FAQ
Asked, and answered.
The straight version, in one place. Anything else, ask us on the fit call.
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The essentials
What does it cost?
The six-day residency is from €2,800 per guest, all in: your room, all meals, transfers from Lisbon, the assessment and re-measure, every session, and your first month of The Return. One figure, everything in it, nothing sold during the residency. The exact figure depends on your room and cohort, confirmed on the fit call.
What is included?
Everything the week needs: your room, all meals, the assessment and re-measure, every session, private transfer from Lisbon, and your first month of The Return. Enhancements such as a sea-facing room, extra one-to-one work or a partner are arranged separately, before you arrive.
What is the cancellation policy?
A 20% deposit reserves your room. Cancel 60 or more days before the start and you receive a full refund, deposit included. Inside 60 days, everything you've paid is held as credit toward another Atlas Cove retreat rather than refunded. The balance is due 45 days before arrival and can be paid in full or in Klarna instalments. If we ever move or cancel a cohort, you can reschedule, take full credit, or receive a full refund. We recommend travel insurance that covers cancellation. Full details are on the booking terms page.
Do I tip?
No. The figure is all in, and gratuities are neither expected nor accepted. If the week moves you, tell the team at the table; that is the currency here.
How can I pay?
Through Mollie's secure checkout: credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SEPA bank transfer or Klarna. A 20% deposit reserves your room today; the balance is due 45 days before arrival, paid in full or in Klarna instalments. We never see your card details. And nothing is sold during the residency, so the figure you settle before arrival is the whole figure.
Do I need travel insurance?
We strongly recommend it. Choose a policy that covers trip or retreat cancellation, so a changed plan costs you a premium rather than the week. We don't sell or endorse specific policies; any good travel insurer offers cancellation cover. The house terms stay generous, with a full refund 60 or more days out, but insurance is what covers life's shorter notice.
Does it cost anything to apply?
No. The application takes about five minutes, and nothing is paid before your fit call. A 20% deposit is asked only after we have both decided it is a fit, and it stays fully refundable until 60 days before the retreat. If it is not a fit, we tell you kindly and early. Until then there is nothing to cancel, because nothing has been paid.
Can I move my booking to a later cohort?
Yes. A reserved place can move to a later cohort up to 45 days before arrival; write to us and we rebook you. If the new cohort is priced differently, the difference is settled with the move; nothing is paid twice. Closer than 45 days, everything you have paid is held as credit toward another Atlas Cove retreat, so the value is never lost. And if we ever move a date ourselves, you choose freely: reschedule, full credit, or full refund.
Getting here
Where is it, and how do I get there?
A private quinta near Sesimbra, inside the Serra da Arrábida natural park, about an hour by car from Lisbon airport. Your private transfer is included and arranged for you; you will not need a car until you leave.
What should I pack?
Training kit, a swimsuit, one warm layer for serra evenings, and nothing formal. There is no dress code; dinner is unhurried, not dressed up. A short packing note arrives with your confirmation.
Can I work during the week?
You can. The wifi is good and the afternoons hold quiet hours for a call. But the week works best when work does not come: most guests warn their teams in advance, and are glad they did.
When should I arrive, and when does the week end?
Day one is arrival and your baseline assessment; day six closes with the re-measure, taken on the last morning. Plan to reach the quinta between midday and 16:00, which usually means landing in Lisbon by mid afternoon and no later than 18:00. On day six you leave around midday. Your transfer is arranged around your flights, so send them once booked. And if your times only work earlier or later, tell us; we always find a way.
Do I need a visa to come to Portugal?
Portugal is part of the Schengen Area, so standard Schengen short-stay rules apply. Many nationalities enter visa-free for short stays; others need a Schengen visa arranged in advance. The requirements follow your passport, not our guest list, so check the current rules for your nationality well before you fly. If your application needs paperwork from our side, ask us.
What is the weather like in September and November?
September on the Arrábida coast is late summer: warm days, long evenings, the sea at its friendliest. November is milder, quieter and greener, the serra fresh after the first rains; that is what the warm layer on the packing list is for. The protocol does not check the forecast: training, sauna and the long table happen in every season, and the quinta is built for all of them.
Can I extend my stay before or after the residency?
No. The residency is six days for everyone, and the quinta itself cannot hold extra nights before or after the week. The bookends are easy though: Sesimbra and the Arrábida beaches are on the doorstep, Lisbon is an hour north, and we gladly share recommendations for either side of your stay. Tell us your travel plans and we will arrange your transfer around them, in either direction.
Is it safe for a woman travelling alone?
Yes, and most of our guests come alone. Portugal ranks among the safest countries in Europe, and the residency itself is ten rooms behind one gate, founded and hosted by Lisa as much as Tom, with women across the specialist team and everyone on the property all week. Your transfer is arranged door to door, so there is no late night logistics to solve. You will be known by name by the first dinner; alone here never means on your own.
The week itself
How fit do I need to be?
There is no fitness bar. Every session is programmed from your own day-one numbers, so a beginner and a marathoner train side by side, each at their own edge. What we do need is willingness. You will train every day, at your own pace.
How hard is the week, really?
You will train every day, at your level, programmed from your own baseline and adjusted as the week unfolds. It is demanding, and it is kind. Every effort is met with real rest, because rest is where the body grows.
I have an injury, or a condition. Can I still come?
Often, yes. Every guest is medically screened for safety before the work begins, and every session is programmed around what your body can actually do. Tell us plainly in the application; it is the most useful thing you can write.
Do I need a wearable, or years of health data?
No. Everything we work from is measured by us on day one, on validated tools we bring. If you arrive with nothing but the sense that it is time to take your body seriously, you arrive with everything we need.
Do I have to give up my phone?
No. Handing it in on arrival is offered, never enforced; the house takes your calls either way. Devices go down at 21:30 for the sleep window, and you will find you reach for it less by day three.
What about food, restrictions, preferences?
The kitchen cooks to your protocol, and your protocol knows your restrictions. Tell us in the application; allergies, intolerances and preferences are all handled before you arrive. Nobody negotiates with a buffet here.
Is there alcohol? Coffee?
Coffee, yes: after the morning light, where the protocol wants it. Alcohol is not served during the week; the sleep data argues that case better than we can. If the table wants one, the last dinner raises a glass.
Is there an age requirement?
Guests are 18 and over. Most of the table is 35 to 65, and the protocol is built from your baseline, not your birth year.
What languages are spoken?
The residency runs in English and German. Portuguese is available through some of our coaches and specialists.
Is this medical?
No. We do not diagnose or treat illness, and we make no medical claims. We measure markers you can move and help you move them. If anything we see needs a clinician, we say so plainly.
What about privacy?
Ten rooms behind one gate. No photography of guests without consent, no guest list shared, and your numbers stay yours. Discretion is a house rule, not a service.
What does a typical day look like?
The day follows the body clock. Morning light first, then the day's main work: strength, zone two on the Arrábida trails, or the shala, while the body is built for building. Afternoons turn deliberately to recovery: sauna, cold plunge, quiet hours. Evenings hold a softer session and the long table. By 21:30, devices are down and the 9.5-hour sleep window begins. The exact sequence is yours, programmed from your baseline and adjusted each night.
What exactly do you measure on day one?
Your baseline, across six areas: strength, including grip strength; fitness, including VO2max; sleep; recovery, including HRV; blood pressure; and stress. All of it on validated tools we bring. Overnight it becomes your protocol for the week, and on the last morning the same markers are taken again, on the same tools, set side by side. It is a starting point, not a diagnosis: we measure markers you can move.
Do I have to do the sauna and cold plunge?
No. The recovery wing, with its wood-fired sauna, cold plunge and hands-on recovery, is part of your protocol, not a dare. Heat and cold are dosed like everything else here: from your baseline, at your edge, never past it. The health questions at booking ask specifically about conditions affected by heat or cold, so anything relevant is known before day one. Skipping a plunge costs you nothing but the bragging rights.
Is there any free time?
Yes, by design. Afternoons hold deliberate quiet: the gardens, the pools, a book, a nap. Recovery is programmed as seriously as training, because rest is where the training lands. What the week does not hold is optionality for its own sake: there is no activities menu to manage, and nothing competing for your attention. If you need an hour for a call, the afternoon holds that too.
Do we leave the quinta during the week?
Yes. The serra is part of the programme: zone two work happens out on the Arrábida trails, steady and conversational, and it rarely feels like training. The rest of the week deliberately stays inside the gate. The point of one place is that nothing needs organising, and the quinta holds everything the protocol needs: movement deck, recovery wing, gardens, pools, one long table.
I have limited mobility. Does the house work for me?
The programme adapts: every session is built from your own baseline, so limited mobility changes the plan, not the welcome. The estate is the honest part: an old quinta in the serra, and not fully step free. Tell us plainly in your application what you need. We will tell you just as plainly what the house can hold, and where there is a way, we will do our best to make it work.
The people, and after
How many people will be there?
Ten rooms, five hosts and specialists, one cohort a month. You will be known by name by the first dinner.
Can I come with a partner?
Yes. One room, two protocols: each of you assessed and programmed separately. Mention it in your application and we will hold the room.
I’d be coming alone. Is that odd?
Most guests come alone. One long table, first names by the first dinner. Solo is the default here, not the exception.
What happens after the residency?
Your first month of The Return is included: weekly check-ins and your protocol at home. From month two, the Atlas Cove Membership continues it, by invitation, with monthly reviews, remote coaching and the month-twelve re-measure.
What if I apply and it isn’t a fit?
We will tell you, kindly and early, and where we can we will point you somewhere better suited. The application costs you nothing but candour.
Who will be looking after me?
Five people for ten rooms. Lisa and Tom, the founders, host every cohort themselves and are on the property all week; three specialists carry the assessment, coaching and recovery work. Every guest is medically screened before the work begins. And the team that runs your week is the team that runs your first month of check-ins after it. Nobody hands you to a rotation.
What do I actually take home?
Four things. Your protocol, rebuilt on day five for real life, with a hotel-room version, a red-eye version, a school-run version. Your numbers: day one and day six, side by side, living on in Atlas Capacity. Your first month of The Return, its first check-in scheduled before you leave the quinta. And a table of first names. What you do with all four is the actual work.
How often do cohorts run, and what if my dates are full?
One cohort a month, arriving and leaving together. The next two are 1 to 6 September and 1 to 6 November 2026. September holds a small number of places; November confirms in application order. If your cohort fills, your application simply moves to the next one you can make, and we tell you early either way. New dates reach the newsletter first, so join it if your months are tight.
we don’t take everyone.
One cohort a month, ten rooms behind one gate. Applying commits you to nothing but a conversation.
Next cohort: 1–6 September 2026 · from €2,800 per guest, all-in.
Applyevery guest is medically screened for safety before the work begins.
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