Wellness
& Meeting with the Locals
The oldest wellness practice on earth is still alive in Morocco. We will take you to it.
Marrakech · Morocco
The retreat
Slow down enough
to meet the people.
Most retreats take you to Morocco and give you Morocco as a backdrop. This one takes you to the people who live here. Three days in Marrakech: yoga, medina walks, a morning with Berber women in the cooperatives, the hammam as it has been practiced for five hundred years. Two days in the High Atlas: walking with nomadic shepherds in the mountain valleys, lunching in a Berber household, understanding what the land provides.
Three nights in the Sahara at Umnya Dune Camp: evening fires with the camp's Sahrawi team, walking at dawn in the silence before the heat, a cooking session using only what the desert edge provides. Eight days of yoga, culture and human connection. No agenda beyond the day in front of you.
Apply for this retreat“The deepest wellness practice in Morocco is the oldest one: slowing down enough to actually meet the people who live here.”
Sunrise yoga every morning
Meeting the people of Morocco
Traditional cooking class
The experience
What awaits you
Yoga and movement
Daily morning yoga in Marrakech, the Atlas and the Sahara. Each setting changes what the practice means. The same postures, three different skies.
Walking with nomads
Two-day walk with Sahrawi nomadic shepherds in the valleys around Erg Chigaga. Understanding the routes, the water sources, the seasonal rhythms of desert life.
Meeting with Berbers
A morning with an Atlas Berber family: their household, their livestock, their argan cooperative, their food. Not a tour - a visit.
Cultural visits
Medina walk in Marrakech with a local guide who grew up here. Pottery cooperatives, spice merchants, the tanneries, the hammam. The city at its own pace.
Pottery workshop
A half-day in a Marrakech pottery studio with a master craftsman. The oldest craft in Morocco, practiced in the same workshops for centuries.
Hammam and cooking
Traditional hammam ceremony mid-retreat. A cooking class with a Marrakech chef: the spices, the tagine, the slow food of a thousand years of Moroccan hospitality.
Day by day
Eight days in Morocco.
Arrival in Marrakech
- Welcome dinner in private riad
- Introduction to Moroccan culture
- Evening medina walk at dusk
Marrakech: medina and cooperatives
- Morning yoga
- Medina walk with local guide
- Visit to argan cooperative with Berber women
- Hammam ceremony
Marrakech: pottery and cooking
- Morning yoga
- Pottery workshop
- Cooking class with local chef
Into the High Atlas
- Transfer to Atlas Berber gite
- Afternoon walk in the mountain valley
- Dinner with Atlas family
Berber family visit and mountain walk
- Morning yoga at altitude
- Visit to Berber family household
- Guided walk to mountain pastures with local shepherd
Transfer to the Sahara
- Transfer south via the Draa Valley
- Arrival at Umnya Dune Camp
- Evening fire with the Sahrawi team
Walking with nomads
- Pre-dawn walk with nomadic guides
- Morning yoga on the dunes
- Afternoon rest in camp
- Nomad storytelling session
Return to Marrakech
- Farewell breakfast at camp
- Return transfer to Marrakech
- Departure
Included
Everything.
- 3 nights private riad Marrakech
- 2 nights Berber gite High Atlas
- 3 nights Umnya Dune Camp (double)
- All meals, including those cooked in the homes we visit
- Guided walks with nomadic shepherds
- Berber family cultural visit
- Medina walk with local guide
- Daily yoga sessions
- Traditional hammam ceremony
- Pottery workshop
- Moroccan cooking class
- Private transfers throughout
- Single supplement on request
- The Umnya kit: hand-woven fouta, engraved flask, and the piece made for this retreat
Getting there
How to arrive.
Accommodation: double rooms throughout. Single supplement on request. Private riad in Marrakech, Berber gite in the Atlas, Umnya Dune Camp in Erg Chigaga. All meals included - many prepared by local families.
Fly into Marrakech Menara (RAK). Direct connections from London, Paris, Amsterdam and most major European cities. All transfers included. This retreat is designed to move at human pace - no rushing, no connecting flights within Morocco.
Nearest airport
These weeks run with a partner
This retreat is not on open sale. We build it with a studio, a club or a clinic that brings its own group, and we open a date around their season rather than ours. Tell us who you would bring and when, and we will come back with a week.
Design this together→Continue exploring
Related at Umnya.
Edition
Atlas Summer 2027
Our annual signature edition in the High Atlas, Berber villages and mountain silence.
Women's Retreats
A women-friendly retreat
Wellness, culture and slow encounters across Morocco, in a women-led format.
Studios & Clubs
Co-brand this retreat
Private wellness and cultural retreat for your studio, with category exclusivity.
2027 Season
Receive the full programme
8 days · 8 to 14 guests · Morocco. We send the itinerary, dates and availability by return.
No newsletters. One email with the programme, nothing more.
Where you stay
Superior accommodation, chosen on the ground by our own experts.
Nothing on this site was booked from a catalogue. Every riad, camp, kasbah and guesthouse was found, visited and slept in by one of our experts before it was ever offered to a guest. The standard is superior throughout, and the reason is practical: after a day of walking, surfing or altitude, comfort is not a luxury, it is what makes the next day possible.
Visited before it is offered
Our team travels the country year-round. If one of us has not slept there, it does not go into a programme.
Original, never generic
Private riads, our own exclusive-use camp in the dunes, restored family kasbahs, guesthouses in Berber villages. Places you cannot book from a screen.
Comfort as a working tool
Real beds, hot water, quiet rooms, proper food. Recovery is part of the programme, not an afterthought.
Groups & circles
Coming as a group?
Six of you or more, and the whole retreat can be arranged around your circle. Tell us the size and the dates, and we prepare a proposal for you.
Request a group proposal→A departure for your circle alone
A private date set aside for your group, at the pace and in the season that suit you.
One group at a time, never mixed
You are never placed among strangers. The camp, the table and the guides are yours.
Group rate and privatisation on request
For six guests or more we prepare a tailored proposal. Simply ask.
Eight days. Three landscapes. One Morocco.
Submit your application. We respond within 48 hours.
Apply for this retreat