6-Day Pilates, Yoga and Fitness Wellness Week in Porto

Days start at 8:30 with the programme, though you can arrive later if your flight lands mid-morning. Most guests take two to three classes a day, chosen from a daily planner that runs across yoga, Pilates and fitness. A typical morning might be Hatha or vinyasa yoga followed by a Pilates machines session; afternoons lean towards hot yoga, crosstraining or bungee fitness. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there is a 30-minute guided meditation after Hatha Yoga, and Monday morning brings a 60-to-90-minute workshop on wellness topics such as mindfulness, stress, healthy eating and longevity. Weekday programming finishes at 20:30, weekends at 12:30.

The Ganban room is the thing you will not find at most city studios. It has a heated volcanic rock floor, neon lighting and an eight-column immersive sound system, and it hosts the daily 30-minute sound bath and relaxation session as well as the longer therapies. The 90-minute live sound healing session uses crystal bowls, Tibetan bowls, a copper gong, shamanic drum, ocean drum, flute and Koshi chimes. The 75-minute Indian relaxation massage happens on that heated floor, and the 60-minute body sculpt massage uses manual lymphatic drainage aimed at reducing inflammation and bloating around the abdomen.

OM Academy sits in a secluded residential area beside the Botanical Garden and the Natural History Museum, a five-minute walk from Avenida Boavista. It is a 10-to-15-minute walk down to the Douro riverside promenade, and from there you can walk to the beaches or into the medieval centre. Ribeira, the downtown centre and the beaches at Foz and Matosinhos are all a 10-to-15-minute Uber or taxi ride away. The centre partners with a surf school and can arrange surf lessons during the week, with Matosinhos Beach a 15-minute Uber away.

The programme is deliberately flexible. You can run it as a full schedule of three or four classes a day, or treat it as a base and spend afternoons sightseeing. There is no food included, which is unusual for a retreat but works in Porto's favour: the team will point you towards local vegetarian, seafood and international restaurants, with average meals running €20-30 per person. A detox juicing programme is available as an optional upgrade if you want the liquid-diet version of the week.

Guests who have been tend to mention the same things: Rui's responsiveness before and during the stay, the range of classes on offer, and the sound bath. One reviewer described doing two to three activities a day plus a full body massage, facial massage, meditation and sound baths, and trying Reformer Pilates, aerial yoga and bungee for the first time. Another, a solo female traveller, noted she felt safe exploring the city alone and singled out the morning meditation sessions on the hot marble floor and the live sound bath concert.

What's included

- 5 nights accommodation in a private hotel room - Water and tea available throughout the day - Up to 5 daily classes including yoga, hot yoga, aerial yoga, Pilates and fitness - 1x 90-minute live sound healing session - 1x 75-minute Indian relaxation massage on the heated volcanic rock floor of the Ganban room - 1x 60-minute body sculpt massage with manual lymphatic drainage - 1 daily meditation and relaxation session with sound bath in the Ganban room - 2x 30-minute guided meditation sessions (Tuesday and Thursday mornings) - 1 workshop on wellness topics (Monday mornings) - Wifi connection

What's not included

- Airport transfers - Flights - Travel insurance - Visa fee - Meals - Additional activities not included in the itinerary - Additional treatments