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Atmosphere and feature ratings above are based on Best Retreats research (November 2026). They will be updated if Vine of the Soul Retreats submits its own information.

Vine of the Soul Retreats: An In-Depth Review for Ayahuasca Retreats in the Algarve, Portugal

Vine of the Soul Retreats, formerly known as HeartWellness, runs small plant medicine retreats at a countryside property near Albufeira in Portugal’s Algarve, founded by German hypnotherapist and former IT consultant Bianca Diana Stumm, offering five-day retreats with a choice of ayahuasca, psilocybin or San Pedro from €1,600, per its website. Against that, Trustpilot removed its profile for breaching guidelines while the site still advertises a Trustpilot score, it publishes no company, refund terms, contraindications or emergency plan, and it adds bufo, kambo and peyote with no named clinician.

🎯 At a Glance

• Locations: Countryside near Albufeira, Faro district, Portugal, about 35 minutes from Faro airport, per its listings; occasional retreats in Spain and the Netherlands at unnamed venues.
• Approach: Two or three ceremonies over five days with ayahuasca, psilocybin or San Pedro, plus breathwork, hypnotherapy, coaching and an integration app; single bufo (5-MeO-DMT) ceremonies, kambo and a yearly peyote night with a Wixárika marakame are also sold.
• Suitable For: Adults in Europe wanting a short, therapy-style retreat who arrange their own medical clearance. Not suitable for people taking antidepressants or with heart or psychiatric conditions.
• Costs: €1,600 to €2,945 for five days in 2026 and €2,100 shared for 2027; €3,400 for the eight-day Illuminate program; bufo €570; extra ceremonies €380 and kambo €130, per its 2026 retreats page. A 50% deposit is due to book and the balance at the end; no refund policy is published.
• Overall Assessment: Small groups, structured screening calls and consistently positive reviews, offset by a removed Trustpilot profile, no visible company or terms, misleading legal framing and a high-risk medicine menu with no medical cover. Directory evaluation: C-.

💬 What Guests Are Saying

Platform reviews are uniformly five stars: Retreat Guru 5.0 from 17, BookRetreats 5.0 from 47 with none below five, a reported Google 5.0 from 16, and 50 entries on ReviewMyRetreat. Guests praise caring, knowledgeable facilitators, the screening and follow-up calls, the food and the garden; milder comments say ceremonies are hard, one guest needed a lower dose and another said the house is beside the motorway. Trustpilot shows that the company’s profile was removed because it “goes against our guidelines”, per Trustpilot, and two near-identical reviews appear on Third Wave. No reviews of 3 stars or lower were found. If you have attended, we encourage you to share your experience through our submission form.

🚩 Incident Report

We searched review platforms and English, Portuguese, German and Dutch-language news for reports involving Vine of the Soul, HeartWellness, Bianca Stumm and its named facilitators and guest healers.

• Deaths and serious injuries: None found.
• Sexual misconduct: No allegations found.
• Theft and fraud: None found.
• Legal action: None found.

In February 2026 police at Lisbon airport detained two Brazilian shamans carrying ayahuasca who they said were hired by unnamed retreat organizers in Portugal, per Jornal de Notícias; nothing links that case to this center.

If you have experienced or witnessed an incident with this center, please report it confidentially.

🔍 Critical Notes

Who runs it. Bianca Diana Stumm, based in Rengsdorf, Germany, describes about 20 years in IT consulting and training in Rapid Transformational Therapy and hypnotherapy, and says “I’m not a shaman”, per its Third Wave listing and ReviewMyRetreat. Facilitators include Rosa Brissos, Kristina Steigerwald and Riccardo Bordignon, and the team page lists guest healers Taita Juan, described as a Kamëntšá elder, and Marakame Juan Ortiz, a Wixárika peyote leader (unverified). No company, tax number or legal notice appears anywhere; the privacy and service-agreement links are placeholders.

Screening and medical support. Guests complete an online intake form and a screening call, and the ethics page mentions sober facilitators, blood-pressure monitoring and ICEERS safety training. No contraindication list, named clinician or emergency protocol is published; one team member is described as a former neurologist, with no surname given. An independent comparison site scores its medical provision 4.9 out of 10, per RetreatVault.

Legal framing. Some pages market “decriminalized” retreats in Portugal, but Portugal decriminalized only personal possession; supplying DMT in a ceremony remains a crime, per ICEERS. The center’s own ethics page calls the status ambiguous. A Portuguese court acquitted two importers of ayahuasca in 2024 because they were unaware it was prohibited, per RJA Advogados. Ayahuasca is prohibited in the Netherlands, where it says it occasionally runs retreats.

Listings. Group sizes are given as six to ten, transfers are included on some programs and not others, and Retreat Guru’s amenity list includes a spa, sauna and fitness center that no other source mentions.

Status. Operating, with retreats in November 2026 and a 2027 calendar, per its Retreat Guru page. Guest reviews from 2023 use its former name, HeartWellness. It says it has hosted more than 850 guests since 2021 (unverified).

🆘 Screening & Mental Health Risks

Mixing ayahuasca, 5-MeO-DMT, kambo and other medicines in one stay, with extra ceremonies sold on site, adds risk without medical staff. ICEERS notes that ayahuasca’s MAOI component makes it dangerous with SSRIs and other serotonergic drugs and that it is contraindicated for people prone to psychosis. Never stop a psychiatric medication to qualify for a ceremony without your prescriber’s guidance.

🧪 Brew Substance

Ayahuasca of unpublished origin; earlier programs also used a caapi-only brew. Ayahuasca combines the Banisteriopsis caapi vine with a DMT-containing leaf such as chacruna, as Erowid explains.

📍 Location, Setting & Style

• Setting: A countryside house with a pomegranate orchard in the Algarve, near the coast.
• Rooms: Shared double rooms, a few single rooms with private bathrooms, glamping tents and a caravan, per its retreats page.
• Style: A therapy-led format mixing plant medicines with hypnotherapy, coaching and an app.

Practical guidance: Fly to Faro; transfers vary by program, and BookRetreats suggests a taxi of about €40.

Should You Book?

Only with caution. Ask in writing for the company name, the cancellation terms, the full contraindication list, who on site is medically trained and why the Trustpilot profile was removed, and confirm the legal position for your own country before traveling. Read our guide to verifying retreat facilitators.

The Team & Story

Bianca Stumm describes founding the retreats after her own healing; the business traded as HeartWellness before taking its current name. We did not independently verify anyone’s training.

Prep & Integration Tips

Before you go: Disclose every medication and condition in writing and plan any change with your own doctor. After you return: Arrange support from a qualified therapist at home. Our guide on how to research ayahuasca incidents can help you check any center.

Pros & Cons

Book Your Ceremony

Dates are listed on its website and Retreat Guru. Best Retreats does not take bookings; learn more about our mission.

Last reviewed November 2026.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult a qualified medical professional.