Porto Beachside Longevity & Recovery Break: Yoga, Reformer Pilates, Ice Plunges and Cryotherapy

Days start at 08:00 with the first classes. You choose from yoga, Pilates and fitness sessions across the morning, around midday and in the evening, and you can do as many or as few as you want. Most guests do two or three activities a day. One reviewer said she did 'between 2-3 activities each day' along with massages, meditation and sound baths. The daily 30-minute sound bath and meditation takes place in the Ganban room, lying on a heated volcanic rock floor. One guest remembered it as 'meditation sessions on the hot marble floor every morning.'

The recovery sessions usually run mid-morning or early afternoon. Your package includes two full Longevity & Recovery circuits. Each circuit has two cold plunges, one at 9ºC and a colder one at 3ºC, a sauna that combines infrared and traditional heat, and a red light column. You then rest in a relaxation area with a Theraface facial mask, a Theragun massage gun and Therabody compression boots. Separately, you get one cryotherapy session and one hyperbaric oxygen session. Bring a swimsuit or shorts and a top for the cold and heat sessions.

The class range is wide for a studio this size. There's hatha/vinyasa yoga, aerial yoga in silks, hot yoga, Reformer Pilates on machines, a faster 'dynamic reformer' class, power Pilates, mat Pilates, barre, functional training, GAP localised toning and crosstraining. On Mondays there's a workshop on mindfulness, stress, healthy eating or longevity. On Tuesdays and Fridays a guided meditation and breathwork session follows the hatha yoga class. Mats, straps and blocks are provided. Sports shoes are required for the fitness classes.

The main difference from most yoga-and-Pilates weeks is the recovery technology. Cold plunges, cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen and the InBody scans at the start and end are usually sold separately at clinics. Here they're included in the price. The other difference is the setting. Instead of an isolated rural venue, you're in a working beach suburb of Porto with a metro stop around the corner. You can do a morning class, take a 15-minute ride into Ribeira for lunch and the port cellars, and be back for an evening session.

The centre was founded by Rui, who spent more than 20 years as an investment banker, 10 of them in the City of London. He has practised yoga and meditation since 2011, alongside crosstraining, trail running and kitesurfing. Guests consistently mention him as the person who answers every question before and during the stay, often sending a personalised class schedule by email beforehand. Reviewers have named teachers including Sandra (aerial yoga), Adriana (crosstraining), Ana (Pilates), Mariana (yoga), and Mafalda and Nadia (tough fitness workouts).

The studio itself is bright, with full-length windows onto Praça Guilherme Pinto, a wide square two minutes from Matosinhos beach. From there you can walk along the beach to the city park with its lakes, then along the Foz beaches to the Douro riverside and on into the old town. The centre also works with a local surf school that can book lessons for you during your stay.

What's included

- 3 nights at Four Points by Sheraton Matosinhos (across the street from the studio) - Daily breakfast at the hotel - 4 days of unlimited yoga, Pilates, barre and fitness classes - Hatha/vinyasa, aerial and hot yoga - Reformer, dynamic reformer and mat Pilates - Functional training and crosstraining - Two InBody body composition scans (start and end) - Two Longevity & Recovery circuits (ice plunges at 9ºC and 3ºC, hybrid infrared sauna, red light column) - Theraface facial mask, Theragun and Therabody compression boots in the relaxation area - One cryotherapy session - One hyperbaric oxygen session - One 90-min live sound healing session (crystal bowls, Tibetan bowls, gong, shamanic drum) - One 60-min body sculpt massage with manual lymphatic drainage - Daily 30-min sound bath and meditation in the heated volcanic rock Ganban room - Monday wellness workshop (mindfulness, stress, healthy eating, longevity) - Guided meditation and breathwork after hatha yoga on Tuesdays and Fridays - Yoga mats, straps and blocks - Water, tea and coffee throughout the day - Wifi

What's not included

- Flights - Airport transfers - Travel insurance - Visa fees - Lunch and dinner - Detox juicing plan - Additional massages and treatments - Surf lessons and other activities not in the programme - Towel, robe and flip-flop hire (2€ each per use) - Extra nights before or after the retreat - Street parking