Texas vs. Costa Rica: How to Choose the Right Ayahuasca Retreat Location
- Jeanae White
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
Texas vs Costa Rica: How to Choose the Right Ayahuasca Retreat Location
Deciding to attend an ayahuasca retreat is often only the first step of a much larger journey. The next step is choosing a retreat that feels safe, supportive, and aligned with your intentions and values. It is important to be discerning, to ask the right questions, and to carefully weigh your options before deciding where to place your trust. You may already feel connected to New Life Rising and now be wondering whether our Texas or Costa Rica location will be the right fit for your journey. While the locations are different, the heart of the experience remains the same.
Both our Texas and Costa Rican locations offer a serene sanctuary, free of distractions, immersed in nature, and with our same signature program. You will receive the same level of care, preparation, ceremony support, safety screening, integration, and personal attention. The difference is not in the quality of the retreat; it's in the setting.
Our programs are intentionally designed to be nearly identical so that no matter which location you choose, you are held in the same trusted container, guided by the same values, and supported by the same experienced facilitators.
Texas offers the accessibility and comfort of being close to home that is needed for some people to feel safe going into the experience. Others feel called toward Costa Rica’s jungle immersion, tropical beauty, and sense of adventure. Neither location is better than the other. The right choice depends on where you feel safest, most open, and most able to fully commit to your healing process.
Sometimes the right location is the one where your body and spirit feel safest saying yes. For some, that means staying closer to home in Texas, surrounded by river, land, open sky, and quiet nature. For others, it means stepping fully out of their familiar world and into the adventure of Costa Rica. Both are valid. What matters most is choosing the setting that allows you to arrive with trust, openness, and presence.
What Both Retreat Locations Offer
Before looking at the differences, it is important to understand what stays the same.
Whether you join us in Texas or Costa Rica, you can expect:
A grounded, experienced ceremonial container
Time for rest, reflection, nature, and connection
Support with travel logistics and retreat preparation
Choosing an ayahuasca retreat is a big decision. That is why both of our locations are built around the same foundation: safety, intimacy, tradition, and integration.
Why Choose Texas?
For many guests, Texas offers the perfect balance: a true retreat environment that feels peaceful, sacred, and removed from everyday life, while still being accessible, familiar, and easier to travel to.
There is a unique beauty to the Texas retreat experience. It’s quiet, peaceful, steady, and grounding. The river, the open land, the wide sky, the rustic simplicity, all nestled in 1000 acres of nature create a setting where you can exhale, soften, and reconnect with yourself.
You want an authentic ayahuasca experience within the United States
Traveling internationally to a non-English-speaking country for a completely new experience, especially one that requires a lot of vulnerability, can feel overwhelming or even scary. For some people, the opportunity to experience ayahuasca through a traditional framework, with experienced facilitators, within a safe and supportive container in the United States is exactly what allows them to fully commit to the journey. Staying within the U.S. can make the experience feel safer and more accessible, while still offering the depth, reverence, and authenticity this work deserves.
You are drawn to water, nature, and open spaces
The land in Texas offers its own natural medicine. The river, the live oaks, the open land, and the peaceful surroundings help create a retreat environment that feels spacious and calm. As soon as you arrive, there is a sense of relaxation, your shoulders drop, and your nervous system begins to soften.
The openness of the land is part of what makes it feel so peaceful. There is room to walk, room to breathe, and room to be quiet with yourself. At night, the sky opens up completely, and the stars are brighter than we expected to see anywhere outside of Costa Rica. The land has a steady energy, and many guests find that it helps them slow down and feel more present.
Then there is something deeply healing about being near a natural water source. The river brings a sense of movement, cleansing, and quiet reflection. It invites you to slow down, listen, and let the experience unfold without forcing anything. Water has long been seen as an element of purification in many traditions, and when you submerge in the gentle current, it is easy to feel it for yourself.
You want an authentic, non-commercial retreat environment
Texas offers a retreat experience that feels earthy, simple, and rooted. It is not about luxury for the sake of luxury. It is about being held by nature, community, ceremony, and care. The rustic atmosphere can help strip away distractions and bring you back to what matters: your intentions, your healing, your relationship with yourself, and your connection to something greater. For those who feel overwhelmed by busy environments, large retreat centers, too much structure or overly polished spaces, Texas may offer the grounded simplicity you are looking for.
You want to have simple travel logistics, reduced travel costs, and time efficiency
International travel can be a wonderful adventure, but it can also feel like a lot. Passports, customs, flights, currency exchange, phone service, language barriers, and travel planning may feel overwhelming, especially if you are already moving through a sensitive season of life. Traveling to Costa Rica may require extra days, additional flights, hotels before or after the retreat, transportation planning, and more time away from home.
Choosing Texas removes many of those barriers. This can be especially helpful for people balancing work, family, finances, or limited time off. For many guests, Texas makes ayahuasca accessible. It can reduce the overall cost, shorten the travel time, and make it easier to say yes when a longer international trip is not realistic.
You want more retreat date options and easier scheduling
Because we host more retreat dates in Texas, this location may offer more flexibility when choosing the timing that works best for your life. For some guests, the right retreat is not only about the location, but about finding a date that aligns with their work schedule, family needs, healing process, or personal readiness.
You want a small, supportive community
Our Texas retreats are designed to preserve the same intimacy and personal care that New Life Rising is known for. You will not be placed in a large, impersonal group or rushed through a ceremony weekend. The focus remains on depth, preparation, integration, and genuine connection.
Conclusion:
Texas offers something very special: a sacred container close to home, surrounded by nature, held in community, and rooted in the same care and intention as our Costa Rica retreats.
Texas is simply a different expression of the same work we've been doing for over a decade, now in our home country. Texas offers accessibility, groundedness, river, open land, and a peaceful ceremonial space within the United States.
Why choose Costa Rica?
Costa Rica may be the right retreat location for you if you feel called to step into a completely different environment, get out of your comfort zone and immerse yourself in the beauty of the tropical jungle.
There is something powerful about leaving your everyday comforts, routines and surroundings behind. For many people, traveling to Costa Rica creates a sense of separation from responsibilities, familiar patterns, work and family demands, and the distractions of home. This distance can help you feel more committed to the experience and more available for deep inner work.
You want the jungle atmosphere
Ayahuasca comes from the jungle, and the energy of tropical spaces aligns with her energy. Many people feel drawn to Costa Rica because they imagine ayahuasca in a lush, tropical setting. The jungle has its own rhythm. The sounds, the heat, the rain, the humidity, the plants, and the wildlife can all become part of the experience.
For those who want to get closer to ayahuasca’s home environment without traveling to Peru, Costa Rica offers a deeply alive and immersive environment that supports reflection, surrender, and reconnection.
You want to get out of your comfort zone and embrace an adventure
For some people, the act of traveling to Costa Rica becomes part of the retreat itself. Leaving your familiar environment, daily routines, and usual responsibilities behind can create a powerful sense of separation from everyday life. There is something meaningful about choosing to step into the unknown, not just through ceremony, but through the entire experience of traveling somewhere new. If you feel called to adventure, nature, and the growth that often comes from moving beyond what is familiar, Costa Rica may offer the kind of expanded experience you are looking for. It can feel like breaking through a threshold, a moment where you intentionally leave one chapter behind and open yourself to something new.
You want to experience a ceremony in a traditional maloca
Our Costa Rica retreats offer the opportunity to sit with ayahuasca in a traditional maloca, a ceremonial space created specifically for this work. For many guests, the maloca itself becomes an important part of the experience. It is separate from ordinary life, held with prayer and intention, and offers a sacred container dedicated to this work.
Over the years, this space has been intentionally cared for and energetically supported. Crystals rest beneath the support pillars, mapacho has been placed beneath the floorboards, and the presence of the plant spirits we have dieted are woven into the space. Every ceremony held there, every icaro sung, and every moment of healing that has taken place has become part of the maloca’s energy. It is not just a structure. It is a living ceremonial space, shaped by the medicine, the land, the songs, and the people who have come there to heal.
You want to visit the beach or extend your trip for additional vacation time
Costa Rica is a beautiful place to spend time before or after a retreat, and can help you feel more prepared when you arrive, or help you integrate the experience afterward. Many guests choose to arrive early or stay afterward to visit the beach, explore nature, or simply give themselves more time to rest before returning home.
This can be especially helpful after the ceremony, when you may want a few extra days to move slowly, journal, swim, eat nourishing food, and allow the experience to settle. The country holds immense beauty, and there are different environments to choose from (mountains, beaches, volcanoes, valleys, etc.)
Conclusion:
Costa Rica offers jungle, tropical beauty, and international immersion. Costa Rica offers a lush jungle adventure that has energy most aligned with ayahuasca’s home in the Amazon Jungle. Costa Rica was our home for 12 years, and will always hold a special place in our hearts. There is an opportunity to get out of your comfort zone and even stay and explore the country while you continue to process and integrate the experience.
Texas vs. Costa Rica: What Is the Real Difference?
The real difference between our Texas and Costa Rica retreats is not the level of care, the depth of support, or the intention behind the work. Those remain the same in both locations.
The difference is the environment.
Both are held with the same care. The right choice is simply the one that feels most supportive for where you are in your journey.
