Why Great Retreats Are Hard to Find (And What We're Doing About It)

I've spent the last five years traveling to, photographing, and sharing some of the greatest retreats in the country. Treehouses in Georgia. A-frames in the mountains. Container homes, creekside cabins, converted train cars sitting on ten private acres in Missouri. Places that make you stop scrolling and send the link to your group chat.

I did this because I love it. I work in advertising and marketing — helping businesses grow is what I do every day — but this started as something personal. I'd find a place, stay there, shoot it, and share it. And people kept asking the same question: where do you find these places?

The honest answer was: everywhere. And that was the problem.

The retreats I was finding weren't all on one platform. Some were on Airbnb. Some were on Vrbo. Some had their own direct booking sites that you'd never stumble on unless someone sent you the link. A few were only on Instagram, buried in a feed between ads and influencer posts.

And the more I searched, the more I realized that guests don't think in platforms. They think in experiences. They want a treehouse with a hot tub. A cabin that sleeps six. Something unique within driving distance of home. But to find those things, they're bouncing between five different apps, comparing reviews that all use different rating systems, and hoping the photos match reality.

It's getting harder to tell which retreats are worth the trip and which are duds. There are hosts out there who genuinely care about the experience — who've put real thought into the design, the setting, the details that make a stay feel intentional. They obsess over whether the coffee is good and whether the hot tub has the right view.

And then there are hosts who obsess over occupancy rates and average nightly revenue. Places optimized for maximum bookings, not for the person actually sleeping there. You can feel the difference the moment you walk in. One feels like someone built it for you. The other feels like someone built it for their spreadsheet.

The platforms don't separate these two categories. A five-star converted grain silo gets the same treatment as a five-star suburban apartment with ring lights in the bathroom. The algorithm doesn't know the difference. But you do, once you've stayed at enough of both.

After hundreds of stays, I started to notice patterns. The best retreats shared certain qualities regardless of where they were listed: the design felt cohesive, the setting matched the experience, the photos were honest, and the host clearly cared. These places earned their reviews.

I also noticed something else. Many of the best hosts were struggling to get found. A property like Selah Ridge in Ringgold, Georgia — a beautifully designed retreat with a treehouse, a lookout tower, and a lodge — books directly through their own site. If you don't already know about them, you might never find them. The same is true for places booking through smaller platforms that don't have Airbnb's search traffic.

Great retreats are scattered. Discovery is fragmented. And searching takes time that most people don't have.

The Best Retreat started as an answer to the question I kept getting asked: where do you find these places? Instead of sending individual links, I wanted one place where someone could go and trust that everything listed there was worth their time.

The concept is simple. We review retreats against a clear standard — design and cohesion, setting and sense of place, accuracy of representation, and quality of the guest experience — and list the ones that meet it. That's the whole catalog. No paid placement. No rankings you can buy. No commission on bookings. Just a focused collection of places that are genuinely great

We currently have 38 retreats across 13 states. Every one of them was reviewed independently. Some were discovered by our team. Some were submitted by hosts. Either way, the same criteria apply. If a retreat is listed on The Best Retreat, it meets our standard. If it doesn't, it's not here.

If you're a guest, The Best Retreat is the place to start. You can find retreats that meet a clear standard, compare them in one place, and then book wherever you prefer — Airbnb, Vrbo, or the host's own site. Less searching. Less guesswork. Better stays.

If you're a host who's put real thought into your retreat, this is a catalog designed to help guests find you faster. We don't manage reservations or take commissions. Hosts pay a simple monthly fee to be listed, and the fee doesn't influence whether a retreat is included or how it's presented.

I built this because I spent five years watching great retreats get buried in noise. The tools we had were built for volume, not quality. The Best Retreat is built for quality.