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Company-wide corporate days out give teams the chance to step away from their usual routines and spend several days enjoying shared experiences together. For many companies—especially remote or hybrid teams—organising multiple days out helps strengthen relationships and create lasting memories beyond the office.
Multi-day corporate days out with 50+ participants are becoming more popular as companies place greater value on team connection and wellbeing. Extending days out over more than one day allows teams to relax, socialise, and connect in a more meaningful way than a single activity or afternoon event.
Planning corporate days out for large groups comes with its own considerations. When the whole company spends several days together, all departments can bond in a more informal setting through shared activities, social events, and time spent exploring a destination together. These events are often organised annually or alongside major company milestones.
Surf Office has organised dozens of multi-day corporate events for large groups. We’ve supported events for companies with up to 400 participants and beyond. Our experience managing logistics, activities, and group coordination has given us valuable insights that companies of any size can apply. Here’s what we’ve learned about planning memorable company-wide corporate days out.
There are many good reasons why your company might come together for corporate days out. These events are designed to strengthen connections and give teams time to enjoy shared experiences outside the workplace. Corporate days out can help with:
Surf Office corporate days out for large groups or entire companies are usually flexible and experience-led. While many corporate days out last one day, some companies choose to extend them to two or more days to allow for a wider range of activities and more relaxed social time. The right format depends on your objectives and the kind of experience you want your team to have.
A corporate days out agenda depends on the kind of experience you want your team to share. For large groups, we recommend spreading activities over two to three days to keep the pace relaxed while still offering plenty to do. Here’s an example of what a multi-day corporate days out agenda might look like:
Day 1: Arrival and time to settle in, followed by a casual group dinner.
Day 2: Group activities or experiences (outdoor adventures, cultural experiences, or friendly challenges), plus an evening social event.
Day 3: Lighter activities, optional experiences, and a farewell lunch before departure.
For larger groups, flexibility is key. With many people travelling together, delays or weather issues can affect plans. Building buffer time into your agenda helps keep the experience enjoyable and stress-free.
Looking for inspiration on how to plan engaging activities for your corporate days out?
Here are some experiences that Surf Office has organised 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.
Weather not cooperating? If you’re stuck inside, host a game night. Divide into smaller groups to get competitive over Monopoly, trivia, or Charades. Make a tournament out of it to bring the whole group together at the end of the evening to cheer on the finalists.
Karaoke night is another fun team bonding activity great for bigger groups. Those who aren’t afraid of the spotlight can step right up and belt out a song. The rest of the group can dance, laugh, and cheer them on.
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.
While it is not too difficult to organize activities for groups of 15 people, the activities for 50+ are a challenge. Generally speaking, there are two approaches to organizing activities for large groups. First, you can divide the big group into smaller teams. Alternately, you can loosely organize an activity – like an afternoon at the beach – and let people decide how to spend their time. Read more about each approach in our guide to planning big group activities.
Lastly, we’ve learned through trial and error that it’s difficult to make restaurant bookings for large groups. The approach is different from making a reservation for a pair or family-sized group. Start your research by ticking the “good for large groups” option on Yelp, TripAdvisor, or Google. Learn more in our article, “5 common mistakes to avoid when booking restaurants for a large group”.
Avocode’s retreat as a mini startup accelerator
Avocode is a tool that helps designers and developers collaborate on one seamless platform. For their work retreat, the team spent 10 days with Surf Office Lisbon working as a mini-startup accelerator.
The group of 20 divided into small teams on day one, and then spent the time working on specific projects. The last day of the retreat was dedicated to presenting each team’s results with the rest of the group. As a result, Avocode’s work retreat drove innovation. Their result is a great example of how to make the most of limited time to do some creative thinking.
Mynd retreat resulted in 12 new products features
Mynd is a property management company based in California. For their work retreat, Mynd’s team of 32 people relocated for 10 days to Surf Office Barcelona. Like Avocode, they spent the first three days running a hackathon. The team developed 12 new product features in a quick sprint of innovation.
Mynd’s approach to their work retreat was to prepare beforehand; key design elements were already in place when they arrive in Spain. As a result, the team could move quickly and work without designers. Consider what you need to do to prepare before arriving onsite for your work retreat.
Mattermost’s innovative design retreat
Mattermost is a communication software company that makes a Slack-alternative messaging platform. Their team retreat in Lisbon combined innovation and team-building in five days.
Mattermost spent their work retreat building a product roadmap, discussing their core values, team-building, and hosting a hackathon. Check out more in this video from their CTO, Corey Hulen.
Invision’s team comes together for beach meetings
Finally, InVision is a product design tool and 100% remote company. The team met in Ericeira for a work retreat with Surf Office.
They split their time between team bonding – stand-up paddle, surfing, and eating incredible seafood – and a hackathon. During their one-day hackathon, InVision built new product features and internal communication tools.
Are you planning a strategy meeting, design sprint, hackathon, kickoff meeting of a new project or “just” regular work time?
Whatever it is, we’ve got your back.
Expect a professional working environment with:
And of course, very fast internet.
Each team has a bit of a different expectation when it comes to their retreat experience and that’s why you have the flexibility to choose different types of accommodation ranging from premium ensuite rooms to shared accommodation.
All of our accommodation options are located in central areas within walking distance from the restaurants and grocery stores. You don’t need to rent a car or use public transportation to move around. We want to make your stay as easy as possible.
You have 100% security that your booking won’t be canceled (anyone with experience of last-minute group booking cancellation can relate).
We understand that your team might be growing and you might need to add additional rooms over time, you’ll have this flexibility too.
We’ve built a system that makes retreat planning easy and fast.
We’ll plan every detail of your retreat from start to finish, so that you don’t have to. This includes:
You will get a personalized schedule and online dashboard with all of your retreat information before your retreat starts. Our onsite support will show you everything you need to know upon your arrival and make sure everything goes smoothly for you and your team.
“I just wanted to say a thousand thanks to you for all of your hardwork and help in the organising of our team summit. It was a huge success and we couldn’t have done it without you!”
Emma Louise Bowen, People & Operations Manager in Workday
1. Tell us more about your plans
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?
2. Planning with your dedicated project manager
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.
3. Detailed plan and schedule of your company retreat
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 North Africa.
