NEW YORK — Don't just take a vacation. Change your life.

That's the concept some resorts are selling to a growing number of people for whom an exotic getaway just isn't enough. The purveyors of yoga and wellness vacations promise more than mere relaxation; they promise transformation.

Ask why someone would choose a yoga vacation — and the meditation, body contortions and discipline that go with it — and the answer repeats: People go for life-changing experiences.

Three years ago, Tiffanie Archie, a senior project manager at an online financial services firm in Washington, D.C., decided to vacation at the Miraval resort outside Tucson, Ariz. Miraval — in which AOL co-founder Steve Case bought a majority stake in 2005 — aims to take the spa experience into something spiritual and holistic. For $500 a night — including lodging, meals and services —Archie said she found what she was looking for: "An opportunity to go somewhere and be quiet and focus on myself and let the stress melt away for a bit."

Archie, 31, says she returned annually to Miraval for the horseback riding, spa and adventure activities but she didn't try a yoga class until earlier this summer. Hooked, she took a second, monthlong vacation.

Now Archie says her vacation has become about more than de-stressing from work and daily life. It's as much about "finding inner peace."

People don't just want a break from the office, they want vacations that can change their lives, said Ken Johnson, owner of Retreats Online. The Internet listing service advertises yoga getaways in the U.S. and abroad, which cost between $100 and $500 a day.

"People are dissatisfied with their life for some reason and they want to get a fresh start," Johnson said. "So they go to a yoga retreat or a detox retreat so they can learn how to get going in a different direction."

From luxury hotels to rustic retreats, yoga offerings and yoga-centric vacations have increasingly become a carrot to lure customers who want more than an appealing place to stay and entertainment. The past five years have seen growth in yoga vacations that is emblematic of a larger trend in the travel industry, says Allen Kay, spokesman for the Travel Industry Association.

"Wellness and fitness fit right into that pattern of an ever-broadening array of niches that the travel industry is catering to," Kay said. And, like so much in marketing today, it's driven by retiring baby boomers concerned about their wellness and with the income to do something about it, he said.

Marketing and research firm Ypartnership said its latest survey of affluent travelers — the top 7 percent of U.S. households, those that bring in more than $150,000 a year — found that 30 percent of respondents named yoga as their favorite spa program or service. Massage was the most popular with 65 percent.

Yoga vacations come in many incarnations. The high end can range from packages at luxury resorts to all-inclusive vacations to India, Chile, Bali or elsewhere. There are also more-austere retreats that offer the bare bones — more meditation than amenities — and cost much less.

The Feathered Pipe has been offering yoga retreats at its ranches in Montana since 1975. Back then, yoga was lesser known in this country, said India Supera, co-founder and executive director. The people who came were mostly young and open to the groovy new thing. They stayed three weeks for $500, she said.

Today, the Feathered Pipe offers weeklong retreats at its Helena and Wolf Creek ranches — but also luxury yoga vacations abroad. In October, the Feathered Pipe will take about 30 people on a 10-day, $8,000 trip to a resort in Kerala, India, headlined by popular yoga personalities Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman.