The Evening Standard on Marnie Rays and the New Wave of Alternative Retreats

Back in early 2024, as our Portugal retreats headed into their second year, the Evening Standard's Hayley Spencer profiled the London founders behind the year's best alternative retreats — and Marnie Rays was one of them.

The premise of the piece is one we've always believed in: retreats don't have to mean women-only codes, strict itineraries, detoxes or vitamin drips. Small groups, solo-traveller friendly, emerging locations loved by travel insiders — and feeling recharged as a happy side effect rather than a syllabus.

The moment it started

Lindsey told the Standard about the exact moment Marnie Rays became an idea:

"I was sitting in my favourite place — China Walls in Hawaii — during a surf trip thinking about how it's changed my life and how it made me feel. I wanted to be able to spread that to other people."

The brief we still build every retreat to

The piece also captured what we set out to fix about the retreats Lindsey had experienced as a guest — the "rough around the edges" hostels, the intimidation factor:

"I wanted to offer the same community and joy, and break down the barriers of it feeling intimidating, but also provide people with a certain level of luxury so that they could feel really nurtured on their solo trip."

High-end accommodation, charismatic instructors, renowned chefs. That was the must-have list then, and it hasn't changed.

You can read the full piece on the Evening Standard — or see what that brief looks like in practice on our current retreats.