What to Consider When Booking a Private Group Retreat

Before you look at venues, agree on four things: how many people are coming, your budget per person, your preferred dates and who will make decisions. SOLARA private retreats are for groups of 8 to 30 at our four properties, and planning goes fastest when one person gathers everyone's needs and speaks to us.

Who are private retreats for?

We plan private retreats for friends, families, communities and special-interest groups. The reason might be a birthday or an anniversary, a club or yoga studio wanting a week away together, or simply a group of old friends who never manage to see each other. If you are organising for a company or team, use our corporate enquiry form instead, because the planning questions are different.

Start with the numbers

Numbers decide almost everything else, from which property fits to what the week costs per person. Before you contact us, try to answer these within your group:

• How many people are likely to come, and what is the smallest number that would still work?
• Who is happy to share a room, and who needs a room of their own?
• Your budget per person for the retreat itself, not counting flights or trains
• Preferred dates, and how far you could move them
• Diets, allergies, mobility needs or anything else we should plan around

A rough answer is fine. It is much easier for us to adjust a plan for 14 people to 12 than to start from nothing.

Which venue suits your group size?

Each property suits a different size and style of group.

• Monte da Luz, Costa Vicentina, Portugal: 8 to 20 guests in eleven rooms around a courtyard, with a covered shala and a salt-water pool. We run retreats here from October to May.
• Rumah Tirta Retreat Centre, Ubud, Bali: 10 to 24 guests in garden villas and a two-storey lodge, with an open-air practice pavilion. We run retreats here in the dry season, April to October.
• Hotel Ciasa Lärch, the Dolomites, Italy: 10 to 30 guests in a family hotel with a sauna, steam room and a studio. We run retreats here from late June to mid-September.
• Sjövik Lodge, Värmland, Sweden: 8 to 16 guests in a timber lodge and six lakeside cabins, with a wood-fired sauna on the jetty. We run retreats here from May to September.

Will you have the whole property?

At Monte da Luz, Rumah Tirta and Sjövik Lodge we can book the whole property, so the only people there are your group and the house team. Hotel Ciasa Lärch works differently: we reserve a block of rooms and the hotel's studio, and other guests may be staying in the hotel at the same time. For most groups that is not a problem, but it is worth knowing if privacy matters to you.

Plan the room arrangement early

Room plans cause more back-and-forth than anything else, so it helps to think about them before the proposal stage. Every property has shared twin rooms with two single beds, plus private rooms or cabins. At Sjövik Lodge the twin rooms in the main lodge share bathrooms, two rooms to a bathroom, while the cabins have their own shower rooms. At Rumah Tirta the private villas have outdoor bathrooms, which some guests love and others would rather know about in advance.

We build the room plan around who wants to share and who needs privacy, and the per-person price reflects that mix.

How much of the week should be guided?

Most groups want a mix of shared sessions and free time. You can include as much or as little as you like: yoga, meditation, breathwork, writing workshops or guided walks, led by facilitators such as Inês Duarte, Marcus Hale, Amara Osei, Ketut Ariana, Sofia Brandt, Daniel Moreau and Elin Lindqvist. A common pattern is one guided session in the morning, a free afternoon and a long dinner together.

We can also arrange local outings with partners we know, such as boat trips, temple visits in Bali, hut lunches in the Dolomites or wine tastings. If you ask for something we can't do well, we will tell you.

Food, diets and celebrations

Menus are planned around your group's diets. Our kitchens cater for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free diets, but they are not allergen-free environments, so tell us about allergies early. If the week marks a special occasion, we can plan a celebration dinner.

How does booking a private retreat work?

• Tell us about your group: numbers, dates, budget and how you would like the week to feel. Our groups coordinator replies within two working days.
• Within five working days we send a proposal with a draft schedule, a room plan and a per-person price.
• We have one call to adjust the programme. One person on your side makes the final decisions.
• A 30% deposit secures the property. Guests can pay their share individually.

Questions to settle within your group

A few conversations are easier to have before anyone pays a deposit:

• Who has the final say if people disagree about dates or activities?
• What happens to the cost per person if someone drops out?
• Will everyone book their own travel, or will some people travel together?
• Has everyone arranged travel insurance? We ask every guest to have cover for cancellation and medical costs.