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Every Bigger Life Adventures retreat begins with a story and ours starts with two travelers who turned their healing journey into a global community.

Together, Carrie Hoffman and Zach Minnich built Bigger Life Adventures from a shared love of yoga, recovery, nature, and meaningful travel. What began as a vision to explore the world more consciously has evolved into a movement of alcohol free retreats, vegan yoga retreats, and adventure-based healing experiences that bring people together from around the globe.

Carrie and Zach’s partnership is both the heart and the compass of this work. Their combined paths; from personal recovery and spiritual practice to years of backpacking, cooking, and teaching have shaped the foundation of Bigger Life Adventures’ trauma-informed, inclusive approach to wellness.

They believe transformation happens when we slow down, connect deeply, and live with purpose. Through yoga, Ayurveda, and plant-based food, they’ve created retreats that invite you to experience what freedom, community, and adventure can feel like, fully awake and alive.

Explore Upcoming Retreats →
Read Carrie’s Story ↓
Read Zach’s Story ↓

Carrie: E-RYT500 • YACEP • Yin Yoga Teacher • Trauma-Informed & Teen Yoga Teacher (PYP/Yoga Ed.) • Ayurvedic Health Counselor (800h) • RYT200 (Quantum Yoga) • WFR (NOLS) • Permitted Guide, Grand Canyon NP
Zach: Reiki Master • Holistic Nutrition • WFR • Permitted Guide, Grand Canyon NP • Author, Plants on Plates (2024)

Our Story:

From the day Carrie quit the Peace Corps, our two stories became one. We criss-crossed the country, putting in road tripping miles, eventually settling in Arizona and then California. We hosted CouchSurfers from all over the world, and Couchsurfed ourselves to save money and make authentic connections on many international trips, 

In 2012, we spent seven months traversing Latin America, seeing 10 countries, volunteering, learning, exploring. At home, Carrie worked serving and bartending jobs for easy tips, and Zach got into cooking.

Zach started cooking from the bottom of the ladder, quickly moving up to a fine dining establishment in San Diego. Zach learned about world cuisine, worked through different positions in the kitchen, and eventually became friends with the owner’s daughter, who was a vegan chef. Better vegan cooking was an exciting thing to learn, as Carrie had been a vegetarian since before they met. Zach and a friend eventually started a food truck together, which grew very popular very quickly, and the job soon took over Zach’s entire life.

Throughout these years, we were both drinking and partying more and more. It was very normalized in the restaurant industry, but as we got older and the blackouts, hangovers, and drunken arguments got worse, we stopped being able to deny that we were were addicted to alcohol. After many unsuccessful attempts to moderate her drinking, Carrie hit “rock bottom” and got sober first, in 2016. She though her life was over, that she’d never have fun again, that she was destined to a boring, alcohol-free life. 

Luckily, she was wrong. Carrie gradually found redemption, healing, and a new zest for life through recovery meetings, yoga and meditation, running, and finding new friends and activities. This change almost broke us up because Zach was not ready yet to quit drinking and for two years our marriage was very rocky. Finally, Zach followed suit and admitted that he could not overcome Substance Use Disorder without help. Although we no longer attend AA, it was educational and instrumental for both of us in the beginning as a new sober community and therapeutic process. 

Our wanderlust got strong again, and in spite of some fear-based advice from AA people, we moved to Thailand and then later Sri Lanka, working for hostels and vegan cafes and yoga retreats. We wanted more out of life than the normal settling down with jobs and a house – more worldwide experiences, more learning, more adventures.

In 2018, Carrie enrolled in her first yoga teacher training at a wonderful yoga school in Sri Lanka and the concept for Bigger Life Adventures was born. While exploring the majestic temple ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia with a friend, she said to us, “Why don’t you guys just do yoga retreats? You have all the skills and travel experience for it!” At first the imposter syndrome was strong, but by the end of that short trip we had a business name, website, and tentative plan! We hosted our first yoga for recovery retreat at a simple campground in SoCal that summer, and some of the guests who attended then still come back regularly to this day!

In 2019 we opened Grand Canyon Eco Retreat, a glamping, yoga retreat, and guiding business near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. We hosted sold-out retreats at Grand Canyon Eco Retreat for five years, while also hosting trauma-informed retreats in different destinations with Bigger Life Adventures!

Bigger Life Adventures is the result of all of our skills coming together – hospitality, world travel, yoga and Ayurveda, plant-based cooking, and outdoor adventure guiding. We hope to continue in lives of service, hosting retreats and sharing what we have learned in our years of travel and recovery from addiction, trauma, and stress.

Fast forward to 2025, and we have hosted nearly 100 yoga and adventure trips around the world with hundreds of people. We’ve traveled to 44 different countries on our own and hosted our yoga and adventure retreats in six countries and four US states for all different types of people – people in recovery from addiction, people who are sober-curious, or people who are just seeking a deeper, healthier travel experience and a bigger, more exciting life! We’ve awarded half-price scholarships for many retreats to people with financial need. All our retreats are open to all, alcohol-free and trauma-informed. We are all recovering from something! 60% of our clients come back again to at least one more retreat, proof positive that the community we have created is wonderful and powerful!

Carrie spends time training yoga teachers in trauma-informed teaching techniques, offering classes in treatment facilities and schools, and running the yoga program at Flagstaff’s Juvenile Detention Center. She has also become an Ayurvedic Health Counselor and enjoys teaching workshops and doing private consultations to share this holistic wellness approach, the sister science of yoga, with people who need it.

Zach has become a Reiki master and just published his first cookbook, Plants on Plates.

Carrie’s Story

I grew up as a shy kid in the midwest. Every summer, my parents would load up our minivan and pop-up camper and we’d drive to National Parks, campgrounds, and lots and lots of historical sites all over the US and Canada. I remember being completely mesmerized by my first sight of the Rocky Mountains at age 6, so the seeds of loving nature and travel were planted at a young age.

Even though I was a quiet introvert, I always had an internal voice telling me that I was meant to live an extraordinary life. This voice led me towards performing arts, and I spent countless hours playing clarinet in band, singing in school choirs, and acting in theater. I desperately wanted to get out of Ohio and live the artist life in a big city!

I also grew up with a lot of religious indoctrination, perfectionism, and undiagnosed mental illness in the family. To cope I became stoic and self-sufficient at a young age, and also frequently disassociated (not that I’d realize that was what was happening until much, much later.) I’d escape into my imagination, write poetry, and dream about my escape.

Eventually I studied theater and film at a college near New York City. It was there that I began to question the conservative Christian beliefs of my family, and this questioning coincided with my discovery of alcohol. I distinctly remember the first time I ever “caught a buzz”, that warm and relaxed euphoric feeling of having all my social anxiety erased, finally.

Despite drinking and partying on weekends, I continued to be an overachiever throughout college, pulling straight As, working part time, and having a blast exploring New York City with friends. My interests in social justice and anthropology developed during these years, and in 2007 I volunteered on a summer trip to Kenya. The volunteer work and integration into Kenyan culture was amazing, as were the opportunities to drink cheap Tusker beers and party with my new friends. After graduating from college early in 2008, I moved back home to Ohio for 6 months to work at a restaurant while awaiting departure for my “dream job” in Peace Corps Tanzania…

During this brief pause in Columbus, Ohio, Zach and I met at a bar and my life changed forever. We went on our first date and then became inseparable, even though he knew I was preparing to leave and be in the Peace Corps for over two years.

We shared a similar upbringing and desire for adventure, and also a youthful and irresponsible love of partying. Before I knew it, I was in love, and in denial. “If I were you, I wouldn’t leave…” my best friend warned me. But Peace Corps had been my dream for several years, and I couldn’t imagine myself changing course for a guy. On the night I said goodbye to Zach I sobbed out, “I love you,” and he responded, “I love you too.” And I got on a plane the next morning.

We kept in touch the best way we could with letters and emails. Peace Corps was truly “the toughest job you’ll ever love”, and even though I breezed through training, once I got to my isolated, middle-of-nowhere village by myself, the reality set in. There were high highs and low lows. Drinking was a huge but unhelpful coping mechanism for my depression and sadness over missing Zach.

Zach’s Story

I grew up in a small town in Ohio. My parents homeschooled my brother and I, and we did a lot of hands-on learning. I enjoyed math, science, music, and art! I remember being obsessed with dinosaurs, spaceships, legos, and building forts in the snow, plus sports – baseball in the summer and ice hockey in the winter. 

After high school, I headed off to Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. This was my heading off to the big city moment, leaving my small town. There was so much more to the world and I felt very free! But college dragged on and my major was much more dull and boring than I expected. I found myself growing more interested in entrepreneurial endeavors and less interested in career engineering jobs.

I grew up being told to be careful of alcohol, like it was in my genes to abuse it. Eventually I stopped listening to the advice of my family and started drinking more and more. It made me feel less socially awkward, having been pretty uncomfortable my whole life. I gradually used it more and more, abusing it often and having a lot of friendships that revolved around drinking.

The few months after meeting Carrie were (at that point) the best of my life. I felt like I finally had someone to adventure with, something I had been craving since childhood. She quickly became my best friend, even with her pending departure to Africa looming. As hard as it was, I vowed to myself to not ruin that adventure for her, and didn’t ask her to stay.

After she left, I spent a whole winter with a blanket over my window, smoking weed, and lost in a cold world of darkness. I knew my time in Ohio was nearing its end, so I looked for something else to do to clear my mind. I helped my parents move to Arizona, and imagined a life out there, away from all the flat cornfields of my youth. Whenever I received a letter from Carrie, with exotic stamps, in brown paper envelopes… those were the best days.

Eventually Carrie came back for the wedding of her childhood friend. I picked her up from the airport and she took me as her date. When it was time for her to go back, I again vowed to allow her to make her own choice, as hard as that was. She admitted that Africa was really hard, and that she wasn’t happy there. I’m glad she decided not to go back, as hard as that decision was for her.

Helpful Links

・Retreats – dates, pricing, what’s included
・Scholarships & Ethics – half-price options + values
・Sober Travel Stories – reflections, tips, and wins
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