Ananda Ashram, Yoga Society of New York

This is not a hotel.
It is a place of higher education and repose, amid sylvan restorative surroundings and intelligent interesting people. In a weekend just completed, I had a wonderfully mind-​expanding experience, feel like I’ve lost ten years and twenty pounds – and I did NOT do any exercising whatsoever.
I cannot wait to go back.

I have just returned from my second trip to Ananda Ashram. The first time was in March and my friend and I shared a semi private room for a wonderful weekend with great yoga classes and meditation sessions that helped me reach my longest mediation period by far. The accommodations are simple as expected, and the grounds are beautiful. We returned home sharper and calmer.
We decided to return a second time, with our husbands who are somewhat newer to yoga but very interested in learning more. The Ashram had no vacancies given the busy Thanksgiving weekend so we found a nearby B&B to stay at and spent our days at the Ashram doing yoga and learning meditation and Sanskrit. The food is listed on the website as being vegetarian but I believe it was all vegan, and almost all of it was gluten free. A bonus for me as I have celiac disease, but among the four of us there was a meat and dairy eater, a vegan, vegetarian/​flexitarians and we were all equally satisfied with the simple, fresh, and delicious food.
It’s true that the daily schedule gets put up in the main hall, and the hall is not open all hours, but if you are uncertain of anything anyone you ask will give you information. Color-​coded weekly yoga class schedules can be found in all the yoga studios as well.
I didn’t notice any gratuitous use of technology– a couple people taking photos or videos of the Saturday evening concert and dance performance – but otherwise people seemed happy to be present. I used my own phone as a time piece only.
I recommend staying on the grounds for a fuller experience. Everything is done with care and respect, people are helpful and kind. But I’m glad we were able to make it work with the B&B. I only wish I could come on my own and stay for a more extended period sometime. The later Spring would be lovely since there is a lake (and a swimming pool) and a few hiking trails.
For now back to Brooklyn and noisy crowded streets, but yoga is with me. Thank you Ananda Ashram!

For years I have enjoyed coming to Ananda and have appreciated the peaceful and beautiful surroundings that are Ananda. That being said– my last 2 visits were not at all peaceful nor what I have come to enjoy at Ananda. I was awakened by a radio playing be bop jazz in the kitchen loudly. I don’t condemn the kitchen staff for wanting music but at a lower volume maybe?
Right after that was done a woman started rehearsing opera in the lake house studio where yoga is done. She was there for about a half hour I think it would be good if you let guests know that the lake house yoga studio is also used as a rehearsal space and that there rooms might be disturbed by the rehearsals.
At the mediation there was a man texting in the room and a woman left 2 times to take phone calls and came back in. Also in my previous visit people were in there were people in rooms talking on cell phones loud enough for me to hear them — I did knock on one’s door and ask them to keep it down and the man was very cordial.
And when I used the bathroom in the lake house someone had left dirty water in the sink and used paper towels on the sink.
I will not be coming back to Ananda — I understand technology is running rampant throughout our society but Ananda was a place where I’d come to get away from technology and all the noise of my home city — for me and this is my own experience — it is no longer that place.

Wonderful events, workshops, and programs set in a lovely atmosphere. The food is delicious and varied. Staff very warm and welcoming. I did a full day workshop there with Karen and loved the entire experience.

The first time i came to Ananda Ashram for a weekend. Everyone was so sweet and nice there. The cabin we stayed was called the Panini house it was a cute and clean house. On saturday Nights they would hold amazing reading there by Joan Suval.
I loved how quiet and peaceful it was up there. The lake is also very beautiful in the summer where you can take the canoe out. Sunday I would do the 11:30am yoga class on the platform right in front of the lake. Then have some lunch and head home afterwards. It was an ideal weekend to relax and meditate. I’ve been coming up to the ashram for about 2 years now. I still love going up there when i get a chance.

I’m with reviewer Ingrid S. — I feel horrible writing a negative review for an ashram but I have to be honest. I went with a few friends for their weekend retreat and got there around 7:00PM on Friday because we came work and their office was already closed. There was no one there to greet us, tell us where we were staying, where all of the classes and events were so we missed the last event at 7:30 (fire ceremony) because we couldn’t find it. In the office there was just a pack of 1 sandpaper thin towel and bed sheets with our room number and names on it.
We stayed in the semi-​private rooms which were the most expensive option but we might as well have just camped outside. The rooms were very small and the beds were uncomfortable and there was only one flaccid pillow. Somehow there were mosquitos getting into the room so we woke up with multiple bug bites each morning. Thankfully there was a fan but that was really the only good part. You also couldn’t wear your shoes inside which I can understand at a holy place but it also said you couldn’t wear shoes in the shared bathrooms (ew). There were only two single occupancy bathrooms with showers in the whole house. Between using the shower and the toilet — they were rarely open, my one girlfriend had to pop a squat in the woods because they were taking so long. I knew going there to not expect a 5 star hotel because it was a humble ashram but it really was not worth the amount of money paid.
Saturday morning we had a great Yoga class and loved the instructor. But then we went to breakfast… First of all the website says Vegetarian not Vegan but it was all vegan food. My friends and I aren’t vegetarians or vegans but we were looking forward to a meat-​free healthy eating weekend with delicious vegetarian food but that was not the case. All of the food was bland, unrecognizable and lacking normal breakfast options. No coffee! It was like prison food. We were going to give lunch a chance but it looked even worse than breakfast — mushy food and not even a salad even though they have their own garden! After that we decided to leave the ashram for the rest of our meals which was a shame because the weekend was supposed to include all meals but they were so bad we were forced to leave and pay for better food.
To top it all off, we were all very surprised with how unwelcoming and unfriendly everyone was there. We went there with positive intentions and open hearts but unfortunately we came a across very few friendly people. Most gave us looks, or when we smiled or said hello wouldn’t reciprocate. Even the staff — this one woman who lived by the lake and seemed to run the cafeteria area had a scowl on her face the whole time (I might have that face too if I had to eat that food everyday.) I’ve been to other ashrams and monasteries and what I enjoy about them is how friendly everyone is, so it was really a big disappointment and very telling of the type of atmosphere there is at Ananda Ashram.
Overall I would recommend their Yoga classes and MAYBE going there for a day trip but be sure to get there extra early so you can find your class. Definitely not worth the money to pay for the room and food.

I feel like a total jerk posting a review for an ashram – a place that operates on a higher spiritual plane than a typical for-​profit hotel and restaurant combination. But then I thought, fuck it. I paid to stay at Ananda Ashram. If they’re okay with taking my money and comfy with their tax-​exempt status, their evolved consciousness should be able to withstand a candid review.
You cannot fault the idyllic surroundings, which appear to have been divinely inspired and created to induce a peaceful mind and an open heart. The sad part, for me at least, is that the collective goodwill of ashram residents, whether they’re attending a weekend retreat as I was or are long-​term volunteers, appears to preclude discernment and to regard critical judgement as a relic of the material world. Surely, as other reviewers have noted, their intentions are good, their hearts are in the right place. Do these things mean, then, that the food didn’t generally suck? No, they do not.
So there you go, $ 200/​night for a semi-​private room (total room cost) with a dingy shared hall bath, lumpy mattresses, a ration of two towels that the local Y probably rejected as too closely resembling sandpaper, and nearly all the vegetarian and vegan food you care to eat – with the emphasis on «care to».
In the search for mainstream acceptance, many self-​identified vegans and vegetarians, rather than embracing the luscious fruits and vegetables at their disposal and treating them with love and care, prefer to camouflage their food offerings under recognizable omnivorous labels. Hence «red pepper tofu scramble», a Saturday morning offering resembling in taste, appearance and texture a tofu-​cluster-​fuck, not the distant, humble, sublime egg relative it tried to emulate. Why does the guiding principle of vegan cuisine appear to be «must be bland and tasteless»? Why, for Sunday lunch, were we offered a heaping platter of crookneck squash and zucchini steamed to a barely recognizable heap of yellow and green mush? There was surely nothing in that hubcap sized serving dish that generous quantities of olive oil and salt, and fewer minutes under the molecular reorganizational effects of high heat couldn’t have cured. Maybe the steamed squash was intended as a foil to the star attraction, Vegan Shepherd’s Pie, the deficiencies of which I will not suffer upon the reader. The standout at this meal was the vegan chile, which did everything it was supposed to do and nothing it was not. At other meals, the lightly steamed kale stood out, especially when dressed by this writer with salt and olive oil. The hot cooked cereals were also warm and comforting, though again lacking in salt. I am not well versed in vegan lore, but I don’t think there is a prohibition on either salt or olive oil. The ashram made both salt and olive oil available on the buffet table. But salt is an essential ingredient in cooking, especially soups, stews and fresh vegetables. You can’t replace at the table what the cook didn’t add to the pot. I had the impression the cooks, many volunteers, weren’t actually tasting the food they served to Ashram guests before setting them out. They should. They should also embrace cooking with vegetables unapologetically, and not feel the need to attach the names of familiar meat containing dishes (Shepherd’s Pie for example) to their offerings. Also, and this is important, one less cat in the dining room would enhance the dining experience of all ashram residents. The convenient little cat door, allowing him access to the staff dining room directly onto their dinner table, I filed away under TMI.
And now a word about coffee, which should be read as an apologia for my unfiltered bile. Ananda Ashram, which I was assured would have coffee, had none – or rather none that would pass muster with anyone whose morning ritual includes any kind of brewed coffee. Standing next to the assortment of teas – green and black and herbal – stood two sad plastic containers of Folger’s Instant Coffee Crystals. So much for natural, unprocessed food. Since they offered teas that contained caffeine, I can assume the ashram does not prohibit caffeine as it does meat and alcohol. So why no coffee pot?
Behold, a formula simple enough for the enlightened to understand but offered from the perspective of such a curmudgeon as I am. Kale+Quinoa+Brown Rice+Time=Bowel Movement. Like so much of basic chemistry, this formula requires a catalyst, here in the form of caffeine, preferably in it’s most readily bio-​available form – fresh brewed coffee. Maybe if I’d had real coffee, I wouldn’t have been so cranky about the lackluster food. Maybe. Would I return to Ananda? Yes, but only armed with a pound of beans, a French press and a burr grinder.

My husband took me here for my birthday on July 1^st. We arrived in the early afternoon, even though check-​in isn’t until 4 p.m. Thankfully, since we were camping and not staying in any of the in-​house accommodations or apartments, we were allowed to set up right away.
The camping area is large and beautiful, though you need to avoid certain areas because of the septic. We went into the woods to find some shade and shelter, since it was supposed to rain. When we went back to the main house, a woman welcomed us and explained how the Ashram worked since it was our first visit. We were shown the main house, where the meditation and some classes take place, as well as a private silent meditation room upstairs. The daily schedule is conveniently placed outside the office on a big chalk board for reference whenever necessary.
The grounds are beautiful and have plenty of space to do your own thing, including hike, relax near waterfalls, on the lake or by the pool. There are multiple yoga classes and meditations each day and meals are included.
My only disappointment was in the selection of food for breakfast. I suffer from PCOS and I’m supposed to avoid carbohydrates and sugar because I’m at a high risk of developing diabetes. I figured since the place only said it was vegetarian (not vegan) that there would be eggs or cheese at breakfast, but there was only cereals, oats, granola, bread and fruit. The rest of the meals were delicious and had plenty of vegetable and whole grain dishes to choose from.
The meditations and chanting were beautiful and each yoga class was instructed by someone different, making each class unique.
The entire experience is so calming and tranquil. I only wish I could have stayed longer.

I spent Labor Day weekend here for their regular retreat. Excellent yoga classes, lovely grounds around a pretty lake and delicious vegetarian food were the highlights. Meditation was good but I am not a fan of the fire ceremony due to the fumes.
We stayed in a semiprivate room, which was quiet the first night but the next day, two toddlers arrived with their mothers, who did not respect the quiet rules and let their kids run down the halls and make noise early in the morning. Now that summer is over, it should be quieter but I do recommend that you ask if young children will be there if you book a semiprivate room as your stay may not be altogether peaceful.