Nov 2025 A note and update from Andrew November 2025

Nearing the end of 2025, it’s incredible to think Wild View Retreat’s been running retreats for over 8 years. Surviving the challenges of Brexit/C19 whilst building a new wellness retreat from an abandoned village in Portugal in 2016 to 2022, the first 6 years have not come easy. I can finally say the last 2-3 years we have turned a corner.

This is without doubt due to the amazing team around me – Jess, Sandra, Bruno, Andre, and our satellite team of fabulous Nutritional Therapists, Fitness Instructors and Yoga Teachers who come out for each retreat and give everything they have for the guests. This, combined with phenomenal guests that return year after year – you know who you are – has given us that continuity and certainty that’s been necessary to keep going and not give up. We have managed to make it through and turn survival (flight and fight) into a great success, firmly establishing Wild View Retreat as a credible and respectable retreat centre in the Wellness Industry. We are now a leading wellness retreat venue in Portugal, a position I could never have ever possibly envisioned. It was only supposed to be a yoga deck and a couple of tents! Being a nutritional therapist and yoga teacher myself has definitely helped with the vision, but a lot of the success has been down to pure grit and determination of the team that has made it work. This and the desire to help change people’s lives – if it wasn’t for this critical feedback loop that we get at the end of each retreat week, the energy would soon be drained out of it. It is so empowering to witness the transformations that take place in just 7 days, when guests turn up as coiled springs and return home nurtured and blossoming flowers. We now have over 400 5 star reviews on Google and Trip Advisor combined which is just remarkable. I feel the rating is solely down to the input our team gives on a daily basis making the customer experience as exceptional as it possibly can be. We are by no means the Four Seasons, but the location, attention to detail and staff support to the guests make it a pretty close yet different experience. 

The key to survival was understanding the sudden market changes in demand for beautiful venues in Europe after C19, with close proximity to a low cost airport that could be rented by wellness professionals for exclusive private use. After C19 suddenly the whole wellness industry needed a venue for their communities to meet and interact on a personal level and not just online and we happened to be ‘popping up for air’ just at the right time. There was a lot of luck because I didn’t set out for this, my plan was to run our own retreats all year but it simply wasn’t sustainable. So by complete default rather than any grand design, we happened to create a venue that is our unique selling point and in high demand for use by the wider wellness community. Everyone wants a private safe and secure space to take their tribe away for some self reflection and personal growth and Wild View Retreat provides the perfect space for that. We have now worked out that running about 14 of our own 7 night retreats each year is the perfect number to meet the demand from our own clients whilst retaining our high standards high, energy levels, passion and enjoyment of the weeks. The rest of the year Wild View Retreat is taken over by some incredibly talented wellness leaders and studios from all over the World.

So what now? After putting every ounce of my mind body and soul into Wild View Retreat, I have decided to take a little step back from being the customer face of the retreats. I’ll still be very much ‘hands on’ and overall in charge but won’t be involved in the running the retreat programme anymore. I have the most amazing team who do that and they do a phenomenal job every week, way better than I do (the 5 star reviews when I haven’t been present don’t lie!). They empower, support and care for our guests so brilliantly I know they’ve been the key to our success alongside our fantastic local ground team that always go above and beyond supporting our rental group and exclusive private hire clients.

So the areas I am still going to leading on are:

• Leading the Nutrition and Wellness Programme
• All client Enquiries
• Bookings
• Social Media and Newsletters
• Website 
• Marketing
• Team Recruitment
• Maintenance and Repairs
• Managing the core team
• Future Plans.

Of course I will always still be available to any guest or team member if anyone would like to speak to me.

For now I am going to ‘trust’ and ‘let go of the control’ and also focus on my own self care and evolution and spend more time with my amazing beautiful wife Erika. She has been unbelievable supportive and patient on the sidelines these first 8 years. It’s now time for me to be more present with Erika and support her, whilst overseeing the business I will always still be available for any guest, client or team member when they need me.

In December and January we close to paint the rooms, do all the pool repairs and make the retreat as good as new again before we open for our first juice detox retreat on January 31st. For New Year my Mum Val, sister Sue and her family are coming to Wild View Retreat to join Erika and I for week – its nice to be able to use the space for our own personal enjoyment now and then now the retreat is working well. I am very excited about our new chef Imi and his amazing food for our healthy food retreats and rentals retreats in 2026. I am also super happy we have sold out most of 2026 rental weeks already and our own weeks are nearly a third full we are now starting rental bookings for 2027!

Thank you to all our amazing team, local staff and all of you who have supported us in these early years. Whether it be a simple comment of support on our social media or attendance or booking on one of our weeks, every atom of your input has culminated into the evolution and creation of Wild View Retreat. For this, I am extremely grateful and proud of what we have done. This old abandoned set of ruins now has a legacy that will never be taken away.

Take care of yourselves folks and see you on the other side x Andrew