Our journey began in Varkala, India in 2010. Since then we’ve been steadily building a community of surfers, dreamers, yogis and voyagers who share our love of soul and surf. After years of returning to Portugal’s south coast, we made things a little more permanent with our surf and yoga retreat here in the Algarve in 2019.
We struggle to capture the essence of the Soul & Surf experience in words, maybe like a surf camp for grown-ups or a yoga retreat without attitude – but ultimately we are a place where you’ll meet, hang out with and share ideas with other interesting folk from all over the world.
We are open for all-inclusive surf & yoga retreats.
Come for a week (or part week during green season) and feel the benefits of progressing together as a group with your coaches and instructors helping you to build and develop your surfing, yoga and wellbeing day by day. With 3 hearty and healthy sunshine food meals included daily you can really switch off and let us take care of you.
The farmhouse is steeped in the Portuguese hills, just a short drive from those Atlantic rollers this place is famed for. It’s a far cry from our beachside surf & yoga retreat in Sri Lanka, or cliff top hotel in India; we are right on the fringes of Europe here, and we’re celebrating that in all its exposed, rugged and wild glory.
It is perfectly located to give us access to the quaint beauty of the south coast with its rolling hills, pretty coves and caves as well as the wild, weathered western Atlantic coast for more dramatic landscapes and beaches. The farmhouse feels deep within the Portuguese countryside, yet we are just a 10 minute drive from Lagos and the closest surf spot.
Come and practice yoga, meditate, eat sunshine food, recharge, surf the Atlantic waves – or just hang by the pool. Oh, and you can enjoy getting to know the whole heap of life-affirmingly brilliant people on our team making it happen too.
Not able to stay at Soul & Surf but still want to experience surf lessons in the Algarve? Luckily for you we just opened a surf school nearby…
We’re all about bringing people together whether it’s out in the lineup, stretching in the yoga shala or around the dinner table. We’re designed to be so much more than another Algarve surf camp, cramming kids into dorms with huge surf lessons. Imagine yourself waking up in the heat of the Portuguese countryside, surfing waves overlooked by tawny sunkissed cliffs, practising yoga as the sun is setting and chowing down on healthy but hearty local fare – obviously starting your day with a coffee and a pastel del nata, because when in Portugal…
Doesn’t sound too bad, does it?
There are no typical days when it comes to the Atlantic coast but we thought you might want to see what you could be getting up to here in the Algarve. We’ll be surfing when the swell is just right, the wind is good and crucially the tide is right and stretching in between.
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A TYPICAL DAY AT SOUL & SURF PORTUGAL |
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6.30 am |
Wake up, stretch your weary limbs, drink coffee, eat a little breakfast and fruit and grab a healthy snack pack. |
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7.15 am |
Leave for your surf lesson to find the best waves for the day. |
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1.30 pm |
Eat a well earned, delicious, healthy lunch overlooking the gardens and put the world to rights. |
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2.30 pm |
Lounge by the pool and catch some rays, have a massage, join a soul of surfing workshop session, heck why not even have a snooze. |
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5.00 pm |
Sunset yoga and pranayama sessions. |
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7.30pm |
We’re knackered and want to go to bed but there are plenty of bars in Lagos open until whenever o’clock if you’ve still got the energy… zzzzzz |
Need more info on why you should stay with Soul & Surf? Luckily Ed wrote a thing…
Picture this: you arrive a little tired from an early flight into Faro airport. After an hour of driving through quaint Portuguese villages as the sun rises, the light hits our beautiful Quinta (Portuguese for farmhouse) at just the right angle, bathing its entrance in golden hues.
You step in, and it feels like a version of home. Outside you’ll be surrounded by idyllic countryside, inside it feels familiar and cosy.
We’ve chosen the Western Algarve for our third full-time location for Soul & Surf. We are located just outside of the town and marina of Lagos, a walled old-town crammed full of shops, cafes, restaurants and bars.
The Quinta ticks all our boxes, from exposed beamed ceilings and log burners to traditional Portuguese finishes. You’ll be able to chill by the pool when you’re not surfing and enjoy some alfresco dining on the main terrace. Oh, and there’s a BBQ and pizza oven in case you fancied some homemade wood-fired fare. Plus let’s not forget the orchard and beautiful gardens you can explore too.
Check out what’s included, what extras are available and indicative prices.
Read MoreWe very much welcome families coming to stay with us and do what we can to make it affordable and workable with the kids. But we have to be realistic too. So if we can add extra beds or a cot to your room we can keep things very reasonable, if the kids need their own room we have to charge the normal rate. We have a couple of rooms which are good for families who would like to add an extra single bed or a cot. Contact us at enquiries@soulandsurf.com before you book to enquire.
We love the kids to join in with whatever we can reasonably allow them to do. Surfing is an inherently dangerous activity so we have to have some limitations, you check them out on our surf lessons page. As for yoga, talk to the yoga teacher when you arrive if you’d like your kids to try yoga. It has to be at the yoga teacher’s discretion and not to the detriment of our other yogis’ experience.
Read LessAt the edge of it all
Where the deep water meets the shore
And seabirds trace time in flight
Sits the place at the perimeter…
