Silence
What a Day at the Quinta Looks Like
Short answer — The day opens with a guided meditation at first light and closes with a second one in the evening. In between: meals taken in silence, time together, time alone, and stretches of guided personal work.
You want to know what your days will look like before booking. That is fair: three days in a place you have never seen, without speaking, deserves to be pictured in advance.
Most websites answer with a quarter-hour timetable. We are not going to, and the reason for that refusal is probably more useful than the timetable itself.
Why we don't publish a schedule
A fixed programme reads well. It reassures, it suggests a well-run place. But it creates a problem nobody mentions: it commits you to following it.
When a group is at ease from the first day, a practice period that was supposed to last forty minutes can simply continue.
Guidance that adjusts is worth more than a schedule that is kept. That holds over three days as much as over ten.
This does not mean there is no framework. There is one, and it is firm on the essentials: the silence, the meals, the two daily meditations, and coming to understand oneself.
The rhythm of a day
At first light
The day opens with a guided meditation, before breakfast. This is when the silence is at its densest — the night has prepared it, and nobody has anything to say yet.
It is guided aloud, which makes it accessible even if you have never meditated. You need to know nothing in advance.
Morning
After breakfast comes a longer period, together. Its form varies: a sitting practice, a walk, work in the garden, sometimes none of these.
This is where the adjustment we mentioned comes into play. The second morning never resembles the first.
Meals
They are taken in silence, and this is often the most striking surprise of the early days.
Without conversation, you chew more slowly. You distinguish the ingredients. You stop when you are no longer hungry, instead of finishing your plate out of habit. Several participants say they kept eating that way long after going home.
The cooking is plant-based, prepared on site from the kitchen garden. Dietary requirements are accommodated — tell us before you come.
Afternoon
A group activity, and a guidance session. Then read, sleep, walk, sit by the river, receive a treatment.
This is not filler removed from a programme: it is deliberate open time. A retreat where every hour is occupied is not a retreat, it is a seminar.
Many people fall asleep on the first afternoon. That is a sign, not a problem.
Evening
A second guided meditation, then dinner and an early night.
With no screens or conversation, tiredness arrives naturally around nine. Many sleep nine or ten hours on the first night — one of the most consistently reported effects.
What changes from day to day
The first day is spent arriving. The body is still in the journey, the mind still in unfinished business. You settle in, discover the place, work out where things are. Many people, setting down their bag, wonder what they are doing there.
The second is often the most uncomfortable. The mind has exhausted its distractions: it makes lists, replays conversations, gets bored. This is where the accompaniment does its work.
The third is when something settles, for most participants. The mind stops commenting. That is also why a shorter retreat stops just before the interesting part.
What is fixed and what is not
| Fixed | Silence between participants · The two daily meditations · Shared meals |
| Variable | The length of practice periods · Morning and afternoon activities · When treatments happen · The overall pace, depending on the group |
The silence, in practice
The silence practised here is noble silence: participants do not speak to one another, but you may address Fabiana in writing. That is the very principle of guidance.
It is not an absolute rule. If something surfaces, if you need to put two sentences down, you do. Silence is a framework, not a test.
You may write, read, walk alone. Phones are handed in on arrival and returned at the end; a number remains available for your family in an emergency.
What silence removes is not speech: it is the obligation to reply.
What silence brings is a coming to awareness.
What you will do with your hands
One question comes up often: "but what do you actually do?"
You walk. The garden covers a hectare, the river runs below. You sit somewhere and stay there for an hour, and then comes the time for work, in the group or on your own. You write down your sensations, what rises into your awareness — we suggest everyone brings a small notebook.
Practical questions
The bedrooms are at Quinta Lotus Azul, a renovated stone building. Meditations and meals take place at Quinta Maria da Paz, a few steps away.
The group is eight people at most. Beyond ten or so, guidance becomes collective and you stop seeing individuals.
Before you come, we talk — usually on WhatsApp. This is not a formality: it is where we check together that the timing is right, and where you can ask your questions before the silence begins.
On arrival, we go over your motivations together.
One precaution
Silence removes the distractions that usually hold certain things at arm's length. So it happens that an old sadness, or a decision long postponed, comes up over those three days. This is common, and it is often what people came for.
If you are going through a recent bereavement, a separation still raw, or a period of psychological fragility, speak to a health professional before booking.
Our "Return to Self" retreat
Three days, eight people at most, in the heart of the Minho — twenty minutes from Braga and on the edge of the Peneda-Gerês national park.
Two guided meditations a day, plant-based cooking from the kitchen garden, a hectare of garden and a river. Fabiana has been accompanying retreats for twenty-seven years, from Guadeloupe to Costa Rica before Portugal.
€360 per person, all inclusive.
Frequently asked questions
What time does the day start? The first meditation takes place at first light, before breakfast. The exact time varies with the season and with the group: we do not set it in advance.
Do I have to take part in everything? No. You are invited, never obliged. Some participants skip a practice to sleep or walk, and that is entirely fine.
What do you do during free time? Walk, read, write, sleep, sit by the river, receive a treatment.
Are meals really taken in silence? Yes, and it is often the most striking experience of the early days. You rediscover the taste of food and the meal slows down on its own.
Can I speak if I need to? To Fabiana, yes. The silence applies to exchanges between participants; it is never meant to leave you without recourse.
Can I have the detailed programme before coming? We do not publish one, deliberately. The framework is fixed — two meditations, meals in silence, free time, the planned activities — and the shape of the day adjusts to the people present. You will know each day what is planned for the next.
Is there yoga? Not systematically. Morning practices vary with the group and the moment. If you are looking for a yoga-centred retreat, this is not our format.
What if I get bored? It happens, usually on the second day, and it is a stage most participants pass through. Boredom is what remains when distractions stop, and it often precedes what settles afterwards.
A question about how the days run, or a doubt about the timing? Write to us on WhatsApp — we answer everything, including when the answer is "not now".
This article is informative and does not replace medical advice. In case of recent bereavement, a painful separation or psychological fragility, please speak to a health professional before booking.
Also worth reading
The Benefits of Silence: Three Days Without SpeakingOur “Return to Self” retreat
Three days in noble silence, in a group of no more than eight, in the heart of the Minho. €360 per person, all inclusive.
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