You are looking for a location. The website looks good, the photos are right, the atmosphere seems to fit. But what exactly is included? It’s nowhere to be found. You have to call to find out, and then it turns out that food is separate, bedding costs extra, and the yoga mats you saw in the photo actually belonged to the previous group.
We do things differently. At Yūgen Forest, a retreat location is always all-in: location, overnight stay, and all meals included, from €165 per person per day. Your group sleeps in off-grid cabins or glamping tents in pairs, with beds made upon arrival. It works for groups of ten or more, in the summer in the Tipi and Slot Roggebot, and in the winter for up to twenty in Slot Roggebot. Further down, you can read exactly what you get, what you arrange yourself, and what it costs.
What is included, and what is not
You arrive, we welcome your group and give a tour of the grounds. After that, the place is yours.
Renting a retreat location at Yūgen Forest is always all-in: use of the location, overnight stay, all meals, campfire moments, and materials are included. The facilitator arranges their own styling, decoration, placement of materials in the session room, checking in participants, and lighting the campfire. Additional wellness can be added as an option. All prices are exclusive of VAT.
What that means in practice: you don’t have to think about beds, meals, coffee, firewood, or meditation cushions. They are there. What you do yourself is set up the space as your program requires. This is a conscious choice. It gives you freedom in your own rhythm and means less presence from our team during the sessions.
Yūgen arranges:
- Use of the session and sleeping locations
- Overnight stay in cabins (off-grid) or glamping tents for two people, with beds made upon arrival
- Cleaning of the sanitary facilities at the glamping during your stay
- All meals including service and washing up
- Coffee, tea, and fruit water all day
- Two campfire moments
- Yoga mats, mattresses and fitted sheets, meditation cushions, back-rests, blankets, and pillows
- Firewood and gas heaters where necessary
- Tourist tax
The facilitator arranges:
- Checking in participants into cabins or tents
- Lighting the campfire (explanation upon arrival)
- The styling and decoration of the session space
- The placement of mats, mattresses, and other materials
- Closing the location via the key safe
- At check-out: participants remove linens and leave them by the door
Wellness (sauna, hot tub, and cold plunge) can be added as an option. We also have a beautiful singing bowl set that you can rent.
The locations: summer and winter
In the summer period, from May to September, the Tipi and Slot Roggebot are available. The Tipi is a large, round ceremony space that offers room for groups that want to start or end the day outside. The Slot is available year-round.
From October to April, the Slot is the only session location, for groups of up to twenty people. That is not a limitation. Winter is quieter. More intimate. Often more powerful. For silence retreats, truffle retreats, or small groups that really want to be away, the winter period is ideal. The grounds are empty, the forest has a different voice, and the concentration within the group is different than in the summer.
Research by Kaplan and Kaplan shows that contact with nature restores cognitive fatigue, even outside the growing season. The soft, effortless attention that an outdoor environment requires gives the mind the space that intensive sessions take away. That works in August. It also works in December.
The food
Food is part of the program, not an interruption of it. What you taste here comes from the land you walk on. The kitchen works with the estate’s vegetable garden and tailors the menu to the theme and rhythm of the retreat, in consultation with you as the facilitator.
The basis is plant-based and nutritious. Light enough to keep the afternoon sharp, nutritious enough to sustain the evening. Specific dietary requirements, such as gluten-free, sugar-free, or Ayurvedic, are negotiable. Research shows that plant-based, unprocessed food has a measurable effect on mental clarity and mood, exactly the kind of support participants need on a day when much is asked of them.
For multi-day retreats, we also provide landing nourishment after a ceremony: light, well-timed, and tailored to what the group has just experienced.
The location carries the program
Intimate, dedicated environments build something that large, commercial settings cannot: the feeling that the place is yours. That participants can settle in. That there is space for whatever wants to emerge. No reception desk with three other groups, no lunch buffet shared with a team outing.
You have a powerful program. What you need is a place that carries it and doesn’t get in the way.
- Download the brochure for the full package overview
- Prefer to discuss directly? Schedule a no-obligation call.
Read more? How do you choose a retreat location that truly fits your program?