TL;DR — For a first ayahuasca experience we recommend the 4-day retreat with two ceremonies. The 6-day retreat suits people who want more time between ceremonies, and the one-night ceremony is for those who already know the medicine or truly cannot stay longer.
If this is your first time and you are asking which retreat to choose, the answer is the 4-day retreat with two ceremonies. It gives you a first night to arrive, a second night to go deeper, and the mornings in between to make sense of both. The 6-day retreat is the right choice if you want more space between ceremonies and more time to settle before you travel home. The one-night ceremony exists for people who already know the medicine, or who genuinely cannot stay longer.
That is the short version. Here is the reasoning behind it, and how to tell which one is right for you.
The three formats, and the fourth
We run three scheduled formats, each with a maximum of five guests, plus private retreats for your own group.
One-night ceremony. You arrive in the afternoon, share a ceremony that evening, sleep at the center and leave the next morning after breakfast and a conversation. One ceremony, meals included, basic support. We have written a full page about the one-night ceremony if you want the detail.
4-day retreat. Three nights, two ceremonies. Arrival and preparation on day one, ceremony on the first and third nights, integration and rest on the day between, departure on day four. Accommodation, all meals, ceremonies, integration sessions, supporting activities and pickup from San Isidro del General are included.
6-day retreat. Five nights, three ceremonies, with more room between each one. Everything in the 4-day retreat, plus a third ceremony and additional integration time.
Private retreat. Your own group of up to five people, with the duration and number of ceremonies tailored to you. Priced on request.
Dates for the 4-day and 6-day retreats start every week and are published on our dates and pricing page, pulled daily from our booking calendar. Current prices are there too, and our guide to what a retreat costs explains what is included and how we compare with other centers in Costa Rica.
Why the first ceremony is rarely the deep one
Here is the thing nobody tells first-timers, and the main reason we steer them away from a single night.
The first ceremony is usually about arriving. You have flown in, driven up a mountain, met strangers, and you are about to drink something you have read about for months. However calm you feel, your body is alert. Many guests spend a good part of their first ceremony simply learning what the medicine feels like, learning that they are safe, and learning how to let go. Some have a strong night. Many have a quieter one and wonder afterwards whether they "did it right."
The second ceremony is different. You know the room, you know the facilitators, you know the medicine. The nervousness is gone and what is left is whatever you came for. In our experience this is where most people go deeper, and it is why a retreat with one ceremony gives many first-timers an incomplete picture.
A single night can absolutely be meaningful. But if you are doing this for the first time and you have the choice, give yourself two.
The 4-day retreat: our recommendation for first-timers
The 4-day retreat is built around that pattern. Two ceremonies, with a full day between them.
That middle day matters as much as the ceremonies. There is a group session in the morning where everyone says what happened for them the night before, and with five people at most, everyone actually speaks. There is one-on-one time with a facilitator. There are nature walks, quiet time in the garden, simple meals, and rest. By evening the first ceremony has settled, and the second one can open something new instead of repeating the first.
The 4-day format is also long enough to feel like you left your life, and short enough to fit into a week off work with travel days on either side. Most of our guests are first-timers, and most of them choose this one.
If you have never done this before, our guide for first-timers walks through what a first ceremony is actually like, what the preparation involves, and what to ask any retreat before booking.
The 6-day retreat: more time, not more intensity
People sometimes assume the 6-day retreat is the "advanced" option. It is not. Three ceremonies over five nights is not a harder retreat. It is a slower one.
The extra days go between ceremonies, not into them. That suits two kinds of guests. The first is someone who knows they need more time to process, whether because of what they are bringing with them or simply because they are the kind of person who thinks slowly and deeply. The second is someone who has done a ceremony before, perhaps elsewhere, and wants to go further without rushing.
The 6-day retreat also gives you more integration time before you travel home, which is the part of the retreat that most often gets cut short. Guests who take the 6-day format tend to leave more settled, not because they saw more, but because they had time to land.
If you are choosing between the 4-day and 6-day retreats and can afford the extra two days, the 6-day is rarely the wrong choice. If you are a first-timer with limited time, the 4-day is complete on its own.
The one-night ceremony: who it is for
We offer the one-night ceremony for two kinds of people.
The first has worked with ayahuasca before, understands the preparation and the diet, and wants a single ceremony in a small, held space rather than a full retreat. For them one night is not incomplete. It is what they came for.
The second genuinely cannot stay longer: a traveler passing through the southern zone, someone with a fixed itinerary, someone who has thought carefully about it and knows a full retreat is not possible right now.
What we do not recommend is choosing one night because it is cheaper or because it feels less committing. If cost is the issue, tell us; the price difference between one night and four days is much smaller than the difference in what you get. And if commitment is the issue, that is worth sitting with before you book anything.
Whatever the format, the same preparation applies: the seven-day diet, the health application, the honest conversation about medications. One night does not mean less preparation.
Private retreats
If you are coming with your partner, your family or a few close friends, a private retreat gives you the pavilion to yourselves. The group is still capped at five, the ceremonies are led by the same family, and the duration and number of ceremonies are shaped around you. This is often the right choice for couples, and for groups who want to share the experience without strangers in the room. Write to us and we will build it with you.
How to decide, in five questions
- Is this your first time? Choose the 4-day retreat.
- Do you have the time, and do you want more space between ceremonies? Choose the 6-day retreat.
- Have you worked with the medicine before, and do you want a single ceremony? The one-night ceremony is for you.
- Are you coming as a group of up to five? Ask about a private retreat.
- Are you still unsure? Write to us. We will tell you honestly which one fits, and if the honest answer is "not yet," we will say that too.
Whatever you choose, you will be in a group of five or fewer, with a facilitator who stays with you for the entire night. That does not change with the length. What changes is how much time you give yourself to arrive, to go deeper, and to come back.