Ayahuasca is a brew prepared from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and the leaves of Psychotria viridis, used for centuries by indigenous communities across the Amazon basin as a vehicle for healing, divination, and communication with the plant world. The ceremonies that have grown around it in the last two decades follow from that tradition, though the distance between a well-run best ayahuasca retreat with trained Shipibo healers and a weekend gathering with a self-proclaimed guide is considerable. The centers that clear the bar operate in countries where the brew is legal, work with healers who carry genuine lineage, and structure the experience around preparation, ceremony, and integration rather than around filling beds.
The five centers below span the Peruvian Amazon, the Andean highlands, and the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Each has been operating long enough to have an actual record: documented lineages, verifiable safety protocols, and guest accounts that hold up to scrutiny. What they share is a seriousness of purpose that distinguishes them from the broader market.
The shortlist: 
- Best for indigenous Shipibo lineage in deep Amazon jungle: Temple of the Way of Light
- Best medically licensed center with full resort infrastructure: Rythmia Life Advancement Center
- Best for choosing between Amazon jungle and Andean highlands: Arkana International
- Best for coastal Costa Rica with Shipibo healers and clinical advisory board: Soltara Healing Center
- Best for a luxury small-group experience with seven weeks of integration coaching: Behold Retreats
Temple of the Way of Light, Peru
The Temple of the Way of Light is a long-standing Shipibo healing eco-center, stewarded through permaculture, nestled in over 200 hectares of primary rainforest in the Loreto region of Peru. Established in 2007, they have facilitated ayahuasca retreats for more than 10,000 guests from over 40 countries. Four healers run each retreat, from a team of 13 – exclusively Shipibo Onanyabo, all advanced-level – supported by three highly trained international retreat facilitators, most with over a decade of personal experience in the Shipibo tradition. It is this depth of experience that underpins guest safety and healing efficacy.
The Temple is the only ayahuasca center, in and out of the Amazon, that distributes 100% of its surplus in reciprocity with indigenous communities and the land. For nearly two decades, it has supported many Indigenous initiatives, including the development of two Shipibo-owned healing centers – Shipibo Rao and Niwe Rao Xobo. It also funds long-term programs – through its sister non-profit, the Chaikuni Institute – in agroforestry, intercultural education, and human and nature rights, putting people and the planet before profit.
Ceremonies are immersed in and guided by the living rainforest itself. Accommodations are private sanctuaries: simple, rustic, and designed for deep and lasting healing. Off grid, no electricity, no wifi – an invitation to unplug and remember what it feels like to be part of the natural world. A comprehensive three-month integration program is included in the price.
Book at Temple of the Way of Light
Rythmia Life Advancement Center, Guanacaste
The saltwater pool at Rythmia catches the afternoon light from the Guanacaste hills – a detail that matters because Rythmia is explicitly not trying to strip comfort from the ceremony experience. Located in a Blue Zone on Costa Rica’s northwestern Pacific coast, it holds the distinction of being the only medically licensed ayahuasca retreat center in the world, a status earned through Costa Rica’s regulatory framework. Physicians and nurses are on-site throughout all ceremonies.
The Rythmia Way is a seven-night program: four plant medicine ceremonies structured across the week alongside daily yoga, breathwork sessions, colonics, and metaphysics lectures. Every element is sequenced deliberately, from the first ceremony through the integration session the following morning. The healer roster rotates from practitioners the center has worked with over years, which means guests may not know their specific healer before arrival – a tradeoff that the medical oversight and program infrastructure are designed to offset.
Programs are all-inclusive – vegetarian meals aligned with the pre-ceremony dietary protocol, accommodation in casitas, and all programming are included. Pricing runs approximately $3,500-$5,500 for the seven-night program; suite accommodations are at the upper end. Rythmia operates at the larger, more resort-facing end of the ayahuasca market, which suits guests who want ceremony held within a structured clinical environment rather than a remote jungle setting. Book three to six months ahead.
Arkana International, Peru
The four Arkana centers share a Shipibo healing tradition and almost nothing else in terms of landscape. The Amazon center sits in the jungle outside Iquitos – pools, a yoga pavilion, and a maloca (ceremonial space) arranged on land that floods in wet season and hums with insects year-round. The Sacred Valley center sits at altitude near Urubamba, surrounded by the stone agricultural terracing of the Inca period, with the peaks of the Andes visible on clear mornings. Guests choose between them based on what they want the environment to ask of them.
Arkana has been running retreats for nearly a decade with more than 1,000 five-star reviews and a program structure that balances ceremony with deliberate rest periods, group sharing circles, and one-on-one facilitator time. Healing work is conducted by trained Shipibo healers through the tradition’s icaros and plant-based medicine protocols; western facilitators provide emotional support and translation during and after ceremony.
Programs run seven nights (three to four ceremonies), fourteen nights, or twenty-one nights. All are all-inclusive with vegetarian, plant-based meals and pre-arrival dieta requirements. Pricing ranges from approximately $2,520 for a seven-night Amazon program to $12,000 for the twenty-one-night program – a wider range than most centers, which allows for meaningful entry at different budget points.
Soltara Healing Center, Costa Rica
The sound of the Pacific arrives before the building does at Soltara’s Playa Blanca location – a coastal center on the Nicoya Peninsula where the ceremony space faces the water and the icaros of Shipibo healers carry across an open-walled maloca. The mountain location, Scarlet Valley, trades ocean sound for forested ridge views in Costa Rica’s Central Pacific. Soltara operates programs at both, and the contrast between them is deliberate.
The center works exclusively with Peruvian Shipibo healers brought from their Amazon communities to lead ceremonies in Costa Rica. Its advisory board includes ethnopharmacologist Dr. Dennis McKenna and psychiatrist Dr. Gabor Mate, both engaged with the organization’s approach to preparation and integration rather than simply lending their names. Guest preparation begins weeks before arrival and continues for a full year after through a digital support platform and ongoing facilitator contact.
Programs run five nights (three ceremonies, from $3,675), seven nights (four ceremonies, from $3,975), and twelve nights (seven ceremonies, from $6,000), all all-inclusive with vegetarian meals and pre-ceremony dieta. The five-night program is designed for first-time participants; the twelve-night for those returning with specific intentions. Pricing is mid-to-high for the Costa Rica market, with the year of integration support representing meaningful value that comparable centers charge separately.
Behold Retreats, Multiple Locations
Groups at Behold cap at nine to fourteen people – a size chosen because the program depends on individual attention being genuinely possible. Each participant begins with an extended intake: medical screening, a call with a psychedelic-informed psychotherapist or coach, and a goal-setting process that shapes which retreat location Behold recommends. Current locations include Costa Rica, Mexico, and Portugal. The landscape changes; the preparation structure does not.
Named Best Transformational Retreat by Conde Nast Traveller, Behold has operated for over a decade and served more than 1,500 clients. The retreat itself is six nights all-inclusive – ceremonies, farm-to-table meals following the pre-ceremony dieta, accommodation at a high-end property with a saltwater infinity pool (Costa Rica location). The distinguishing feature is the seven weeks of one-on-one coaching that frame the retreat: three weeks of preparation, the retreat week, and three weeks of structured integration with a psychedelic-informed therapist or coach. No other center on this list builds this much professional support into the base price.
Pricing runs approximately $5,500 to $8,000 depending on program and location, placing Behold at the premium end of the global market. For guests who want psychological support built into the structure rather than available as an optional add-on, the model is designed around that requirement from the start.
Is ayahuasca legal for Americans to do abroad?
Americans can participate in ayahuasca ceremonies legally in countries where the brew is permitted – including Peru, where it is part of recognized cultural heritage, and Costa Rica, where it is not prohibited under national law. Ayahuasca contains DMT, a Schedule I substance in the United States, which means it cannot be legally consumed on US soil. Participating in a retreat abroad carries no US legal consequence. Bringing any plant material home does. All five centers above operate in countries where ceremonies run openly and legally.
How much does an ayahuasca retreat cost?
Ayahuasca retreat costs typically range from $1,500 for a shorter program at a mid-range Peru center to $8,000 or more for a luxury multi-week experience with integrated coaching support. Most programs include accommodation and vegetarian meals aligned with the pre-ceremony dieta; international flights are always separate. The best ayahuasca retreat for your budget depends on how much preparation and integration support is built into the base price – some centers include weeks of professional coaching, others treat it as an add-on.
How long should a first ayahuasca retreat be?
Most first-time participants do well with a seven-night program offering three to four ceremonies, which allows enough time for the experience to develop without becoming overwhelming. Five-night programs exist and are designed for first-timers at centers like Soltara. Programs of twelve days or more are generally recommended for people returning with specific intentions or who have done substantial preparation. Rushing the experience – booking the shortest program to minimize disruption to a schedule – tends to limit what the week can offer. Most reputable centers advise on fit during their intake screening. For a broader view of contemplative retreat formats, the SanctumStay guide to spiritual retreats worldwide covers the range from Vipassana to monastic stays.
The ceremonies at these centers have been happening long before the retreat industry arrived to describe them. The Shipibo tradition of vegetalismo runs through generations of healers who learned from the plants rather than about them – a distinction the best centers still understand and protect. What a well-chosen retreat offers is not transformation on a timeline but a container held carefully enough that something can happen. The Amazon does not care about your schedule. That is, in the end, the point.
Safety and legality: Ayahuasca is a potent psychedelic, not a recreational tool. It is strictly contraindicated for anyone with a personal or family history of psychosis or those taking SSRIs, as the interaction can be life-threatening. While the brew is legally protected at the source in Peru and Costa Rica, these protections are geographic only; transporting the medicine across international borders remains a federal offense. The centers listed here operate with rigorous screening and legal transparency, but participants must conduct their own medical due diligence. The depth of the experience is inseparable from the responsibility of the container.
