We Visited 30 Psychedelic Retreats In 30 Days…and Here’s What We Found

For several years the hype around psychedelic retreats has been building. Wherever you’re from, chances are you have a friend, co-worker or family member who has some experience or is planning a visit. You’re curious, of course – those who have gone can’t stop talking about it. It’s seen as a pathway to a deeper understanding of who you are and how your past traumas influence your behaviors. 

But you’ve also heard the experience may be unpleasant and dangerous. So should you go?

Whether you are looking for an ayahuasca retreat in Costa Rica or a psilocybin retreat in Mexico, Frshminds.com spent a month in 2023 traversing the jungles of Central America to help answer this question.

Over 30 days, we met 30 retreat operators across Mexico and Costa Rica. We interviewed them, we took pictures of their facilities, and we ended up gaining a very deep understanding of what makes them unique and what you should look for if you’re considering making the trip!

What is a psychedelic retreat?

A psychedelic retreat is a hotel, often fully-inclusive of room, board and activities, which includes at least one opportunity to ingest a psychoactive substance. These substances can help ‘grease the wheels’ for traditional therapists as they seek to help you unlock your personal traumas, and truths buried deep in your subconscious. 

The science around psychoactives is becoming quite compelling, with leading global research institutes diving deep into the chemical interactions in the brain and how they yield transformative outcomes. 

There are a wide range of psychoactives in use at psychedelic retreats (and often, several will be used within a single retreat). There are plant medicines such as ayahuasca and peyote; and there are synthetic substances such as MDMA and LSD. There are relatively benign substances, such as psilocybin (in magic mushrooms) and much more intense (and potentially dangerous) substances, such as ibogaine. Each features some uniqueness in experience, efficacy and risk, but they are all thought to stimulate neuroplasticity in your brain – literally, rewiring synapses to draw out insights that you otherwise could not access.

While ingesting a psychoactive substance is at the center of a visit, a trip to a psychedelic retreat also typically features excursions, time for rest and relaxation, participation in other healing modalities (such as yoga, massage, or breathwork), and incredible locally-sourced food.

While you can easily find psychoactive substances on your own, they are far more powerful when used with a therapist. Integrating the insights you may have surfaced from your subconscious during your journey is of the utmost importance, and this is much harder to do without a trained guide. Retreats allow you to avoid the distractions in your everyday life that may preclude you from this integration.

What type of psychedelic retreats did we visit?

We crisscrossed both Mexico and Costa Rica, visiting retreats of all shapes and sizes. Ayahuasca, DMT, Bufo, Kambo, Psilocybin, Ibogaine…while practitioners used a wide range of medicines and modalities, their singular focus was always on the exposition and integrating deep insights into your psyche.

Most operators cite their own experience with ‘plant medicines’ as their inspiration for opening a retreat as they seek to ‘pay it forward’. They have deep experience administering these medicines and frequently say that they were trained by people whose ancestors used these substances for hundreds of years. 

They may not, however, have any classic Western medical training of any kind. While the vast majority of guests have good (or at least benign) experiences, complications can occur. Anyone interested in attending a retreat should inquire about credentials as part of their selection criteria.

Retreat centers feature a variety of settings to meet the guest’s personal preferences. In Central America, we found many within walking distance of a beautiful beach. We found some perched in the mountainous rainforests. Some were being run out of the practitioners’ houses, with guests given just a private room. Some were operated like a large all-inclusive and may have multiple groups of guests running through their itinerary simultaneously. Some had great off-retreat activities nearby, and some hid in the middle of major cities like Puerto Vallarta, San Jose or Tulum. And outside of Central America, retreats operate in more than a dozen countries (with varying degrees of legality), including Jamaica and the Netherlands where such substances are decriminalized and normalized, but also across North America, in the Amazon river basin of Peru and Colombia, and in some progressive European countries like Spain and Portugal. 

What Should I Look For if I’m Shopping for a Psychedelic Retreat?

Consistency and professionalism top the list. Your journey will be centred around taking your psychedelic substance and experiencing its effects. But your hosts should see this only as a pathway to opening the mind for the real effort – integration. They should consistently refer to the importance of preparation and integration on their website and in their itineraries. 

Credentials probably are not a deal-breaker, but they are a sensible inquiry. Again, most psychedelic journeys are ultimately benign, but this is not always the case. Any history of mental illness (perhaps not documented) or use of other pharmaceuticals (legal or not) could lead to adverse reactions. Having someone onsite who is trained to remedy these situations can’t be a bad thing. 

Set and setting are important. Some people need complete quiet within nature to integrate without distractions. Some people crave a more varied experience, with opportunities to leave the center for excursions (it is your vacation, after all). And your trip might include an Uber from the airport, or a four-hour minibus ride on tough roads, worth considering if you already have a long flight.

Getting a sense of the size of the group, the ratio of practitioners to guests, and the makeup of the guests is also essential. Will you enjoy lots of one-on-one time with an integration specialist? Would you prefer to go on an all-female retreat for safety and comfort? These are important attributes of the session that you should consider in your research.

You should also consider what you’re trying to accomplish by going to a retreat. Are you trying to surface past traumas? Cure an otherwise incurable addiction? Or just learn more about yourself and the world around you? Your objective may lead you to select some psychoactive over others. Frshminds.com features a retreat selection tool that can help you distill this decision down from the hundreds of retreats around the world to a small handful that meets your needs. 

Be Bold and Take The Plunge

While we won’t pretend that a psychedelic retreat is for everyone, operators are passionate advocates who have witnessed first-hand the transformative potential of the experience. Feeling nervous is to be expected – after all, you are putting yourself into a very vulnerable position with people you don’t know! But for most people that have decided to try it, a trip to a psychedelic retreat has proven to be very rewarding. We all have traumas, large and small, that we wrestle with on a daily basis. If you’re struggling to surface the source of yours, a psychedelic retreat might just be the answer you’re looking for.