5 Reasons Retreating Is the Future of Group Travel
For my fiftieth birthday, I planned a surf retreat for a group of friends and me.
I Intentionally never actually called it a retreat.
Let’s be honest. Most people hear the word retreat and picture people sitting around meditating, eating vegan food, chanting, journaling, hugging trees…you know the stereotype.
That’s the branding problem. Because that’s not all retreats are anymore.
There are surf retreats. Photography retreats. Golf retreats. Writing retreats. Birthday retreats. Family retreats. Food retreats. Pretty much any shared interest—or simply wanting to get a group of people together—can become a retreat.
One of the biggest things I’ve learned since owning a retreat center is that retreating isn’t just for yoga teachers, corporate teams, or wellness enthusiasts. It’s simply a better way for groups to vacation. Most people just haven’t realized it yet.
By the end of the trip, every single person wanted to come back next year. Not because it was my birthday. Just because of how it felt to travel that way.
Here are five reasons I think retreating is the future of group travel.
1. Retreat Centers Are Actually Designed for Groups
There’s a huge difference between a place that sleeps fifteen people and a place that’s actually designed for fifteen people.
Retreat centers are built around the way groups naturally spend time together. The dining table fits everyone. The living room fits everyone. The hot tub fits everyone. There are comfortable places to gather, spread out, play games, have conversations, or simply hang out without half the group standing because there isn’t enough seating.
Hotels separate everyone into different rooms. Vacation rentals often advertise that they sleep enough people, but somehow only have enough comfortable space for half that many people to actually spend time together.
Retreat centers are designed for groups. It sounds obvious, but after owning one for five years, I’ve realized how much of a difference that actually makes.
2. Nobody Has to Work on Vacation
If you’ve ever planned a group vacation, you know exactly how this goes.
Someone’s deciding where to eat. Someone’s making grocery runs. Someone’s cooking dinner. Someone’s doing dishes. Someone’s coordinating transportation. Someone’s making reservations. Someone’s answering, “So…what’s the plan?”
Everyone ends up working. It just looks different depending on who you are. Some people carry the mental load of planning and making decisions. Others are the helpers who naturally jump in wherever they’re needed.
On a retreat, nobody has to do any of it. That’s exactly why I chose to celebrate my birthday this way. I knew I’d love not having to carry the mental load for a week. I got to simply enjoy watching everything come together instead of managing it.
But there was something else I loved that I didn’t expect.
Two of my friends were uncomfortable. They’re helpers. The kind of people who automatically jump up to clear the table, wash the dishes, help in the kitchen, or make sure everyone else is taken care of. It’s just who they are. Except there wasn’t anything for them to do.
Over the first few days, I watched them slowly unwind. I watched them finally sit down with a book. I watched them take a nap in the middle of the afternoon. I watched them relax.
There was something really beautiful about watching people who spend so much of their lives taking care of everyone else finally let someone else take care of them.
There wasn’t a single argument. No raised voices. Not even a sarcastic backhanded comment.
It turns out people get along pretty well when everyone actually gets to be on vacation.
3. You Have a Team
You’re not just renting a place to stay. You have a team.
If you want to add an activity, someone helps coordinate it. If transportation changes, someone handles it. If you have a question, there’s someone to ask. If something comes up, there’s someone there to take care of it.
You’re not coordinating chefs, drivers, instructors, massage therapists, and housekeeping yourself.
The experience has already been planned. Someone else is making sure it all happens.
4. The Value Is Dramatically Higher
One of the biggest misconceptions about retreat centers is that they’re expensive.
Sometimes they are. But people usually compare the price of a retreat center to the price of a vacation rental—and stop there.
That’s not the real comparison.
The real comparison includes the vacation rental, all your meals, activities, airport transportation, and all the little expenses that somehow never make it into the original budget.
It also includes something that’s much harder to put a dollar amount on: having a team whose job is to plan, coordinate, and manage the entire experience for you.
Instead of spending your vacation organizing meals, making reservations, coordinating transportation, answering questions, accommodating dietary restrictions, and figuring out what’s next, you get to actually be on vacation, too.
I’m not saying retreat centers are always the cheaper option. I’m saying the value is dramatically higher.
5. You Actually Get to Spend Time Together
This is the reason all the others matter.
When the property is designed for groups, the meals are handled, there’s a team taking care of the logistics, and nobody is responsible for making a hundred decisions every day, something changes.
The vacation becomes about the people.
Nobody disappears to run errands.
Nobody spends an hour trying to figure out dinner.
Nobody is trying to coordinate everyone’s schedule.
Everyone gets to be present.
