Quinta Marugo

( the story )

Thirty hectares of quiet Alentejo countryside near Serpa — ten adults-only ensuite rooms, a swimming pond, and food largely grown or made on the land.

where it begins

Quinta Marugo extends over thirty hectares of secluded country outside Serpa, deep in the Alentejo. Ten ensuite rooms make it small, and it is adults only, which keeps the quiet intact. Instead of a pool there is a swimming pond; there is a pagoda used for one-to-one coaching, lounges, vegetable gardens, chickens, solar panels and bees. Most of what you eat is grown here or comes from close by — the bread and ricotta are made on site, the honey comes from those hives. The retreat calendar is unusually broad: yoga and wellness weeks, women's retreats, Pilates, writing, burnout prevention, and horse-assisted leadership work.