We talk a lot about sustainable travel — where we go, how we get there, and the impact we leave behind. But what about sustainable time?
In a recent conversation with Rebecca and Zoe, the founders of Creative Journey Retreats, we explored a different question: how we spend our time, not just where we spend it.
How often do you come back from a holiday feeling like you need another break? How much of your time is spent rushing, consuming, or switching off without ever really switching off? What if the most valuable thing we could design more carefully… is how we use our time?
Arriving Differently
At the beginning of a Creative Journey retreat, the focus is on helping people truly arrive — not just physically, but mentally — allowing the pace to slow and the surroundings to be fully absorbed. This idea sits at the heart of Creative Journey, a series of small, curated retreats designed to offer a more thoughtful and restorative way of travelling.
The intention is to create time that genuinely restores rather than distracts, with creativity playing an important role in that process, fostering a sense of contentment and the satisfaction of making something new and meaningful.
The Sisters Behind the Concept
Sisters Rebecca and Zoe sit at the centre of Creative Journey — a creative duo whose complementary strengths shape the retreat experience from beginning to end.
Rebecca, Head of Creative Journey at Jimmy Choo Academy, brings a refined and intuitive approach to experience design; she focuses on atmosphere, storytelling and the emotional tone of each retreat. As a result, her vision is rooted in creating something that feels considered yet effortless — time that genuinely restores rather than distracts. In turn, creativity becomes a key part of the experience, fostering a sense of contentment and the satisfaction of making something new and meaningful.
“I wanted to create something that felt considered but effortless,” she says. “Time that actually restores you, not just distracts you — and creativity plays a part in that. It brings a sense of contentment, of making something new and meaningful.”
Rebecca Russell-Turner
Zoe is an executive producer who has worked across brands including NikeLab and Uber, and now works independently on cultural and anthropological projects. With a strong production background and a deep understanding of how people move through space, she ensures each retreat feels seamless, carefully balancing structure, flow and the overall guest experience. She is particularly drawn to places that feel slightly off the beaten track, shaping experiences that allow people to settle into a destination rather than simply pass through it.
Together, they combine creative direction with high-level production, creating retreats that feel both thoughtfully curated and effortless to experience.
Anna Cleaver, a participant on the retreat in Sri Lanka reflected on her experience:
“EVERYTHING WAS SO WELL THOUGHT THROUGH — YOU CAN REALLY FEEL THAT THE HOSTS KNOW THE AREA SO WE COULD HAVE THE BEST EXPERIENCE POSSIBLE. THE HOSTS ARE SOME OF THE MOST GENUINE PEOPLE YOU COULD MEET — THEY MAKE EVERYTHING FEEL COMFORTABLE AND CONNECTED.”
Anna Cleaver
Designed to Slow You Down
Each retreat is built around a natural rhythm — structured, but never rigid. Guests are gently guided into a slower pace through sensorial experiences: noticing taste, sound, texture, light, and space. From the very beginning, there is a shift — from doing, to noticing.
There is time spent with local craftspeople, learning through making. Time around the table, cooking and eating seasonal, local produce. Time exploring gardens, architecture, and the quiet details that define a place.
Nothing feels rushed. Everything flows. For one participant – Sally Majid, the experience was unexpectedly transformative:
“I don’t consider myself creative, but I’ve discovered everyone is creative — it doesn’t need to be perfect. It’s about enjoying the process. This retreat has given me time to myself, time to enjoy my surroundings… I feel accomplished, relaxed, and proud.”
Sally Majid
A Shift in Time
Guests from previous retreats on the south coast of Sri Lanka often describe a similar feeling. A sense that time has slowed. That it has expanded. That it feels, somehow, more their own. It’s not about doing less. It’s about experiencing more — with greater attention.
In everyday life, time often feels compressed — rushed, scheduled, and constantly interrupted. Here, it expands.
Gökhan Ongun describes it simply:
“My life is so busy and fast-paced at home, but here time has stretched. A day feels like three days… the five-day retreat feels like a month.”
“When I leave, I’ll take home a big smile and a relaxed body and mind.”
Gökhan Ongun
Rooted in Place
Creative Journey works with what already exists. Rather than imposing a programme, each retreat is shaped by its surroundings — its materials, its history, its pace.
In Granada, this might include time spent around the Alhambra, where landscape, design and history intersect. In the South of France, it unfolds differently. Long, unhurried meals outdoors.Visits to local markets.Creative sessions inspired by light, texture and place.
A slower, more sensorial way of moving through the landscape.
A More Sustainable Way to Spend Time
This is where Creative Journey quietly redefines sustainability.
It’s not just about reducing impact. It’s about creating something that restores, time that feels meaningful, experiences that stay with you, and a way of travelling that doesn’t leave you needing to recover afterwards.
In a world that often prioritises speed and consumption, choosing to slow down, to notice, to create, to connect, might be one of the most sustainable decisions we can make.
Creative Journey offers an alternative: a more thoughtful, grounded way of travelling that values presence over pace, and experience over excess.
The next retreat takes place in the South of France this August — a few days designed to slow the pace, reconnect with creativity, and experience a place more deeply. For more information on upcoming retreats, follow Creative Journey or get in touch directly.
