The 10 Writing Retreats To Gatekeep (But Won’t)
- GirlWellTravelled
- Aug 13
- 6 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
The coffee machine clicks off behind me. Outside, a gull cuts across the horizon and the air smells faintly of seaweed and someone else’s toast. My notebook is still open from last night... a half-finished sentence waiting for me to catch up to it.
For the travel-hungry scribe, the coffee-clutching diarist or the emotionally-frazzled novelist just one metaphor away from a meltdown; these writing retreats might just save your draft (and too, your sanity).
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Some writers need a cave. Others need a room with a view, coffee you yourself didn't brew and a setting so inspiring it comes into your scenes very invited. My own best work has been split between midnight sessions at a lowly desk and days spent in places that coax the words out like trusted confidantes. Notebook full. Plot clear. Coffee poured by someone else.
In the spirit of literary greats, the likes of Marguerite Duras in Hanoi and Fleming in Jamaica, here are the retreats I’ve written from, dreamed about or mentally bookmarked between deadlines.
Coastal Writing Retreats Sparking Creativity
Salty air has a way of clearing your head and making your edits a breeze. Coastal retreats are ideal for romance lit, espionage in small towns, coastal coming-of-age stories and possibly a little wine-fuelled mischief.
The Terrace Rooms & Wine – Ventnor, Isle of Wight, UK
Perched above the curve of the Ventnor seafront, The Terrace Rooms & Wine is part boutique hotel, part wine library.
Six bedrooms makes it homely. A wine fridge in every one and those aren't for decoration. Sea-facing writing nooks where you’ll swear the gulls are critiquing your adverbs.
But afternoons are for critiquing, that of the vino kind at five. By the second glass, you’ll have near convinced yourself you’re a fantastic writer. By the third, its no longer up for questioning.
The Gallivant – East Sussex, UK
Wild sand dunes to make you rethink your novel’s setting, seafood that deserves its own storyline and barefoot walks across Camber Sands that slip into your chapters. Rooms come with private gardens and deck chairs, makes writing leisurely, and a little sandy but all together satisfying.
Mountain & Countryside Escapes for Writers
The mountain air may be thin but you'll have clarity on you characters. Ideal for atmospheric thrillers, Nordic memoirs or that novel about an introvert with the most woeful past.
The Lodge – Verbier, Switzerland
Nine rooms in an alpine hideaway you'll readily call your home. The views over and across this mountain resort village will do well to flesh out your storyline. But sitting across from a roaring fire of a Master Suite will see you willingly edit and re-edit that manuscript. In summer, trade skis for solitude and hikes that double as plot-mapping sessions.
Juvet Landscape Hotel – Valldal, Norway

Glass walls dissolve the boundary between your Landscape Room and the wilderness. Outside, moss-thick forest floors roll into the Valldal River. In the early hours, before light fully beams through, mist curls over the ground. The only sound is the rustle of leaves and maybe your pen against paper.
The Writer’s Lodge, a 70sqm sanctuary tucked into the hillside, comes with its own kitchen for midnight snacks. But the real feast is the view: birch trees holding still like they’re listening to you think or helping you to concentrate.
Mornings stretch into afternoons over coffee you willingly make, while reindeer trails and hidden footpaths tempt you into 'research walks' that turn into entire chapters. Here, you won’t just connect with nature, you'll naturally write it.
Indulgent Writing Retreats for the Pleasure-Driven Author
Word count optional. Wine pairings encouraged. Ideal for historical fiction, slow-burn romance or any story that has been lingering on the brain.
Lympstone Manor – Devon, UK
Lympstone Manor is a setting waiting for an entire plot. Any of it's twenty-one rooms and suites a prize. But feel free to steal glances, crush on the suite with twin double-ended copper baths. Entertain doing away with your shrinking siren for a ground floor room. They come with an outdoor hot tub, fire pit and a glass of something bubbly as standard. You’ll pause mid-sentence to admire the estuary, then happily rewrite your protagonist’s backstory.
Lympstone Manor will get you writing with wild abandon. Better still if staying in one of Lympstone Manor's six sensational shepherd huts in the woods. Swaying hurricane lamps and a lust-filled write up comes to mind.
You’ll be treated to next-level service and tasting menus that'll have you rethinking your snack drawer back home. Between sips and sweeping views, writing will come easy here.
Chewton Glen – Hampshire, UK
Treehouses, hot tub suites and croquet lawn rooms, all beside the New Forest National Park. From Lord Gilpin’s spacious wood-decked balcony you'll embrace the surrounding landscape and weave him into your plot.
Try your hand Austen-style or ramble to the nearby coast for an ocean-side drama.
Round Hill Hotel & Villas – Montego Bay, Jamaica

Far from the tourist trail, this gem sits securely within 100 acres of gated lush Montego Bay greenery.
Pineapple Rooms with louvered doors opening to the sea air, Blue Mountain coffee at dawn and an overly convincing rum punch at sunset. Afternoons are for writing in between cocktails at the Ralph Lauren styled bar and conversations with linen-shirted strangers after dinner.
Not yet ready to share your story's concept, instead, listen to your heart's content to the conversations at dinner at one of their Michelin-starred chef's pop-up .
Writers beware: just as 'How Stella Got Her Groove Back,' you may start giving your main characters happier times. Or, perhaps not.
European Writing Retreats with Historic Charm
Settings that demand you are a little more elaborate with your adjectives. Think Positano blue and Mallorcan light.
Finca Serena – Mallorca, Spain
Between olive groves and lemon trees, you’ll write in a Garden Suite with French doors opening onto your own patch of earth. Long afternoons of local white wine and a desk view are creatives of rhythmic sentences.
Le Sirenuse – Positano, Italy
A Sea View Junior Suite frames the Amalfi coast like a film still from The Talented Mr Ripley. That view from a Le Sirenuse balcony should come with an added charge. Early summer mornings mean languid writing over espressos. Late nights and cliffside lights nudge you into love scenes or tragedies you never planned.
Secluded Writing Hideaways for Deep Focus
Just you, a notebook and maybe a suspiciously insightful waiter.
Heckfield Place – Hampshire, UK
A Lake Room flooded with early light; gardens to walk when your protagonist makes bad decisions and falcons who may yet inspire a plot twist. You’ll be free to write one impeccable chapter and be happy to call it a day.
Amangiri – Utah, USA
Mesa Suites with private sky terraces, desert stretching endlessly ahead. Mornings are for sunrise writing; evenings for firepit readings under a sky too big to ignore. Amangiri has all the space to make your writer's block dissipate.
The last page of my notebook flutters in the afternoon breeze. Outside, the light has shifted, stretching shadows across the desk. The table, that's being set for dinner. I close the notebook, knowing this chapter could only have been written here.
Where Will Your Next Sentence Be Written?
Sometimes the right location is inspiration. Sometimes a view and a well-timed pastry is the real catalyst.
So which retreat is matching in your WIP’s emotional arc?
Sweeping and romantic with mild trauma? Positano.
Moody, mysterious, maybe a crime or two? Norway.
Slow burn by the sea with heavy longing? Ventnor.
Main character heals through nature and fine food? Mallorca.
Drop your choice in the comments or DM me your WIP’s vibe, and I’ll prescribe the perfect setting. Behind every tortured draft is a writer who deserves a view, a nap and someone else making dinner.
(And yes — if you need help with flights or stay or car hire, I might know someone.)