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Costa Rican ‘Healing’ Retreat Offers Women Of Color A Break From White People

Phyllis Coley @phyllis_coley

A Costa Rican retreat is offering women of color the chance to spend their vacation free from white people, as showcased in a new documentary by Vice News.

Costa Rican
Andrea X’s retreat allows women to spend 10 days healing in her company, discussing the frustrations of life in the US.
Costa Rican
Andrea X (pictured), who created Women of Color Healing Retreat, said she has ‘completely cut out white people’ from her life, saying ‘they have caused enough damage’.

Andrea X, an expatriate who gave up her life in Brooklyn to create the Women of Color Healing Retreat in Puerto Viejo in 2014, said she had a hard time communicating with white people in the U.S. without focusing on their constant “micro-aggressions” and “passive-aggressiveness.”

“I decided one day to just eliminate white people from my personal life, and ever since then my life has been way more breezy,” she told Vice.

The 10-day retreat offers yoga, vegan food, and political education seminars, and is a vacation experience geared toward black Americans that specifically bans white people.

The retreat is currently held at a white-owned resort, but Andrea X and a business partner have invested $100,000 to build their own black-only retreat space about 20 minutes away. Andrea X said she envisions a “safe space” free from the oppression of white people and believes white Americans shouldn’t be able to travel outside their own country.

“I feel like white people shouldn’t even have passports,” she said, laughing. “They need to stay in the United States.”

Costa Rican
Guests enjoy yoga, meditation and vegan food in an environment free from what the founder calls micro-aggressions and passive-aggressiveness that exists in the US.

“My tip to white people is to let us have our space, let us have our room, and go hang out with other white people,” she said. “You’ve done enough damage.”

One of the retreat’s attendees said President Trump’s election greatly impacted her interactions with white people.

“We’re black — we knew that racism was around, but it’s a bit more in our face now,” she told Vice. “It’s made me have to pivot my interactions with people and people who actually support Trump. Like, I can’t trust you on friendship level, family level, any level if you actually are supporting someone who is completely racist.”

Five black-owned travel organizations told Vice that they’ve seen a dramatic increase in interest in black-only vacations experiences, coinciding with Mr. Trump’s election.


VICE News followed a group of women to the Women of Color Healing Retreat in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica and produced a documentary; a travel experience that emphasized yoga, vegan food, political education seminars, and specifically banned white people.

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