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A company retreat is an opportunity to step away from day-to-day work and bring people together around shared goals. Whether you're looking to strengthen relationships, improve collaboration, celebrate milestones, or align on strategy, retreats create space for conversations that rarely happen in the office or over Zoom.
For remote and distributed teams, company retreats are especially valuable. Bringing everyone together in person helps build trust, strengthen company culture, and create a sense of connection across departments and teams.
Whether you're organizing a retreat for 20 people or a company-wide gathering for 600, Surf Office helps you create an experience that fits your goals and budget.
There are a number of good reasons why your company might come together for a retreat. A company retreat can help your team:
Most company retreats last between 2 and 5 days. While every retreat is different, here's a sample 4-day company retreat itinerary in Barcelona.
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Looking for inspiration on how to keep your company busy on the retreat?
Here are some activities that Surf Office has hosted in the past:
Workday, a people analytics company, hosted its company retreat in Barcelona. The team spent at the beach with activities like stand up paddle, swimming, and a surfing lesson. A beach trip is good for big groups because everyone can do what they want. Some can swim, some can play beach volleyball, and some can veg in the sun.
Get away from the noise and hustle of the city and bring your team for a nature hike. Our destinations in the Catskill Mountains, Zion national park, and Gran Canaria are perfect for bringing your team on a hike for some fresh air.
Break up your larger group in small teams and take a walk through the historic streets of Lisbon, for instance. See famous monuments, hidden gems, and learn about the culture of the city on a scavenger hunt. Get to know the city and each other in a fun way.
Invite a local expert to speak about something out-of-the-box. Or, have your employees volunteer to give informal Ted Talk-style presentations about something they’re passionate about. This approach leverages internal resources, uplifts individual interests, and shows your support for skills beyond work roles.
EVBox is a company focused on providing charging solutions for electric vehicles. Their group of 200 people joined Surf Office for a company retreat. In the process, we hosted a special dining experience in Lisbon with traditional dishes and drinks. Organizing meals can be a challenge for large groups: read what we’ve learned about making restaurant reservations.
If you want to keep your team bonding business-focused, host a hackathon. Divide the large group up into small teams and work on a project. A traditional hackathon focuses on creative problem-solving – emphasis on “creative.” Don’t be afraid to make the hackathon open-ended to foster innovation.
A company retreat is an event that brings employees together outside their usual work environment to focus on collaboration, team building, strategic planning, and company culture. Company retreats can range from small team gatherings to company-wide events involving hundreds of participants.
Companies organize retreats to strengthen team relationships, improve communication, align on goals, celebrate milestones, and create opportunities for meaningful collaboration. Retreats are particularly valuable for remote and distributed teams that spend most of their time working online.
The terms company retreat and corporate retreat are often used interchangeably. Both involve bringing teams together for workshops, planning sessions, team-building activities, and relationship building. Corporate retreat is more commonly used by larger organizations, while company retreat is often preferred by startups and growing companies.
Most company retreats last between 2 and 4 days. A 3-day retreat is often considered the ideal format because it provides enough time for productive sessions, team-building activities, and informal networking without keeping employees away from work for too long.
For the best venue selection and availability, most companies begin planning their retreat 3 to 6 months in advance. Larger groups, international teams, and retreats during peak travel seasons may require additional planning time.
A successful company retreat agenda typically combines strategic discussions, workshops, team-building activities, networking opportunities, and free time. The best retreats balance productivity with opportunities for employees to connect in a more relaxed setting.
The cost of a company retreat depends on factors such as destination, accommodation, group size, season, and activities. Budgets can vary significantly, but most companies aim to find a balance between creating a memorable experience and achieving their business objectives.
The best company retreat destinations offer convenient travel connections, quality accommodation, meeting facilities, and engaging activities. Popular choices include destinations such as Lisbon, Barcelona, Mallorca, Porto, and other locations that combine productive work environments with memorable team experiences.
Absolutely. Company retreats are especially valuable for remote teams because they provide opportunities for face-to-face collaboration, stronger personal connections, and team alignment that are difficult to achieve through virtual meetings alone.
A company retreat planning service can handle venue sourcing, accommodation, meeting spaces, transportation, activities, budgeting, logistics, and on-site coordination. This allows internal teams to focus on their retreat goals while experienced planners manage the operational details.
The SurfOffice team helped me organise a great offsite abroad for my distributed team of 16 and the experience was seamless. Their clear communication made planning easy, and they thought of everything we might need. They have a great selection of hotels and experiences, helping us stay within budget without compromising on quality. What especially stood out was their real-time availability during the event, which helped us quickly solve a few last-minute issues.
We recently worked with Surf Office to organize a company retreat in Lisbon, and the experience was nothing short of exceptional. From the very beginning, Simon was incredibly patient and supportive, helping us navigate multiple destination changes until we finally landed on Lisbon. His calm demeanor and willingness to ensure we found the perfect location made the planning process much smoother. Once we signed the contracts, Cristi took over and was an absolute star. Her patience, clear communication, and flexibility made all the difference. She understood our brief, even in its most creative form, and worked tirelessly to bring it to life. Cristi kept us on budget, coordinated seamlessly with the right production team, and managed everything through an intuitive dashboard on Coda. She was always a step ahead, anticipating our needs before we even voiced them. On the ground, Fernanda was a force to be reckoned with! She ensured that venues delivered on time and to the highest standards, making sure every detail was executed flawlessly. What truly set Surf Office apart was their ability to make us feel like a collective team rather than just another client. They handled sensitive information with discretion, tackled challenges with calm professionalism, and ultimately delivered an unforgettable retreat. We would work with Surf Office again in a heartbeat and highly recommend them to anyone looking to plan a seamless, well-executed offsite.
From the very first contact to the last goodbye, Surf Office was an incredible company to work with for our company retreat in Portugal. The customer service was top tier and every single person I interacted with was absolutely lovely, professional and so helpful.
We recently had our company retreat in Spain which was organized together with Surf Office and the experience exceptional. From the initial planning stages to the final details, the Surf Office team was professional, attentive, and incredibly helpful. They provided tailored recommendations for a venue and their local expertise and network made the entire process smooth and stress-free. The seamless coordination of accommodation, transportation, and activities allowed us to focus on creating meaningful connections within our team without worrying about logistics. The retreat itself was a huge success, and a big part of that was thanks to Surf Office's ability to anticipate our needs and adapt to last-minute changes. I would like to give a special shoutout to Romane who is an organization wizard and made sure everything works out as planned, Fernanda who was our on-site support and did an exceptional job even for the very short-term requests. If you're looking for a reliable partner to help organize your next retreat, I highly recommend Surf Office. Their expertise, attention to detail, and dedication to creating memorable experiences are unmatched. Thank you!
We have organized company retreats for our distributed 30 people team multiple times with Surf Office and the team has loved it every time. Surf Office has some great venues as part of their portfolio and do a great job helping to facilitate pretty much everything from accommodation, food, activities, airport transfers etc.
Candela over at Surf helped us to organise our first ever team retreat in Portugal for 30 odd people (which included +1s and small children.) It honestly couldn't have been more perfect. Every detail was seen to and we felt completely supported. Our team came away from that trip feeling like a proper little family. Such wonderful memories. We honestly could never have done this without Surf and would recommend to anyone.
Surf Office made planning our 20 person offsite a breeze! They found the perfect location for us, advised on places we weren't originally considering, and the organization/logistics were very smooth. As a small people team, having this extra help makes a world of a difference. Our team had a great time!
We had a fantastic experience partnering with Surf Office for our 3-day company retreat in Costa Brava. From the early planning stages to the end of the event, everything ran smoothly and professionally. We first worked with Anthony, our Company Retreat Consultant, who helped us choose the right package. He was responsive, approachable, and clearly experienced—making it easy to select the hotel, which suited our needs perfectly. From there, we were supported by Romane, our dedicated Retreat Manager. She was absolutely great—well-organized, proactive, and always ready with thoughtful recommendations and local insights. Whether it was fine-tuning the schedule, adjusting logistics, or booking group activities like kayaking and hiking, she made sure every detail was handled. The mix of work sessions, team-building, and social time was just right. The hotel was comfortable, the activities were fun and well-coordinated, and the team dinners and beach events added a special touch. Everyone had a great time and felt the experience helped strengthen our team dynamics. Surf Office made it easy to plan and execute a retreat for 65 people without stress. We’d absolutely recommend them to any team looking to run an effective and memorable offsite—and we’ll definitely be working with them again.
We had the pleasure of working with Surf Office to organise our annual company offsite in Portugal and the experience exceeded all expectations. From the initial planning stages to the final event, the team demonstrated outstanding professionalism, attention to detail and a true commitment to making our event a success. Every aspect of the offsite was handled seamlessly, including venue selection, team-building activities and logistics. They have a deep knowledge and network of local and trusted vendors.
We would like to hear more about your plans and how we can make your next company summit a success.
Do you have an office in one location or is your team distributed? Can employees bring their partners? Is the retreat going to be more about work or fun?
Even finding and booking one single restaurant for the dinner can be a painful project. Is the food going to be good? Is the price fair? How many of our team members have diet restrictions?
Each retreat is a combination of multiple smaller projects and with a large group the complexity might be scary.
But no worries, we mastered this process and made it fun and easy.
Our experienced project manager dedicated to you will help you with a whole organisation from searching for flights to crafting unique surprise activities for your team.
We will be your one-stop-shop for all of the logistics of your retreat. The Retreat Planner assigned to your group will work with you to book and coordinate everything from A-Z, providing you with peace-of-mind and a guarantee of quality and reliability from our local partners at the best possible prices.
According to our repeat clients and our first-time clients who have previous experience in organizing retreats in-house, this is the greatest value that we bring to them.
At the end of the planning process you will end up with the bullet-proof schedule. There is no room for improvisation with a large group.
Everything must work perfectly, all the activities and transfers must be just-on-time.
Sounds like a dream end, right? That’s how we work.
You are ready for your epic company retreat.
Choose from hundreds of retreat locations in Europe, America, Asia-Pacific, and Africa.
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