Pickleball Experience adds Antigua retreat with coaching and luxury stays

The Pickleball Experience is pairing serious instruction with a destination getaway in Antigua, Guatemala, sending players to two seven-night retreats in 2027. The sessions run Feb. 13-20 and Feb. 22-Mar. 1, and the package is built as an all-inclusive blend of coaching, luxury stays and cultural immersion for active adults who want more than a resort court block.

This is not a drop-in clinic dressed up as a vacation. Each retreat caps at 20 participants, which keeps the student-to-coach ratio at 4:1 or better and lets the staff tailor the week after guests complete a training-goals form before arrival. The coaching roster features Brian Ashworth, Peter Hudachko and Jemuel Morris, and the schedule runs to more than 12 hours of instruction and open play every day.

Most of that work happens at Club 14 in San Miguel Dueñas, a private facility with seven courts, two indoor and five outdoor, set against volcano views in the Guatemalan highlands. Along with drilling and live play, the program adds a Mental Game Clinic, film study and Morning Reset sessions built around mobility, flexibility and yoga-infused movement. That mix gives the retreat a different feel from the standard hotel package that simply hands players a court and a few open-play slots.

The lodging side is just as deliberate. Guests stay at Porta Hotel Antigua, where the setting combines Spanish colonial architecture, gardens and a solar-heated pool with spa treatments that include massage, aromatherapy and reflexology. Hotel listings place it within walking distance of Antigua’s colonial center, and note a spa, outdoor pool and two swimming pools, with La Aurora International Airport about 40 minutes away.

Meals and outings are folded into the week rather than left for players to arrange on their own. Breakfast is at Porta Hotel, lunch is at Club 14 or Cervecería 14, and dinner is at Hector's Bistro. Cultural stops include a visit to a macadamia farm, a bean-to-bar chocolate workshop, salsa lessons and a guided walk through Antigua’s UNESCO-protected colonial streets.

That setting matters. UNESCO describes Antigua as a World Heritage city founded in the early 16th century, built 1,500 meters above sea level, laid out on a Renaissance-inspired grid and largely destroyed by the 1773 earthquake. For players deciding whether to book this far ahead, the answer is in the structure: limited spots, a coaching-heavy format and a trip that is as much about recovery and place as it is about reps.