Following our series of articles on the most popular questions regarding retreats, this time we tackle another big question – when is the right season to organize a company retreat? To put it briefly, spring and autumn are the most popular options for most of our clients, but the answer is not so simple.
Summer, and why it doesn’t always work
In the northern hemisphere, organizing a retreat in the summer is anything but simple:
- A lot of your team members have already planned holidays with their families so they won’t be able to attend.
- Additionally, because it’s holiday season, prices for accommodation and flights will be significantly higher.
- Finally, everywhere you go, it will be crowded with people.
All of these factors taken into consideration, summer is far from ideal for organizing a retreat.
Spring is much laxer when it comes to obligations, but bear in mind that lots of people have weddings during spring, and if someone’s invited as a guest, they can’t skip so easily.
Winter might be an option
Strategically, January and February are good months to organize a retreat. As it’s the beginning of the year, your team members will be fresh and relaxed right after New Year and Christmas.
For an e-commerce business or an agency, these are two of the best months as teams can settle down and revisit their strategy for the upcoming year.
At Surf Office, our recommended retreat location for the winter is Gran Canaria. The reasons are simple. First of all, it doesn’t matter if it’s winter in Europe, you can kick back and enjoy the beach life. Second, it’s just an amazing place to be.
From our own experience
At Surf Office, our most popular months are May, June, September and October. However, we’ve hosted retreats in pretty much every month of the year.
If sun is what you’re after, you can get some sunny and fairly warm weather in late autumn (October and November) and early spring (March and April).
This is for locations such as Lisbon, Ericeira, Barcelona, Malaga and Mallorca.
From experience with our clients, rain can happen during these times. However, as you’re there to get work done and not as a regular tourist, you can simply structure the retreat to do more work when it rains and reschedule your fun activities for when the weather’s all back to normal.
Organize your retreat with Surf Office
Whether you’ll choose autumn or spring – you need a trusty partner to set up the ideal retreat. At Surf Office, we’ll take care of the organization, while you can sit back and enjoy the retreat to the fullest.
