Planning a Women's Retreat in California or Hawaii
Hestia Magic · women's retreat, sabbatical, wellness retreat
A guide to creating your own unique, DIY or personalized retreat experience in nature!
There is a particular kind of tired that a long weekend away doesn't always touch. I've felt it myself. It's not necessarily exhaustion in the obvious sense — it's something quieter, the feeling that you've been pouring your attention into everyone and everything around you, while a quiet voice within you waits for you to come back home to yourself.
Sometimes what we need isn't another vacation. We need space to put down the roles we're carrying, to connect with our inner knowing, to remember what brings us alive.
This is one of the reasons I created Hestia. Since 2014, my husband Peter and I have been stewarding land as a place of refuge, restoration, connection, and possibility. Over the years, I've watched so many women arrive carrying one version of themselves and leave with more capacity to hold all the others.
So if you're thinking about planning a women's retreat — for yourself, a few close friends, or a larger circle — here's what I've learned about creating an experience that truly nourishes you.
In short: a women's retreat works best when it matches what you actually need right now. I hold two sanctuaries that do different work — Mount Shasta, California, for grounding and clarity, and Paliuli on Hawaiʻi's Big Island, for warmth and renewal — with formats ranging from a three-night solo Digital Detox Weekend to a full property rental for your own circle of women.
WHAT MAKES A WOMEN'S RETREAT DIFFERENT?
To me, a women's retreat isn't simply a retreat where the participants happen to be women. There's something different that can happen when women gather in a space that has been intentionally created for rest, authentic connection, and renewal. Where you can literally FEEL THE FEMININE IN EVERY INCH OF THE LAND.
Women often carry so much. We care for children, partners, parents, colleagues, communities, businesses, homes—and sometimes entire families and organizations. We become very good at anticipating what everyone else needs.
A retreat gives us permission to ask a different question:
What do I need?
And then perhaps an even more important one:
What happens when I actually give myself permission to receive it?
That's what I want Hestia to offer. Not a place where you have to become a better version of yourself.
A place where you can put down the striving long enough to remember who you already are and that you are enough… you likely have everything you need if you can open yourself up to JUST ASK FOR IT OR JUST ALLOW IT INTO YOUR LIFE.
Two Sacred Lands, Two Kinds of Medicine
One of the things I love most about Hestia is that our two lands have such different personalities. I don't think of them simply as two beautiful locations. They offer different kinds of medicine.
Mount Shasta, California: Precision and Grounding
Ground. Listen. Envision.
Our Mount Shasta sanctuary is ten acres of forest, creek, and mountain landscape, revered for centuries by the Wintu, Shasta, and Karuk peoples as a place of deep clarity. There is something about being there that naturally slows me down — the trees, the creek, the long evenings around the fire. Mount Shasta has a quality of grounding and going inward that can be deeply supportive when we're at a crossroads or trying to hear what comes next.
If you're asking what you're ready to release, or what wants to grow in the next chapter of your life, this can be a beautiful place to listen for the answers. Mount Shasta is especially beautiful for a retreat focused on reflection, transition, visioning, creative work, and grounding.
Paliuli, Big Island of Hawaiʻi: Abundance and Softening
Awaken. Soften. Expand.
Paliuli takes its name from a Hawaiian legend of a hidden paradise, and it's easy to see why once you're there. Our ten-acre coffee farm sanctuary sits above Hōnaunau Bay, with spinner dolphins resting in the water below and coffee trees, birdsong, and volcanic earth all around.
There is a feeling of fertility and aliveness here.
If Mount Shasta helps us ground and clarify, Paliuli helps us soften, open, and receive. Sometimes we don't need another strategy — we need sunlight, the ocean, and permission to remember that being alive can feel good. That aliveness can be incredibly restorative—and sometimes it opens a door to creativity, possibility, and a new vision for our lives that we couldn't access through thinking alone.
Ways to Experience a Women's Retreat at Hestia
There's no single right way to do this — I mean that. A few places to start, depending on what you're actually craving:
A Digital Detox Weekend — three nights, your phone stored on arrival, one evening session of your choosing. The fastest way to feel the shift.
The Weeklong Sabbatical — seven nights to actually land, with guided sessions and time built in to integrate before you go home.
A hosted seasonal retreat — join an existing circle of women moving through a season together, guided by one of our facilitators.
Bring your own circle — gather your own group of women and design the retreat yourselves, with the full property held just for you.
Choosing Solo or Group
If you're nervous about arriving alone, you're not the only one. It's the most common hesitation I hear, and almost always the thing women are gladdest they did anyway. Some of the most beautiful connections I've witnessed at Hestia have happened between women who arrived not knowing each other at all.
Solo doesn't mean unaccompanied here — meals, land walks, and evening sessions naturally create points of connection with whoever else is on the land that week. But there's no pressure to participate. You can be completely private when that's what you need. And you can find community when you're ready for it.
If you're coming with an existing group of women, there's another kind of magic. Having the whole property to yourselves gives you the freedom to create your own rhythm. You can spend the morning together and disappear into your own spaces in the afternoon. You can cook together, celebrate, rest, practice, talk late into the night, or do absolutely nothing.
Learn About Hosting Your Own Retreat
When to Go
Mount Shasta moves with the seasons. Spring and fall are especially striking for a first visit, though the Nature Immersion program runs October through March for anyone who wants to sit with winter stillness. Paliuli is warm and tropical year-round, with October through May offering the driest, most predictable conditions if weather factors into your planning.
What to Bring, What to Expect
You don't need much.
Comfortable layers. Mornings and evenings run cooler at both locations than the daytime temperature suggests.
A journal. Almost everyone underestimates how much they'll want to write.
An open hand around plans. The land tends to rearrange an itinerary in gentle ways, and that's usually the point, not a problem.
Limited cell service at both sanctuaries. Bring what you need for wifi-dependent work, but expect — and welcome — the quiet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hestia a good fit for a solo woman attending her first retreat? Absolutely. Many women come to Hestia on their own. You have your own private space and plenty of time for solitude, while the shared land and optional gatherings create natural opportunities for connection.
What's included in a women's retreat at Hestia Magic? It depends on the experience you choose. Our Weeklong Sabbaticals include lodging, meals, personalized sessions, journaling tools, and a closing ritual. Other stays can be more self-directed, allowing you to create your own rhythm. Explore Our Retreat Experiences
Do I need to already know the other women attending? Not at all. If you're coming for a hosted retreat, many women arrive not knowing anyone. If you're creating your own retreat, you choose your circle.
Mount Shasta or Paliuli, Hawaiʻi — which is better for a first women's retreat? I don't think one is better. They simply offer different things. Choose Mount Shasta if you're craving grounding, clarity, reflection, and a deeper connection to your inner vision. Choose Paliuli if you're craving warmth, aliveness, joy, expansion, and the permission to receive. And if you fall in love with both, you can always come back for the other one in another season of your life.
Ready to Plan Your Own
If something in this has been sitting with you, that's usually the sign it's time. Come because you're at a crossroads. Come because you want to laugh with your best friends. Come because you've been giving so much and you're ready to receive. A few places to start:
Explore the Weeklong Sabbatical in Mount Shasta or on the Big Island
Visit Mount Shasta or Paliuli, our two sacred lands in California and Hawaiʻi
Start smaller with a Digital Detox Weekend
Go deeper with a monthlong immersion
Bring your own circle of women — host a retreat of your own
I'll be here — holding the hearth, tending the land, making space for you to come home to yourself.
WITH LOVE, BELINDA