What if, for three days, you had nowhere to get to?
We live surrounded by stimuli, schedules, notifications and tasks. This retreat comes from a simple idea: to create space to stop. For three days, nature becomes the place where we walk, observe, breathe, draw and simply are. It is not an escape. It is a pause.
A place where history can still be felt.
On the banks of the Lima river, Paço do Vitorino is a family house with centuries of history, surrounded by gardens and landscape. Its baroque-inspired garden, architectural details and many spaces tell the story of the house. Here the experience does not simply happen in a hotel — it happens in a place with history.
Discover Paço do Vitorino
Entering nature in another way.
Forest Minds invites you to slow down, observe and pay attention to what surrounds you. During the retreat we explore nature through the senses, movement, attention and contemplation. No previous experience is needed — not in meditation, not in drawing.
Observe
Noticing what usually goes unnoticed.
Breathe
Creating space to slow the pace down.
Connect
Rediscovering your relationship with the place and yourself.
Nature is not the backdrop. It is the method.
Shinrin-yoku — forest bathing — was born in Japan in 1982 as a public health policy and is today one of the most researched wellbeing practices in the world.
Cortisol
Lower salivary cortisol and greater parasympathetic activity after a morning in the forest.
Park et al., Environ Health Prev Med
Natural defences
Two to three days of forest immersion increased natural killer cell activity, lasting weeks.
Li, Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol
Enough to begin
Twenty minutes of mindful contact with nature measurably reduces stress markers.
Hunter et al., Frontiers in Psychology
A mind that recovers
Nature asks for a soft attention that restores focus, working memory and creative clarity.
Attention Restoration Theory, Kaplan
Forest bathing
Walking slowly, with no destination and no goal.
Drawing in nature
Drawing not for the result, but to see better.
Sensory attention
Listening, touch, smell and temperature, back to the present.
Shared silence
Being in a group without having to talk.
Drawing is a slow way of looking.
For centuries, anyone who wanted to understand nature began by drawing it. Naturalists' field notebooks were not works of art — they were ways of being present, page after page. At the retreat we return to that gesture, without hurry and without an audience. We don't assess results.
Three days to step out of autopilot.
Arrive & slow down
- Arrival and check-in
- Welcome and introductions
- First contact with the Paço and its gardens
- Dinner
- Forest Minds opening moment
Into the forest
- Forest Minds
- Sensory walk
- Attention practices in nature
- Landscape and its history
- Nature Drawing
- Free time and contemplation
- Dinner and integration
Integrate & take with you
- Forest Minds
- Walk and reflection
- Nature Drawing / observation
- Time to enjoy the Paço
- Closing and final integration
This retreat is for you if…
- you feel you need to slow down
- you spend too much time on autopilot
- you love nature
- you want something different from a conventional weekend
- you want to disconnect from everyday stimuli
- you enjoy walking, observing and discovering
- you're curious about drawing and creativity
- you're looking for wellbeing without artificial formulas
No previous experience is needed. Not in Forest Minds, not in drawing, not in mindfulness.
The experience includes
- 2 nights' accommodation at Paço do Vitorino
- Full Forest Minds programme
- Walks and nature experiences
- Exploration of the history and surrounding landscape
- Nature Drawing session
- Drawing materials
- Moments of integration and contemplation
- Meals included according to the final package
- Small group
Places are limited to preserve the quality and intimacy of the experience.
A pause that starts with a choice.
per person · Early Bird / first bookings
Standard price: €695 / person
- Dates
- 13, 14, 15 November
- Location
- Ponte de Lima
- Participants
- Maximum 20 places
- Format
- 3 days · 2 nights
Single room option available with a supplement.