Ideal for a holiday that breaks tradition, Soul & Surf Portugal is opening for the Summer Season with a holistic blend of blue health, Algarve surf and yoga-based adventures
Ideal for a restorative holiday this summer, Soul & Surf Portugal is set to fully open for the 2023 season from 31st March with a dreamy programme of surf lessons, yoga, meditation and massage offered from their Iberian farmhouse base close to Lagos on the Algarve.
Ideal for surfing beginners or ocean veterans, their ‘soul of surfing’ approach is suitable of all levels at the Iberian finca. It’s as relevant to those starting from scratch to those looking to improve their intermediate or advanced surfing skills with the emphasis on understanding the ocean and being respectful to it as well as the blue health benefits.
The yoga shala in the orange grove is already scented by spring blossom and the tables beneath the avocado trees are waiting for salty surfers to tuck into their sunshine food menu. The Portugal team will be headed by Caitlin, Joel & Danila.
Accommodation starts from just €120 per person per night including full board meals and based on two sharing. And, for peak season from June until October there are easier on the wallet bell tents in the olive grove priced from €105 per person per night, including full board based on two sharing.
Curate your own programme
While there is option to book surfing, yoga and massages on the hoof, to save money and ensure you get the instruction you want and when you want it guests are encouraged to pre book a programme which can include just surfing, just yoga or both and a massage or two to ease tired bodies.
While guests don’t need to be experienced surfers or yogis, intermediate and advanced surfers and regular yoga practisers make up a good share of Soul & Surf’s guests. Soul & Surf invites guests to have a stretch, have a massage, breathe in the sea air and treat themselves to a sunset cocktail or two. The Portugal retreat aims to deliver the right balance between restorative goodness and relaxation.
Soul Surfing for 2023 and the four pillars
Bringing a quiet revolution to the old style of teaching, Soul & Surf instructors offer a programme using their four pillars to help improve guests’ wave riding and enlighten them about blue health and ocean literacy. Ocean Literacy (coined by UNESCO – Ocean Literacy | IOC UNESCO) helps you gain confidence in catching a wave and feel the positive effects that the waves have on physical and mental health and wellbeing.
The teaching syllabus is rooted not in how quickly you can stand up or how many waves you can catch, but helping guests reach the point where they experience the meeting of the craft of surfing and the wave. Practice, progress, confidence and respect are at the very heart of becoming a surfer as well as increasing a sense of play not just success in the water.
For more information on Ocean Literacy, why it matters and how Soul & Surf apply it to both their company ethos and their lives as surfers visit:vsoulandsurf.com/journal/soul-of-surfing-the-four-pillars-ocean-literacy/
The Quinta and Bell Tents
The traditional whitewashed Iberian farmhouse is single story, has exposed beamed ceilings, amazing tiling and is enveloped with orange, palm and avocado trees. There’s a pool to chill by, alfresco dining on the main terrace and a BBQ and pizza oven for homemade wood-fired fare.
The Quinta offers just nine rooms, four with private facilities with extra capacity during the summer months with five metre bell tents available between June and October. They are fully kitted out with proper beds and furnished in the same style as the rest of the retreat with access to shared bathrooms.
It’s a place for families too, especially tweens and teens to enjoy the surfing and beds can be added to some rooms and yoga and surfing tailored.
Sunshine food
‘Sunshine Food’ can be summed up as neither Insta-perfect hipster poke bowls or Michelin fine dining but just the right amount of naughty indulgence and restorative goodness. Local produce and Portuguese dishes are a definite as is fusing health with indulgence. Typical breakfast dishes expected for the summer season includechai muffins, homemade granola, spelt crepes and spinach waffles.
Yoga and surf weeks from €1150 per person
A popular programme starts from €1150 per person for a week’s full board stay and five surf and five yoga sessions. Or pay as you go – yoga can be booked from €17 per session or €80 for five sessions, with two-hour surf lessons from €65 or €310 for five lessons (including surfboard and wet suit hire). The pricing is aimed to be super flexible with a full list of options here. Onsite massages and therapies can be booked too.
The traditional farmhouse base is easy to get to being less than an hour for Faro airport. The countryside location is just outside the laid-back surf town of Lagos with easy access to the south-west peninsula with amazing waves and conditions for all abilities on both the west and south coast.
For the full range of packages to Portugal and onsite therapies to book, visit soulandsurf.com/retreats/portugal/book/
