Our story
A retreat company built on a simple grudge
We kept paying for retreats that promised transformation and delivered schedules. So in 2017 we built the one we wanted to join.
How it started
From two friends and one very brave email list
Maya was a designer running weekend classes in a borrowed studio. Tomas had spent a decade organizing walking tours across Portugal and Morocco. Over a long dinner in Lisbon in 2016, we compared notes and found the same frustration: retreats that felt like timetables with incense.
Our first retreat was eight friends in a rented farmhouse in the Algarve, April 2017. We cooked, we taught, we fixed a shower together. Somewhere around the second night, watching everyone argue cheerfully over dishes, we realized this was the actual product: people with enough slack in the day to enjoy each other.
Nine years later the groups are strangers instead of friends, but the shape holds. Small houses, honest food, real practice, and days with gaps you can hear the birds in.
What we believe
Four rules we never bend
Small, always
Twelve guests on most weeks, fourteen at an absolute push. Big enough for good energy in the shala, small enough that dinner conversation includes everyone.
Places with a pulse
We avoid resort bubbles. Our venues are family run, our guides are local, and your money deliberately stays in the towns you walk through.
Honest itineraries
What you read is what happens. Free time is scheduled on purpose, nothing is mandatory except meals, and nobody will ever shame you for napping.
Practice over performance
No handstand contests, no juice fasts, no before and after photos. Yoga here is a practice for your actual life, taught by people who still love teaching it.
The people on the mat with you
Meet your teachers
Every Zenora retreat is led by at least two of our resident teachers, supported by local specialists wherever we land.
Maya Chen
Founder, lead teacher
Started yoga at 19 to survive design school and never really stopped. Trained in vinyasa and yin, has led over 90 retreats, still cries at the closing circle.
Amara Osei
Vinyasa and meditation
Ghana born, London raised, now based between Costa Rica and wherever the next retreat is. Her strength classes are famous, her playlists are disputed.
Sofia Lindqvist
Yin, restorative and breath work
Former ICU nurse turned restorative specialist. If you arrive unable to relax, she considers that a fun challenge rather than a problem.
Come see what a week can do
The retreats sell out months ahead, but the conversation is always open. Tell us where you are starting from and we will tell you honestly whether a Zenora week fits.
See the retreats