Is this a wellness retreat or a corporate offsite?

Both, and the order matters. It is a wellness week that a company can hold its working sessions inside, not a conference with a spa attached. If your week is mostly plenary, we are the wrong operator.

How many people can you take?

Eight to twenty on a single week. Larger companies run the same programme as successive cohorts across a season. We do not put two hundred people in one room, because the format stops working long before that number.

Retreats are quoted per group and per date rather than per head, inclusive of accommodation, all meals, ground transfers, guides and the full programme. International flights are not included.

Which city should we choose?

It depends on where your team flies from and what the week is for. Casablanca for a team flying from the Americas, Tangier for a European one, Marrakech for a first outing, Rabat when the week is genuinely a working week, and the Atlantic or the Sahara when the point is to be somewhere nobody recognises.

Can we hold working sessions during the week?

Yes, in the mornings. We arrange the meeting space and the equipment. We will push back on afternoons: a group that sits indoors after lunch gets the worst of both a retreat and an offsite.

What about people who do not want to exercise?

Nothing is compulsory and nobody is made to perform in front of colleagues. Each day has a version that is a walk and a hammam. The point is rest and attention, not a fitness test in front of your manager.

How far ahead do we need to plan?

Eight to ten months for a specific week in high season, less outside it. The camps, guides and houses we use are committed earlier than most companies expect.

The desert runs late September to early June, because July and August are too hot in the Sahara for the camp to open. The Atlantic and the cities do not close, and coastal weeks work in summer.

Do you handle dietary requirements and medical needs?

Yes, and we ask for them in writing before anything is booked. We also give you, in writing, the drive time from each site to the nearest hospital and where mobile signal ends, because someone in your company will ask.

Do you handle flights?

No, deliberately. Each traveller books their own flight, insurance and visa. We are a licensed ground operator in Morocco, and the distinction is the difference between a licence we hold and one we do not.

For companies, and the people who work in them

The offsite your people need
is not a conference in a warmer country.

A week where the food, the light, the movement and the sleep are all handled, built around your team rather than around a meeting room. We design it and we run every hour of it.

Why a week, and why this one

Companies do not have a shortage of offsites. They have a shortage of weeks that change anything after the flight home.

The room was never the problem

Your people do not need another day of slides in a different city. What they are short of is sleep, daylight, movement and uninterrupted attention, and no agenda fixes those. A week where all four are handled is the only intervention that still works on someone tired in a way a weekend cannot reach.

Seven nights is the shortest week that works

The first two nights are catching up. The change happens in the ones after. That is why a two-day offsite feels good on the Sunday and has vanished by the Wednesday, and why we do not sell one.

Hierarchy goes quiet at the third dinner

People who have shared a long walk and a long table stop performing at each other. It is worth more to a team than any facilitated exercise, and it cannot be scheduled. It can only be made likely, which is a question of how the days are built.

What survives the return is the point

A trip is a memory; a protocol is a habit. We build the week so the sleeping, moving and eating have a chance of surviving the flight home, and we say plainly which parts will not.

What the days actually look like

Not a bootcamp and not a spa holiday. Work in the morning if there is work, terrain in the afternoon, and a middle of the day that belongs to nobody.

06:45
First light
Movement before the heat: mobility, breath, or a walk out of the door. Optional, and about half the room comes.
07:30
Breakfast outside
Bread from the village oven, eggs, fruit, and coffee worth getting up for. Nobody eats at a desk.
09:00
The working session
Three hours, one room, screens only if the work needs them. This is the block you came for, and it sits where minds are still usable.
12:15
Lunch, and it is long
One table, food cooked that morning. The meal is not a break in the day. It is where half the useful conversation happens.
13:30
Nothing
No session, no activity, nothing asked of anyone until late afternoon. Most people sleep. It is the first thing a corporate agenda deletes and the part your team will describe when they get home.
16:00
Terrain
Walking, surfing, riding, cold water, hammam. Chosen for the group in front of us rather than from a list of activities.
18:30
The hour before dinner
Hammam, a shower, a book, the roof. Unstructured on purpose: people need somewhere to put the day down before they talk about it.
19:30
One long table
Everyone, every night, food from the cooperatives we buy it from. No screens, no badges, and no seating plan after the first evening.
21:30
Whoever is still up
Fire, mint tea, and the conversation the working session did not reach. Nobody is expected, and this is usually where the week turns.

If the week carries real deliverables, a second working block replaces the afternoon terrain, and we will tell you which days can hold one and which cannot. Arrival and departure days are shorter. In the desert the whole day moves earlier, because the light does.

Where a week can land

The right city depends on where your team flies from and what the week is meant to do. We build in all of these, and we will tell you which one is wrong for you.

Marrakech and the Atlas

The easiest arrival, the medina, and a mountain pass an hour away. Where a first company week usually lands, and the base for the desert.

Casablanca

The business capital, and the only Moroccan city with nonstop flights from New York, Washington, Miami and São Paulo. About seven hours from JFK, which for a team flying from the Americas is the shortest distance between the office and the Atlantic.

Rabat

Administrative capital, coastal, and almost free of tourism. The quietest of the options, and the one to choose when the week is genuinely a working week.

Tangier

The strait, with Spain visible across it. The closest point to Europe and a short hop for a team flying from Madrid, Paris or Milan.

Essaouira

A fortified medina, wind, and the Atlantic. Two and a half hours from Marrakech, and the easiest place we know to slow a group down.

Taghazout

Surf, long beaches and cold water in January. The one that gets a team outdoors by nine without anyone having to ask.

Dakhla

A lagoon between desert and ocean in the far south, and the most committed choice on this list. It is a longer journey and it changes people more.

The Sahara

Our own camp in Erg Chigaga, sixty kilometres of piste beyond the last paved road, with no other group on it. Late September to early June: the camp does not open in July or August.

The eight terrains

The same four questions, asked of every destination.

Everywhere else on this site each place gets its own paragraph. Here they answer the same four questions in the same order, so you can weigh one against another instead of reading eight arguments.

Umnya destinations in Morocco compared by landscape, season, access and what a week there is for
Where	The ground	When it works	Getting there	What a week there does
Marrakech and the Atlas	Medina, palmeraie, and a mountain pass an hour away.	September to June. July and August are hot.	Its own airport, direct from most European cities.	The easiest first week, and the road that leads to the desert.
Casablanca	The working city, on the Atlantic, almost without tourism.	All year.	The only Moroccan airport with nonstop flights from New York, Washington, Miami and Sao Paulo. About seven hours from JFK.	The shortest distance between an American office and the Atlantic.
Rabat	Administrative capital, coastal, quiet.	All year.	Its own airport, or an hour from Casablanca by train.	The quietest option, and the one to choose when the week is genuinely a working week.
Tangier	The strait, with Spain visible across it.	April to October.	Its own airport. A short hop from Madrid, Paris or Milan.	Europe's doorstep, for a group that cannot afford to lose a day to travel.
Essaouira	A fortified medina, wind, and the Atlantic.	All year. Windiest from April to August.	Two and a half hours from Marrakech by road. A small airport of its own.	The easiest place we know to slow a group down.
Taghazout	Surf, long beaches, and cold water in January.	The surf season runs September to April.	Agadir, under an hour by road.	Getting a group outdoors by nine without anyone having to ask.
Dakhla	A lagoon between desert and ocean, in the far south.	All year. Wind strongest from April to September.	Via Casablanca. The longest journey on this list.	The most committed choice, and the one that changes people most.
Erg Chigaga, the Sahara	Our own camp, sixty kilometres of piste past the last tarmac, with no other group on it.	Late September to early June. The camp does not open in July or August.	450 kilometres south of Marrakech by road, then the piste. Helicopter to the camp's own helipad.	Where a week ends, and the part everyone describes afterwards.

Seasons are the reason our departures fall when they fall, not a preference. If a month you want does not appear beside the terrain you want, say so and we will tell you which of the two to move.

Eight to twenty, and what happens above that

A wellness week runs from eight to twenty people. That is not a logistics ceiling. It is the size at which a week still does what it is meant to do: above twenty, a reset quietly becomes a conference, and the part that matters is the part that disappears first.

For larger companies we run the same week as successive cohorts across a season rather than as one large event. It is slower than putting two hundred people in a room, and it is the only version that produces the outcome you are paying for. If what you actually want is a plenary for three hundred, we are the wrong supplier and will say so in the first call.

When the diary is the constraint

For founders, chief executives and boards, the obstacle is rarely the money. It is three clear days. There is a format built for exactly that: fly from Marrakech over the High Atlas, land at our camp in the erg, a night with nomads, and out by 4x4 through the Draa, Ait Ben Haddou, the Tichka pass and the Berber villages. Three days, and the following morning still works.

See the three-day executive format→

What we handle, and where it stops

Ours, from the moment they land

Designing the week with you. Choosing and testing the places. Every transfer, vehicle and driver. The guides, the teachers and the practitioners. All meals. Meeting space when the week needs it. And whatever needs solving four hours from a road.

Not ours

International flights, travel insurance and visas belong to each traveller, and we say so rather than absorb a cost we cannot control. We are a ground operator in Morocco, not a travel agency.

Four ways in

The question is not whether we take small groups. It is which week is yours.

We build weeks around eight guests because at four an empty seat costs more than a third of what the week earns, and a group that size stops carrying itself. That is a reason, not a door policy. Below eight there is still a way in, and it is the first one here.

From one guest

Join a published departure

Dates already set, a programme already built, and other people at the table. Come alone, as a couple, or as a family of five. This is how we take everyone under eight, and it is what most guests would choose anyway.

See the calendar→

Small groups, on application

Take a route that already exists

Six built journeys with no fixed date: Atlas bikes, a nomad trek, the roses, the Atlantic. You choose the route, we put your own people on it and build the dates around them.

See the six routes→

Eight to twenty

Privatise a retreat, or start from a blank page

An existing Umnya week with nobody else on it, or a week that does not exist yet: your terrain, your rhythm, your reason for going. Written proposal within a week.

Commission a week→

You already have the group

Bring the people who follow you

Studios, clinics, coaches, clubs and companies arrive with a community already formed. You bring the people and the teaching. We carry the ground: vehicles, permits, camps, food, guides, and the week itself.

How hosting works→

If you are not sure which of the four you are, say so in one line and we will tell you. It costs us an email and saves you a proposal built for the wrong week.

What companies ask first

Is this a wellness retreat or a corporate offsite?: Both, and the order matters. It is a wellness week that a company can hold its working sessions inside, not a conference with a spa attached. If your week is mostly plenary, we are the wrong operator.
How many people can you take?: Eight to twenty on a single week. Larger companies run the same programme as successive cohorts across a season. We do not put two hundred people in one room, because the format stops working long before that number.
What does it cost?: Retreats are quoted per group and per date rather than per head, inclusive of accommodation, all meals, ground transfers, guides and the full programme. International flights are not included.
Which city should we choose?: It depends on where your team flies from and what the week is for. Casablanca for a team flying from the Americas, Tangier for a European one, Marrakech for a first outing, Rabat when the week is genuinely a working week, and the Atlantic or the Sahara when the point is to be somewhere nobody recognises.
Can we hold working sessions during the week?: Yes, in the mornings. We arrange the meeting space and the equipment. We will push back on afternoons: a group that sits indoors after lunch gets the worst of both a retreat and an offsite.
What about people who do not want to exercise?: Nothing is compulsory and nobody is made to perform in front of colleagues. Each day has a version that is a walk and a hammam. The point is rest and attention, not a fitness test in front of your manager.
How far ahead do we need to plan?: Eight to ten months for a specific week in high season, less outside it. The camps, guides and houses we use are committed earlier than most companies expect.
When should we go?: The desert runs late September to early June, because July and August are too hot in the Sahara for the camp to open. The Atlantic and the cities do not close, and coastal weeks work in summer.
Do you handle dietary requirements and medical needs?: Yes, and we ask for them in writing before anything is booked. We also give you, in writing, the drive time from each site to the nearest hospital and where mobile signal ends, because someone in your company will ask.
Do you handle flights?: No, deliberately. Each traveller books their own flight, insurance and visa. We are a licensed ground operator in Morocco, and the distinction is the difference between a licence we hold and one we do not.

From the Journal

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Morocco Corporate Retreat ROI: What CFOs and Leadership Teams Actually Ask

Every serious corporate retreat conversation eventually reaches the same point. Someone asks the question that actually matters: what are we getting for this money, and how do we know? This article gives you that answer — in the specific figures and outcome data that finance and HR leaders need.

4 min read

Corporate Wellness Retreats in Morocco: Why Executive Teams Choose the Sahara Over Mallorca

The corporate retreat market is shifting. C-suite teams that once settled for a golf resort in Spain are increasingly asking for something more demanding, more transformative, and more memorable. Morocco, and specifically its extreme landscapes, has become the answer. Here is why it works, and what the return on investment looks like.

4 min read

The Case for a Leadership Offsite in a Remote Environment

Senior teams make their most consequential decisions under conditions that rarely favour clear thinking. A leadership offsite in a remote Moroccan landscape changes those conditions, and the reasons are partly neurological.

Beyond producing events

Running events in other people's places for years teaches you what those places get wrong. Three lines of work follow from that: advising the people who build wellness places in Morocco, operating the wellness side of their assets, and giving investors an independent reading of it.

Consulting

Wellness and hospitality consulting

Feasibility, positioning, programme design, recruitment, opening. Then the mandate to run it, when that is what the project needs.

Consulting→

Wellness real estate

The wellness side of a development

For developers, owners and residence programmes: the club, the spa, the recovery floor. Designed, branded and operated.

Wellness real estate→

Investment advisory

Wellness investment in Morocco

For owners, developers, family offices and operators: an independent reading of the wellness side of a project, then the concept, the operator and the partners.

Investment advisory→

Market entry

Opening in Morocco

For wellness and hospitality brands: market, sites, partners, permits contacts, architects, works follow-up and opening, or one flagship event.

Market entry→

Tell us about the team, not the venue.

How many people, roughly when, where they fly from, and what should be different about them in six months. We come back with a city, a format and a rate.

Start a conversation→

No commitment and nothing to buy at this stage. If the season or the fit is wrong we will say so first.

Booking for a client rather than your own team? Agencies have their own page. See the wellness layer for agencies →

Looking for the Marrakech and Agafay offsite, in three formats? See the company offsite →

The offsite your people need is not a conference in a warmer country.