The airport to fly into is Léon/Guanajuato Airport (BJX).

The Léon airport is about an hour and fifteen minutes from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It is by far the most used for people traveling to San Miguel and it has an international customs service.

There are several direct flights a day from various US and Canadian cities (Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Detroit, Vancouver).

If you are flying from Canada and do not wish to travel through the US, you may transit through Mexico City or one of the Mexican sun destinations.

We will be offering a shuttle from Léon airport (BJX). See the next question [below] for details.

The retreat will begin on Saturday, January 9 with a welcome event at 5pm and we will wrap up on the morning of Saturday, January 16.

ARRIVAL: We will have a shuttle departing Léon airport on Saturday, January 9 at 5pm.

When making your travel arrangements, please be sure to give yourself plenty of time to clear customs (if necessary), collect your baggage, and arrive at our meeting place at Léon airport no later than 2:30 pm.

DEPARTURE: On the last day of the retreat, Saturday, January 16, we have a shuttle departing our retreat venue at 9:00 am, returning everyone to the Léon Airport at approximately 10:30 am.

When booking your departing flight, please ensure that you have enough time to get checked in and to your terminal so you don’t miss your flight!

PRIVATE TAXI/SHUTTLE: If you prefer to take a private shuttle or taxi, one or both ways, a one-way fare (from Léon airport-San Miguel) is approximately US$85-100. We can provide you with information to arrange that.

Once you make your registration deposit, you will receive instructions on how to book your room at the hotel with our special reduced “retreat participant” pricing.

All room payments and arrangements are made directly with the hotel.

Absolutely! You're welcome to bring a partner or friend to share your accommodation and enjoy San Miguel while you’re participating in retreat activities.

Please be sure to inform the hotel at the time of booking how many people will be staying in your room.

Dining Together:
If you'd like your guest to join you for retreat meals, please let us know (by writing to heather@alisonwearing.com) and we will add the “Guest Package” option (USD$750) to your final retreat balance.

You are welcome to share a room with another retreat participant. In this case, please note that the only shared cost is the accommodation, which is booked and paid for directly with the hotel.

• Each participant will register for the retreat individually, paying the full retreat fees.

• There is a $200 double-occupancy charge ($100 each) for a shared room.

A deposit is required in order to register.

The balance of your retreat fees will be due 90 days before the retreat begins. We will send you the payment link and reminder email one week before.

All breakfasts, all lunches (except one, so you can explore!) and all dinners but one (ditto!) are included.

We encourage you to wander into town to explore the surroundings, enjoy the local restaurants, and maybe even create a small group outing for your free evening.

YES! We strongly recommend that you have travel insurance and check all of your policy inclusions as some may or may not include cancellation refunds should be you be unable to attend for any reason.

We strongly recommend that you purchase refundable or changeable travel tickets and cancellation insurance whenever possible.

Sometimes life gets in the way of plans! Please review our cancellation policy and also double-check your travel insurance policy for trip cancellations, including reimbursement of any non-refundable trip costs.

Obviously, it is impossible to categorically state that ANYWHERE is safe in the world these days, so all travel, everywhere, should be done with that in mind.

That said, you will be flying into a small airport and being shuttled directly to the retreat venue, which is situated in a lovely neighbourhood. San Miguel de Allende is famous for being a peaceful, walkable city, and a haven for expats (particularly retirees), with foreigner nationals making up about 10% of the population of 140,000.

Here is an article on SAFETY IN MEXICO.

Typically, you can expect sunny, warm days, with temperatures around 22℃/72°F, and cool nights (as low as of 4℃/39°F) in the middle of January.

However, as weather becomes increasingly unpredictable everywhere, it best to expect and pack for (almost!) every eventuality.

We will send some packing suggestions closer to the retreat date.

Sadly, San Miguel is not ideal for someone with serious mobility issues. It is a cobblestone town with lots of uneven surfaces and steps, and not navigable in a wheelchair.

Provided some steps and uneven walking terrain aren’t a problem, our retreat venue does have a limited number of ground-floor rooms, which would require you to navigate only a few steps within the hotel itself.

The short answer is yes, but it obviously depends on availability.

If you are interested in extending your stay, please contact heather@alisonwearing.com and she can connect you with the hotel.

Only you can answer this question, of course. But I {Alison} can share something of my own experience that might be helpful.

A couple of years ago, I teetered on the decision to go on my first-ever retreat. I’d lead dozens of retreats all over the world for other people, but somehow I had never attended one myself. Ironically, it felt so…self-indulgent. And overly social. And expensive. Couldn’t I just go somewhere on my own?

But there was one retreat that I had been eyeing for years. It looked intriguing and inspiring, lead by someone I greatly admired, yet I dithered, balked at the price, once hovering over the ‘Register Now’ button for so long that the retreat sold out while I was procrastinating. 🤪

After that experience, I promised myself that when it opened for registration the following year, I would jump in THAT DAY, without hesitating or overthinking it.

And I did just that, as fast as my fingers could type. Registered. Paid. Booked my flight. High-fived myself. I was doing it!

Then I got long COVID. In my case, that meant that I was incapacitated, utterly and completed, for 14 weeks. As the retreat date got closer and closer, I felt only leaden dread. I could barely climb a flight of stairs. There was no way I was going to be able to navigate highways and airports, let alone participate in the retreat. I kicked myself for getting the cheap, non-refundable flight.

And then I began to wonder if—perhaps—this was exactly what I needed. If I could just manage to get myself there.

To make a long and beautiful story short, my intuition was correct. The retreat did indeed become a profound and exquisitely-timed gift that was as nourishing as it was transformative.

Essentially, I unravelled, in the best possible way. Spent a week in a state of appreciative receptivity: drinking beauty, feeling inspired for the first time in months, eating well, having sparkling conversations, listening, absorbing, feeling my horizons open, and finally surrendering to rest without begrudging it.

I didn’t return from that trip completely healed, but I was markedly, almost miraculously, better. And after a few more weeks, I began to feel like myself again, only richer, with a candle of comfort in the centre of myself that I could return to whenever I needed a reminder: that tending to the needs of my body and soul wasn’t selfish, it was life-giving.

Of course, being able to go on a retreat is an immense and glorious privilege. But rather than thinking of it in singular terms, I now think of it more expansively.

What might be possible if you were nourished, uplifted, inspired and reinvigorated? What might you have to give, to yourself and your writing, and to the world, in that state?

In these challenging times, what if the notion of profound connection and creativity weren’t frivolous at all, but actually vital?

In its origins, a retreat was meant to be a soulful, even sacred, experience.

Perhaps, at its best, it still is.