Your questions, answered.

No. Retreats have an arc, a facilitator and a closing circle. IQARA is a house that stays open for five months. What retreats are designed to produce tends to happen here anyway — slower, and without anyone designing it.

It's people living alongside each other, which is not quite the same thing. Nobody comes for the sake of community. People come to work, write, rest, raise a family, finish something — and find that doing it near others doing the same makes it better.

No. All of it is on offer and none of it is required. Some people spend their days at a laptop or on a mountain path and never set foot in a temple. Others are there every morning. Both are the point.

People who arrive with something of their own — a project, a practice, a question, a family — and who are curious about living close to others without giving up their own days.

Anyone who wants to be looked after. There's no programme, no staff and nobody running your day. If that sounds like freedom, you'll love it. If it sounds like work, it probably is.

Two ways. A guest stay is one to three weeks; a residency is one to five months — up to the whole season, November to the end of March. A week is the shortest stay, and there is no daily rate. Residency is the heart of IQARA, and whoever comes for the whole season chooses their room first.

Prices are per space, not per person: most rooms suit one or two people, and a whole house takes up to four. A residency has a monthly contribution — at Standard, a tree house (a double bed, for one or two) or the single room €400, a double room sharing a bathroom €550, a double room with its own bathroom €700, La Roca's large room for up to four €800, a whole house from €900. A guest stay has one price a week: €200, €280, €350, €450 and €550. Someone coming to stay with a resident for a month adds €200 a month. Residents choose one of three: Standard, the real cost of living here; Supported, a few community-supported places for people who couldn't otherwise come, given through the application; or Supporting, if you have more, which carries the Supported places. You choose in the application, where you see the exact amount; the Stay page shows them all. On top come only the shared costs — firewood and the groceries for the shared dinners. Everything is laid out on the Stay page.

Your space with bedding and towels, and everything shared on the land: the kitchens, the main house and its long tables, the terraces, two temples, a simple wooden sauna, a pool, and the sun. Electricity, spring water, internet and the everyday supplies of the house are included too — the land is off-grid, and the water comes from springs on the land itself: fresh, cold, and better than anything in a bottle. Life here has shared rhythms — community meals, circles, sauna evenings, the occasional event — and you are welcome to all of them, but IQARA is not a packaged retreat: nothing is programmed and nothing is required. Everyone staying pays less for the circles, ceremonies, workshops and massages.

Two things are shared costs: firewood, and the groceries for the two shared dinners a week. There is no fixed price for either — we order what is needed, more wood when it is colder, and split the cost fairly between everyone, month by month. Beyond that, food is your own: you shop for yourself and cook for yourself, and it is very affordable here — the area is full of small farms, and we eat what grows around us, in season. The bigger activities — circles, ceremonies, workshops — and massages are paid separately, at a lower price for everyone staying. Travel, insurance and anything in town are your own too.

Yes. Families have lived here with children of every age, and the land suits them — space, animals, other children some of the time, and a rhythm loose enough to bend around bedtimes. Prices are per space, not per person: a whole house takes up to four, children included, and is often the right shape for a family.

Yes. Prices are per space, not per person, and most rooms suit one or two — come together, for a week or a season, and you pay once. Friends travelling together can share a whole house, for up to four, or take rooms near each other. If someone comes to stay with you for a month while you are a resident, that adds €200 a month; someone visiting for a day or two is simply your guest.

In general, yes — other dogs already live on the land. Tell us about yours when you write.

Yes — Casita, the wooden house, and La Roja, the stone house, are private whole houses for up to four: right for a couple, friends or a family. As a residency, from €900 a month; as a guest stay, €550 a week. Larger groups can take one of the bigger houses outright. Tell us how many of you there are and we'll suggest what fits.

At Hidden Paradise, in the Alpujarras — the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada in Andalucía, an hour or so from Granada and an hour from the coast. Once you've requested a stay and we've said yes, we send you the way up.

Fly to Málaga or Granada. From either airport there are direct connections to the nearest town, or you can hire a car. From the town we help with the last stretch and can pick you up. If you'd rather not think about it at all, we run an airport shuttle for a fixed fee of around €90 — ask when you book.

This is southern Spain: most days are bright and warm enough to work on a terrace. Evenings cool down properly and the fireplaces get lit — it's the mountains, after all. Bring layers, not a parka.

Seven places to sleep. La Roca: four double rooms upstairs sharing a bathroom, and one large room below with its own bathroom, for up to four. La Fuente: five double rooms, sharing bathrooms. The Orchard: three double rooms with their own bathroom, and one single room. The Main House: one large double room, the only one in the house. Five tree houses, each with a double bed, sharing an outdoor shower and toilet and heated centrally — simple and adventurous, the most alive of the options, and the most rustic in the colder months. And two whole houses for up to four: Casita, the wooden house, with an outdoor shower, and La Roja, a stone house of one large room. All of it is simple, warm and clean: stone houses with fireplaces, shared kitchens, real beds — and sheets, pillows, duvets and towels are provided, so leave those at home. The Stay page shows each house on the map.

Yes — two connections, so there's always one. Satellite internet across the land, and a fixed-wireless link to the towers in the valley as a second line. Video calls and a full working day are fine from the main house and the houses. The tree houses sit furthest from the signal; if your work needs a rock-solid connection all day, take a room in one of the houses.

Warm layers for the evenings, walking shoes, a torch, whatever your work needs, and something for the table — an instrument, a recipe, a game, a skill. Not bedding or towels. Those are here.

There isn't one shape — everyone keeps their own hours. But most days have a quiet morning where people work, an afternoon that's yours, and an evening where the house drifts together. Around that: yoga or breathwork if someone's offering it, a walk, the sauna, a fire.

No. Nothing is mandatory, everything is an invitation. The only thing we ask is that you carry a share of the house.

Mostly, you take care of yourself. You share a kitchen with your housemates, buy your own food and cook as you like — alone, with them, whatever the evening turns into. Twice a week or so the whole house eats together, cooked by a rotating team; those dinners are the one thing we shop for and split as a house. We often go to the local market or the farms nearby together, and it is a good outing — but everyone pays for their own basket. Most of what we eat was grown within a few kilometres. Vegetarian is the default at the shared table; tell us about allergies when you write.

Grounded and low-alcohol. A glass of wine at dinner is normal; the house isn't a party. No illegal substances on the land.

Yes — most people do. Mornings are quiet by agreement, and the main house works as a co-working room.

English is the shared language of the house. Spanish is the language of the valley, and German comes up a lot. Everyone gets by.

Richard and Ra steward it together — Ra has cared for this place for years, Richard brings HADORA. But nobody runs it: everyone who comes takes the lead for themselves, and with that for the whole. Nobody is staff and nobody is served; the house is run by the people living in it.

Your share: cooking for the house when it's your team's turn, keeping shared rooms in order, welcoming whoever arrives next, and showing up to the weekly circle where the house sorts itself out. A few hours a week, spread thin.

Bring it to the weekly circle, or to Richard or Ra directly. We hold the container and try not to control what happens inside it — but we do hold it.

Through the form on the site — it takes a few minutes and asks who you are, when you'd come, and what you're bringing. We read every request ourselves and reply within a few days. If you'd rather just talk first, text us on WhatsApp: +34 643 068 541.

By fit, not by who writes first. We're building a house, not filling beds.

A deposit secures your place: half the cost of a guest stay, or half of the first month of a residency. The balance is due three days before you arrive. A residency is paid a month at a time, each month three days before it begins. The shared costs — firewood and the dinner groceries — are settled each month, as they come.

Yes. More than 30 days before arrival, we refund your deposit in full. Within 30 days, the deposit is held as credit for another stay this season — or refunded if someone else takes your place. Once you've arrived, the period you're in stays paid; nothing is charged for months you haven't started, as long as you let us know a week before the next one begins. You can also pass your place to someone else, if they fit. And if we ever have to cancel, you get back everything you've paid.

EU citizens don't. Most others can stay up to 90 days in any 180 without one — about three months, not the whole season. If you're coming from outside the EU for longer, check before you book.

Yes — last season ran November to March in the same place, with around ninety people through the doors. That's where the photographs come from.