Shambhala Retreat - Shambhala Retreat 1234 Takaka-Collingwood Highway

One of the best place of New Zealand. Beautiful garden with a tea square, access to the beach, meditation and yoga every morning, very nice host... It's an energy self-efficient house (solar panel, wood heating...) and the famous bar Mussels In is just at 20mn by walk.

Has been renovated recently and now the place looks beautiful. Free wifi and amazing views of the bay. The showers are great and close to the famous Mussel Inn. There is a tea room in the garden.10/10

Place is beautiful for sure, But the owner not very thoughtful, put me in a mix Dorm room without tell me first, just collect the money and gone. Not friendly as well. Inside accommodation cleaning standard is poor. Lack of love. But the camping sites are good spot. Update: I'm downgrading to one star because I was asked to leave after the owner read the above review. What can I say? Can you believe he would put out a young women at 9:30 at night with no place to go!!!

Shambhala was for my how I imagined paradise .. like a calm place at the ocean with lots of shady places like in a little jungle. I really like the attitude of John the owner of the place, he puts so much love into this project and makes everything himself from the buildings to the decoration and so on.. and I really like the composting toilets I'm really a fan of these. I was also impressed by the friendly way how John interacts with his guests, he cares a lot for them. I find that John made a real gift to the world by building up this place with it's calm, gentle and happy atmosphere. I hope you come and enjoy this little paradise here I highly highly recommend it. :)

We stayed at the Shambhala over the New Year holiday. To begin, the reservation was easily made and we were invited to store our luggage at the Shambhala a few days before our official arrival, for which we were grateful! To our surprise, when we arrived, we were invited to store our belongings in an outdoor woodpile. We were in a crunch for time and simply had to accept the offer as it was. When we returned to officially check in, we were impressed by the grounds, which are lovely; the view of the Bay is superb, the landscaping in pristine and you are a 2km walk, on a dirt road, from the Mussel Inn. We had booked a private double room, which fell short of expectations based on the website (please see photos). We were told the rooms with ocean views were sold out and that we could have the room without views for $10/night less. To our disappointment, the room didn’t just lack views; it was also musty and dank, with mold on the walls. In John’s defense, we didn’t express our disappointment, though he never asked if we were settling in nicely either. We had to rent our towels for $2/each and had to retrieve them from his place ourselves. While there, we were treated without much respect, as though we were young children paying very little money when, in fact, we are in our mid-30’s and we paid $70/night for our accommodation; an affordable rate, but by no means the $30/night rate of a backpackers accommodation, which was how it felt. While there, a guest made a negative review and, in response, she was asked to leave. The police were called and a scene was made. An older guest was given an apology and an explanation for the disruption; we were ignored. Overall, if you are young and glad to pay the $35 for the lodge accommodations, the grounds are lovely and the people drawn there are pleasant, but do NOT book the cottage that lacks sea views (it’s really just a damp shed in the woods), and do NOT expect customer service if you are under the age of 60 or without children.

Stayed here for a night. Its a very cool spot but a bit run down, dont think it has had much loving it the last few years. shared kitchen is a bit crusty, broken hob and just lacking some TLC that might be obvious to someone else. You can tell this place used to be epic in its hay day though. the premises is in an awesome location and the grounds are vast, nice walk down to the beach!

Beautiful location but cleanliness needs to be improved so you can enjoy the wonderful spot. The kitchen was uncleanly and we spent hours cleaning it. The accommodations are simple: Compost toilets, dirty floors, no fans, no AC, no screens, lots of spiders. However, the yoga instructor was awesome! Such a sweet heart. And the property really is lovely but the amount of cleaning you need to do to make it comfortable does not make it as relaxing of an experience as it could be.

We stayed there March last year, just before the covid chaos. Totally enjoyed our stay ?? the place is quirky & interesting with plenty to see. The views & walk to the beach are beautiful & relaxing ❤️ The one & only thing that we didn't enjoy was using the outdoor toilet during early morning hrs ? but we got that down to a fine art & managed ok ?? We'd definitely stay there again & would recommend to others.