We’ve watched it happen 280+ times at POMAR. Someone books a call, clearly excited. Then the doubts creep in. “Maybe next season.” “I should probably save more.” “Let me finish this one thing first.”
The stories we tell ourselves?
“I’ll go when work slows down.”
Work never slows down. It just shapeshifts into new deadlines.
“I need to save more first.”
There’s always something to spend that extra savings on. Your car breaks down. Your laptop dies. Life happens.
“I’m not fit enough yet.”
POMAR isn’t a fitness retreat. It’s a place where you become the person who surfs before breakfast and hikes on weekends. You don’t arrive fit you leave fit.
“I don’t know if I’ll vibe with the community.”
Neither did the 280+ people who came before you. That’s the whole point. they all came because they knew : they will deep work, they will do some sport and they will be surrounded by the nature
What actually happens when you commit
Let me tell you about Alex. English freelance designer, burned out from London’s grind. He’d been “planning” to join POMAR for eight months. Every intake, same story: “Timing’s not quite right.” And out of nowhere he finally decide to book with us and arrived three weeks later.
First morning at POMAR na Serra: 7am Mountain air so crisp it hurts your lungs in the best way. Breakfast on the terrace overlooking the countryside while other colivers share coffee or breakfast or other even doing some journaling.
By week two, Alex had a new design style emerging looser, more organic, inspired by the Portuguese tiles and coastal light. Work he actually felt something about.
By week three, he’d hiked trails he didn’t know existed, learned to make pastéis de nata from our local baker friend, and had deep conversations about life direction with people from seven different countries.
He came back twice at POMAR.
The timing was never right. He just stopped waiting for it to be.
Winter in the Algarve isn’t what you think
While Northern Europe shivers through February in perpetual twilight, here’s what February looks like in Portugal’s south:
300 days of sunshine (yes, really). Temperatures hovering around 15-18°C – cool enough for productive work, warm enough for outdoor living. Empty beaches. Calm seas perfect for learning to surf. Almond trees starting to blossom.
Your friends back home are paying €200 monthly gym memberships to run on treadmills under fluorescent lights her it’s 50€. You’re doing morning yoga, or a workout overlooking the Atlantic, then working from a terrace where the biggest distraction is deciding between the beach or mountains for your afterwork hike.
The real cost of waiting
You think you’re being responsible by waiting. “Just a few more months to get things sorted.”
But here’s what those “few more months” actually cost:
Your mental health slowly eroding from the same grey routine. Another quarter where you tell yourself “next time” about that business idea. More mornings waking up already tired. Another season watching Instagram stories of people doing exactly what you keep postponing.
POMAR isn’t cheap. But neither is the life you’re currently living you’re just paying for it in exhaustion instead of euros.
How people actually make it happen
The ones who stop planning and start living? They don’t wait for permission from their bank account or their calendar. They look at their life and ask: “If not now, when?”
Some negotiate remote work arrangements they didn’t think were possible. Others realize they’ve been working contract-to-contract anyway why not do it from somewhere that doesn’t make them sad? Many discover their “essential” expenses aren’t actually that essential.
Emma from france cut her city costs by 60% by subletting her flat. Used half the savings for POMAR, banked the other half. Left with more money and more life.
The math works when you’re honest about what you’re currently spending to feel alive.
What POMAR actually is
We’re not a retreat. We’re not a bootcamp. We’re not going to sell you a transformation package or make you journal about your feelings (unless you want to no judgment).
We’re a bunch of entrepreneurs and remote workers who got tired of pretending that working from a grey apartment and calling it “freedom” made any sense.
So we built something different:
2 locations in the Algarve. Mountain views or beachfront living depending on what you need. Coworking spaces designed for actual deep work, not Instagram photos. A community that shows up for morning workouts and evening dinners, then respects your focus time. Local experiences that aren’t tourist trap actual Portuguese life, shared by someone who knows these villages intimately.
And yeah, we do ice baths. Because sometimes the best way to feel alive is to voluntarily freeze your ass off at 12pm with a group of slightly crazy people who become your closest friends.
Here’s what happens next
You book a call. We talk actually talk, not some sales pitch disguised as a conversation. You tell us where you’re at, what you’re looking for, what’s holding you back.
We’re honest about whether POMAR is right for you. Sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes people need something different. We’re good with that.
And then life starts feeling different.
Not perfect. Not easy. But alive.
The kind of alive you remember being possible.
Join the POMAR Tribe
February spots at POMAR na Praia are filling up only one left. March 2 spot left. If you’re still reading this, you already know the answer. Book a call – let’s see if this is your moment.
