About Meretes Garden
Glamping – accomodation in beautiful suroundings. We offer sustainable accomodation in big eco cotton tent at Summertime and an all year around room inside an unique bath – house. A retreat where you can totally be yourself, a place with a big heart. Fall asleep to the sound of the river and wake up to singing birds and join a morning class with yoga. One of our main attractions is a handmade sauna which we heat up with wood. In addition you can admire the beautiful nature through a big window.
If you are very stressed and want to take relaxation a step further we offer mindfulness walk in the beautiful nature surrounding our place, and yoga in an old fashion greenhouse. This makes your stay in Norway to a both relaxed and special experience you not easily will forget.
MERETE MYKLEBUST
Merete grew up at the farm she step by step now has built up to a retreat. She has a vary background from food technology to yoga and therapy. Working with people has been the main occupation beside running the yoga, spa & retreat. Merete loves creative development and entrepreneurship which results in attractive spaces to people to capture. Yoga, sauna and nice spots with lots of beautiful nature around is a concept she hopes will add the little extra to your life quality. She believes that everything in life exists to make awareness. And your attitude to what happens is often crucial to your wellbeing.
Valldal – The Adventure Valley
Valldal is the nr. 1 adventure valley in our region, Møre og Romsdal. Some of Norway’s most breathtaking landscapes can be found in this area – the deep blue fjord surrounded by majestic, snow-covered mountain peaks, wild waterfalls, and lush vegetation is one of the most popular places to go for vacation for Norwegians and people from all over the world. Here you can really explore outdoor activites on your own or by highly qualified guides. We suggest you visit our cooperating partners Uteguiden Valldal for kayaking, rafting and canooing etc. and Valldal Activitypark which offers tree – and – post climbing courses for the whole family – both in a distance within a 5 minutes drive from our retreat. Active people need good food. Then we can highly recommand restaurants which offers tastful local food at the fjord or go to our partner at the Stavseng mountain for delicious foodadventures. For evening activities as bowling, dancing or eating pizza we suggest you visit Kulå bowling.
Yoga and mindfulness
After having moved back to Valldal, Merete continued my studies and practice of mindfulness and yoga, and she is now a qualified yoga teacher in classical hatha yoga.
To use our bodies, be aware our breathing and focus on presence we enhance our life quality enormously. You can book your private lesson for both yoga and mindfulness while styaing at our place.
Sustainability
Norwegian philosophy is very much that conservation is everyone’s responsibility.
The locals try to leave as small a footprint as possible. At Meretes Garden we practice sustainability by taking extra good care of the enviroment, our unique nature and community and our guests of course!
What about packing your assignments in a suitcase and go for a worcation here? In the shoulder season October – May you can ask for a good offer and dispose the whole guesthouse on your own.
Cultural treasure
Hike proposal estimated 2-3 hours: Klovseter, Heggesetra, Nysetra, Nestestølen, Åsesetra.
Escape the big crowds and the hustle and bustle, and visit one of many idyllic «seter» – Summer mountain pasture for animals with old traditional tiny houses called «sel» up in the mountains. This is bautifully open spots where the farmer brought their animals for the Summer. Young girls living here worked hard from morning to night while looking after the herd. Milking, cheeking butter but also time for dancing and romantic moments when young men visited the «seter» Saturday evenings.
THE PLACE
The retreat Meretes Garden has a unique situation in what is called the strawberry village – Valldal, known for its majestic mountains, a mighty river with its powerful waterfalls, and the deep blue Fjord of Norddal. In the middle of the UNESCO World Heritage area of Geirangerfjord and Tafjord. And also a very short trip to the famous serpentine Summer road Trollstigen.
The beautiful nature is the heart and the pulse of the retreat. Here you will find nice spots for meditation, a little zen alike path from the garden leads you down to the peaceful surroundings of the beautiful river Valldøla. You can also walk directly from our camp to a forest road which is part of the Valldalsleia pilgrim route to Trondheim. If you are in a good shape you can make a hike to a monastery ground right above centre of Valldal.
We aim to be an oasis for senses, body and soul. A place you can find new energy, reach your inner self and feel peace and quiet. The feeling of being close to earth, and the connection between man and nature has made this a good place to be.
HISTORY
The history of the Myklebust Farm is told through three generations. Meretes grandfather bought this farm where Merete grew up. Back then he grew vegetables and kept livestock on the farm.
Grandfather was an adventurer and had seven children. He went to Alaska as a golddigger like many others from the villages around the fjord. He came back with enough money to start his own factory to produce jam from local berries and fruit together with his brother. Nils, Meretes father, studied to become a gardener and started horticulture on the farm in 1953. This is what today is the centre of the retreat, Meretes Garden.
In the greenhouses they grew tomatoes and cucumber. The smell of warm tomatoes are memories that have inspired Merete to grow her own products as well. They also used to grow cabbage, carrots and strawberries for own household, and for commerce. In 1988, the new greenhouse was constructed.
Merete took over the farm in 2009, after they finished production. But she wanted to bring on the memories of a beautiful, lush and fertile place, and make it into an oasis for people to unwind. It is well known that gardens have a calming and terapeutic effect on us. Researchers have found that there is a link between good health and being in, or look at a garden. Green plants stimulate our senses in many ways, by smell, sound and vision.
In the same way as both her father and her grandfather followed their dreams, and their passion for what comes from earth, this need has also followed Merete, though in a slightly different way.
And you notice, the moment you enter the retreat. The feeling of peace and quiet, of being close to nature, grounded to earth. You are present, in an oasis where you can lower your shoulders and open up your mind.
FACILITIES
The kitchen & communal room
The old packing house was used to pack tomatoes, mix soil and plant seedlings, and is now housing a brand new and modern kitchen. Here you find a dining table seating 10 people. A sitting group with panoramic windows. This room can be used all year round and is designed in a retro style. We like to describe it as homely and relaxed. It is perfect as an assembly room.
The Bathhouse
A new bathhouse containing showers, toilets, a beautiful sauna and a massage room has completed the retreat. Here are also a lounge for relaxation and a luxury bathroom with a tub from which you can admire the magnificent nature. When building the house our priority was on using whole wood, enviromentally insolation and paitning to make a healty house to stay in. Also furnished with bambus or local made furnitures of best quality.
The Glass Greenhouse
Right outside the sittingroom you enter this little greenhouse which has a very special light and atmosphere. It is one of many rooms at our retreat which gives the feeling of being close to nature. It is a perfect place just for sitting down on rainy days or chilly nights. Also a nice place for creative workshops, and works as a studio for yoga during the summer months from May to the middle of September.
The Japanese garden
This garden is established in what remains of the old greenhouse walls. 200 square meters are made into an oasis that is lush and green all year round. A place that invites you to sit in peace and quiet. The garden is balanced with the elements of earth, fire, air and water. Here you can relax while enjoying the sight of the fish swimming in a pond, the birds flying in the sky and the water quietly drizzling.
Green travelling
We want to help you explore Norway with a cleaner conscience by offering a sustainable accommodation. Both outside and inside in Meretes Garden there is plenty of space for inspiration and creativity. Just imagine calming down for a couple of days in one of our stylish and natural yurts made of cotton. Lots of fresh air and few people. Only 5 yurts at the camp. Walk in the nearby lushious area or mountains, pick your own berries or relax in our wooden fired sauna, swim in the fjord or the river. Spend a day kayaking at the UNESCO fjord Tafjord or take a short hike up abow th famous Trollstigen road surrounded by Instagram-friendly green adventures.
Sustainibility: The old greenhouses are as made for strengthening the boundary with nature, the peace and calm of the retreat. Peace and quiet give you the opportunity to listen to your body and your heart.
Meretes Garden is certified as Miljøfyrtårn®
Meretes Garden is certified as a sustainable establishment by Norwegian authorities.