T'ai Chi Summer Holiday
Varberg, Sweden | 2-7 August 2010

The series of summer T'ai Chi holidays, now into its fifteenth year, traditionally alternates between the UK and Scandinavia, as a result of the creative partnership between our two leaders, Catherine Robinson of Kent, and Gudrun Gylling of Gothenburg. This year it's Sweden's turn, and the holiday will be in Varberg, a small town on the south west coast.

Read about the Varberg region in English

Read about the venue, the Hotell Gästis

The hotel is quite out of the ordinary - much ingenuity has gone into the decor of the guest rooms, no two of which are alike, and in the basement is a complete replica of Lenin's magnificent bath-house, available for the use of guests. There's a commodious bar and restaurant within the hotel, and various excellent T'ai Chi places nearby, including on the ramparts of the ancient fort, looking out to sea.

Unlike the venues of previous Scandinavian holidays, Varberg is easy to get to - you can fly Ryanair to Gothenburg (sometimes for a fiver or less), and from there it's 40 minutes on a train for about £7 one-way. A vegetarian menu is available, but you must indicate this choice on the booking form. A variation this year is while breakfast and dinner are included in the price, participants must make their own arrangements at lunchtime - an opportunity to try Varberg's various restaurants and cafés. There are no single rooms available - all the rooms have either twin beds or doubles. Maybe you can persuade a friend to come with you and share your room - there's an opportunity on the booking form for you to specify who you'd like to share with, and whether you'd prefer twin or double beds. When allocating rooms, we'll do our best to comply with your request. If you really want a room to yourself, it may be possible depending on availability; it'll cost an extra 2800SEK, and you need to tell us straight away, but we won't know if it's possible until close of bookings (after 1 July). Please contact us to discuss.

As always, the week will include plenty of opportunities for T'ai Chi and Qi Gong, both practising the form as a group and in smaller sessions working on details of the form and further explorations of T'ai Chi practice. Our T'ai Chi is the Yang style long form as taught by Gerda Geddes whose pioneering research into the symbolism of T'ai Chi is central to our approach. Students of other forms are also welcome to join us as many of the principles of T'ai Chi are common to all styles. The programme will also include singing with Moa Brynnel, whose voicework sessions have been a revelation to previous T'ai Chi Holiday participants who may not have considered themselves as singers. It's a holiday - no-one is expected to take part in everything on offer (but you can if you want). There will also be free time to explore the locality.

Booking

Until both Britain and Sweden give in and join the Eurozone, we'll continue to face exchange-rate complications. This holiday is priced at 5800SEK (Swedish Kronor). The rate fluctuates daily, but at the time of writing that translates at almost exactly £500. An easy-to-use currency convertor is available at xe.com.

The payment terms are as follows: to secure your place, you need to pay a deposit of £50. This can be done online using any credit or debit card, or PayPal, by following the link below.

Alternatively, you can download a booking form to print out and send by post with your cheque. For clarity, please use a separate online booking, or separate downloaded form, for each person in your party. Whichever method you use and whenever you do it, the £50 deposit will be taken to be worth 580SEK which is 10% of the total course fee. The balance, the remaining 5220SEK, must be paid by 1 July to Gudrun Gylling using international bank transfer. We'll send you a booking confirmation which will include the bank details necessary to complete this payment.

Because of variations in the rate, no-one knows when is the best time for you to make that payment. If you're lucky, the pound might go up and you might pay less than £450 - but if you hang on, waiting for the rate to drop, you may nevertheless end up paying more. Please be aware that different banks apply different charges for international transfer at both ends of the transaction, and you must ensure that Gudrun receives the total amount - if charges are deducted, you'll be liable to pay them when you arrive. As you can imagine, booking rooms in a hotel on spec is a risky business, and the T'ai Chi Holiday can't survive on uncertain financial foundations. We need to advise the hotel of final numbers, so we may not be able to accept further bookings after Thursday 1 July.

Cancellation

If you decide to cancel your booking, we may retain your deposit unless we can easily fill your place. If you cancel after 1 July, you will be liable for the full amount and we recommend that you have adequate travel insurance to cover you against this possibility. If we have to cancel the course (it hasn't happened yet) anything you have paid will be returned.