Dr Margaretha Montagu’s Small Group Camino de Santiago Walking Retreats
You don’t have to walk 800 kilometres to experience the Camino de Santiago.
You don’t even have to own a backpack the size of a small wardrobe.
Sometimes, three days of walking through the beautiful countryside of southwest France is enough.
My small-group Camino de Santiago retreats are for people who fancy a few days of fresh air, good food, beautiful landscapes and the simple pleasure of putting one foot in front of the other — without having to organise the whole thing themselves.
You’ll stay with me at Esprit Meraki, my 200-year-old farmhouse in the Gers, and walk three carefully chosen sections of the Camino. There are vineyards, ancient hilltop villages, woodland paths, sunflower fields and the occasional interesting encounter with fellow pilgrims. There is also time to read, write, think, chat, or do absolutely none of those things.
The walking is self-guided, because I rather like the idea that you should be able to walk at your own pace, stop when you feel like it and have your picnic where you want to. I’ll get you to the start, collect you at the end, and make sure there is something delicious waiting for you at dinner.
With no more than four guests, this is a very small group indeed. Enough company to make new friends or share a laugh, but not enough to require a name badge or a complicated system for finding your way back to your room.
Come on your own, with a friend, as a couple, or simply because you’ve been thinking about walking the Camino for far too long.
Three days of walking may not change your life.
But it might help you sleep better, breathe a little deeper, see things from a slightly different angle — and remember that life is rather nice when you’re not rushing through it.
Small group retreats start on the first and third Saturday of the month, from March till November.
Small Group Camino de Santiago Walking Retreats Choices
“Ticked Off the Bucket List” Camino de Santiago Walking Adventure (5 days/4 nights) – Three days of simple, straightforward walking to give you a taste of what walking this exquisitely beautiful part of the Camino in southwest France involves, but without having to carry a heavy rucksack or worry about where you are going to eat/sleep each night.
If you’re both constantly juggling responsibilities, and the conversations that used to come easily now feel like one more thing on the to-do list, this 5-day/4-night Camino de Santiago “Back in Sync” Couples Hiking Retreat is for you. It offers a complete escape from routine, giving you time to reconnect with each other, and remember what drew you together in the first place.
“One More Page” Reading and Walking Retreats (5 days/4 nights) Have you been burning the midnight oil, lost in the pages of your favourite novels, after a stressful day’s work, only to wake up feeling like a zombie the next morning? Treat yourself to rest, relaxation and reading to your heart’s content at this retreat!
“Time to Write” Writing and Walking Retreats (5 days/4 nights): Walk part of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela and find insight and inspiration with every step. During this retreat, you will be able to write undisturbed, every day, for as long as you like. The retreat provides writing time, not writing instruction.
Christmas Reading Retreats (4 days/3 nights) How often during Christmas holidays have you wished you could read your book in front of a roaring fireplace, with a mug of hot chocolate to hand, a Christmas tree twinkling in the corner and a soft rug warming your knees?
Escape the noise, the endless to-do lists, and the pressure to have everything figured out for 5-days and 4 nights with the Uncensored Journaling Retreat — a few precious days to slow down, pick up your pen, and finally sort out your thoughts. Surrounded by the peaceful beauty of Gascony, you’ll enjoy quiet mornings, delicious food, gentle Camino de Santiago walks, meaningful conversations, and the freedom to write without rules, expectations, or anyone peeking over your shoulder.
So, interested in a small group Camino de Santiago walking retreat?
Perhaps you’ve been thinking about walking the Camino for years.
Perhaps you’ve been waiting for the right time, the right person to go with, or for life to magically produce a convenient 6 week gap in which nothing else is required of you.
I wouldn’t hold your breath.
Instead, come for five days. Walk three sections of the Camino. Eat well. Sleep well. Let someone else worry about the directions and the driving. And give yourself the rare luxury of having nowhere particularly urgent to be.
You don’t need to arrive with a grand intention. You don’t need to be searching for yourself, reinventing yourself or finding your life’s purpose before breakfast.
You can simply come and walk.
You may go home with tired legs, a clearer head, a few lovely memories and a renewed appreciation for the ordinary pleasures of life.
And if something a little more profound happens along the way, well… that’s between you and the Camino.
If you’re curious, decide which of the retreats above will work best for you and get in touch. Email me at MargarethaMontagu@gmail.com and tell me a little about yourself, who you’d like to come with, and what you’re looking for. Then we can figure out whether one of my small-group Camino retreats feels like your sort of thing.
I’d love to welcome you to the Gascony.
Do you dream of escaping your stressful life to raise a herd of goats or grow sunflowers in the south of France? Then you may be ready for an Esprit Meraki retreat. Get access to this “very serious” quiz to help you figure out how urgent your need for a change of scenery is, when you subscribe to my monthly newsletter.
“I am an experienced medical doctor – MBChB, MRCGP, NLP master pract cert, Transformational Life Coach (dip.) Life Story Coach (cert.) Stress Counselling (cert.) Med Hypnotherapy (dip.) and EAGALA (cert.) I may have an impressive number of letters after my name, and more than three decades of professional experience, but what qualifies me to excel at what I do is my intuitive understanding of my clients’ difficulties and my extensive personal experience of managing major life changes using strategies I developed over many years.” Dr M Montagu