Yoga retreat with Lisa Ganster

Our camp is located on the northernmost edge of Portugal, about 80 km north of Porto, right on the Spanish border and right in the heart of the Costa Verde. The region is largely one of the lesser-known parts of Portugal. Here you will find secluded sandy beaches, extensive nature reserves and a hinterland untouched by tourism. As a cultural highlight, Porto also has a very special flair and is ideal for a day trip or weekend stopover.

One day a week we take a break, giving you the opportunity to discover the many excursion possibilities in the region with us. The Serra d’Arga nature reserve, for example, is a fantastic excursion destination and can be easily reached in 45 minutes. There are numerous hiking trails & cycle tours, beautiful river courses and whole herds of wild horses to discover.

At the other end of our bay – accessible on foot via the beach – is Vila Praia de Ancora. There are many cafés and bars on the beach promenade, various restaurants and you will also find our local surf store here, where we can negotiate good deals for you. If you stroll through the side streets, you can discover a few small squares, more cafés and lots of typical Portuguese house facades.

Caminha, the border town to Spain, is around 15 minutes away by car and has a medieval town center – there are a number of cafés around the fountain in the market square where you can easily spend an afternoon. There is also a regional weekly market, great restaurants and smaller festivals in the summer.

The largest town near us is Viana do Castelo. Not only is it home to one of the best beaches for surfing in northern Portugal, there is also a charming old town, nice shopping streets and a large shopping mall. Viana do Castelo also has a number of first-class restaurants, where we have spent many a pleasant evening.

As we all live together in our camp, it is important to us that you can decide for yourself whether you want to have lots of people around you or just want to doze, read or relax as a couple. That’s why we have deliberately designed our three camp houses differently so that everyone can find their own space. The idea at Goodtimes Surfcamp is that all the houses can be used and not just the house in which you are staying. In the living room of Casa David you will find chessboards and board games, surf magazines and non-fiction books on the topic. After dinner, people like to sit together, chat and laugh a lot – sometimes even at our Goodtimes Bar. The yoga house, on the other hand, is quiet, where you will find instruments, yoga reading material and the general atmosphere of the house sometimes also encourages artistic exchange. In this way, we want to offer everyone the setting that he or she needs on vacation. Our Casa Miguel has its own garden, a small kitchen and its own living room and is suitable for a retreat from the main camp or for families with small children, for example.

Our double rooms are available with a large double bed or two separate single beds. If you are traveling alone and would still like to stay in a double room, that’s no problem at all: in this case you will meet a nice roommate on site. We make sure that the rooms are occupied by people of the same sex unless you specifically request otherwise.

If you prefer to have a room to yourselves, you can book a single room for an extra charge. This means you can decide for yourself at any time whether you want to mingle with the other guests or simply withdraw for a while. Our single rooms have either a large double bed or two single beds – in which case the second bed simply remains free.

In addition to the double and single rooms, we also have rooms with a private bathroom. We particularly recommend our suite for parents with small children, so that you don’t have to worry about the other guests if your child doesn’t want to sleep at night. However, the suite is also suitable for couples or friends, as we can equip it with either a double or two single beds.

Our kitchen is run by two trained chefs, so the food here is sure to be one of the highlights of your vacation. All meals are healthy, varied and largely prepared from regional products. Meals consist of 7 breakfasts, 6 lunches and 5 dinners – we naturally have insider tips for the two restaurant evenings so that you can get to know the local cuisine even better. On request, we are happy to offer purely vegetarian or vegan meals and can easily cater for any intolerances – without you having to do without anything.

The day starts with an extensive breakfast, which you can put together yourself at the buffet and eat at the breakfast table, on the terrace or at one of our cozy sunny spots scattered around the grounds. One thing is certain: breakfast tastes particularly good with a view of the waves. Freshly baked rolls, bread, cheese & cold cuts, jams and a small muesli station are supplemented daily with various extras and on two days you can look forward to a big breakfast special that our chefs will prepare for you – let us surprise you.

Lunch is always planned so that you come out of the water after surfing and have a delicious meal on the table straight away. We serve lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, soups and salads and at least once a week we turn lunch into a small event in the garden. It’s important to us that you can quickly recharge your batteries with a light meal so that you can possibly do a second session or go to yoga afterwards and still be provided with a varied and, above all, delicious meal.

Our dinner is usually served in the garden with a fantastic sea view and always consists of three courses: a creative appetizer, a main course and a dessert creation. This is where our chefs really come into their own in culinary terms and the location, the sunsets over the sea and the excellent quality of the food create a great atmosphere in which to relax at the end of the day.

There are almost always waves on the northern Portuguese coast and in May, June and October in particular, one or two good swells will also bring us bigger waves. The probability of good conditions is consistently high in the north of Portugal, and compared to France or Spain, we definitely have the edge during our seasonal periods. Thanks to our many different spots, we also always have the option of choosing a larger or smaller wave for surfing, depending on what we need.

For our surf courses, we use softboards for beginners. If you are interested, we have hardboards that are suitable for switching to more advanced equipment. We are happy to take an extra board for you during the courses.

For advanced riders, we have a test center with 20 boards ranging from shortboards to longboards. So you can experiment and have the right board for every wave size.

Our wetsuits are 4 mm thick and more than sufficient for an extensive session.

Our equipment is always at your disposal, even outside the courses.

Yoga and surfing are a perfect combination. In addition to our surfing courses, we offer daily open yoga classes that you can join spontaneously. You don’t need any previous experience and you don’t have to register separately, our yoga teachers have a lot of teaching experience and can adapt to the level of each individual. The sessions usually take place on a beautiful wooden platform of the old fort right by the water or, depending on the wind and weather, in the garden or in our yoga room. A session lasts 75 minutes and costs €15.

We offer at least 5 sessions per week, which are held by our in-house yoga teacher. These classes are supplemented by additional classes from two local yoga teachers with whom we have been working for several years. Meditations outdoors or in our yoga house are also part of our program. The content of the yoga is adapted to the surf sessions: Yoga before surfing is designed to activate and prepare you for the physical exertion, while the sessions after surfing primarily have a relaxing “cool down” effect. We try to adapt the classes to the daily schedule and leave enough time between the different program points.

The yoga classes at our camp are not only intended to provide you with a physical balance to surfing, but also to ensure that you can really switch off during your vacation. The best place to do yoga with us is without question the wooden platform at the old fort in front of the camp. The platform ends just a few meters from the water’s edge, so the yoga sessions here are accompanied by the sound of the waves. In and around the fort, there are also idyllic places for meditation among the rocks.Of course, there is also a yoga room with a great view of the sun setting over the sea – in the evening, lots of candles and lights create a particularly beautiful atmosphere in the house. We use this room for yoga classes when they take place indoors, and this is also where we keep our equipment. In addition to the classes, you can also use the room for meditation or private yoga in consultation with us.Yoga on the lawn in the garden is also a wonderful experience and is particularly suitable for balance and partner exercises.

We have all the equipment you need for your yoga sessions on site. For outdoor yoga, we recommend one of our mats as an additional base if you are traveling with your own equipment. As it can get a little chilly when the sun goes down, we also recommend suitable sportswear. Our equipment is cleaned regularly and is available to you free of charge at all times.