, called the site an “East Texas gem” and thanked the Pollards for enabling “this special slice of the Pineywoods to be accessible for generations of Texans.”

The parks and wildlife agency plans to create the park in phases, starting with guided access, followed by daytime access and then full-day and overnight access. The agency will invite public input about the park’s development.

Planned amenities include hike-and-bike trails, traditional and primitive campsites, day-use areas and lakefront access.

The NextEra Energy Foundation, a philanthropic arm of NextEra Energy and NextEra Energy Resources, chipped in $100,000 to support the future park. NextEra supplies electricity to about one million customers in Texas, mostly through its Gexa Energy subsidiary.

In addition, the wildlife foundation tapped into the state’s Land Conservation Loan Fund for the ranch purchase. The voter-approved, donor-supported fund aids land conservation efforts. Dallas-based Lyda Hill Philanthropies was an inaugural backer of the loan fund.

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