Inside Serenbe: Georgia's utopian wellness community
An entire US town is reimagining what it means to live well.


When you think of wellness destinations, it’s likely places like Costa Rica, with its pura vida lifestyle, or Bali, with its bounty of traditional healers, that come to mind. In fact, you should also be picturing the neighborhood of Serenbe, on the edge of Atlanta.
Founded by the hospitality veterans and developers Steve Nygren and Marie Lupo Nygren, Serenbe is composed of three connected hamlets nestled among bucolic pastures and protected forestland. While connecting locals and guests with nature is one of the neighborhood’s primary goals, its holistic approach to wellbeing also encompasses art, education, food, and accessible health facilities, including Portal, a new retreat center.

Launched in October 2021, Portal has since begun hosting its three-night retreats that include yoga classes, spa treatments, meditation sessions, and access to acres of tranquil grounds.
We caught up with Nygren to talk about how he built the town, what sets Portal’s wellness retreats apart, and why community is so important to health and wellbeing.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
How would you describe Serenbe for somebody who isn’t familiar with the area?
Steve Nygren: It's like a utopia in the woods. We're known as the best example of biophilic community design: design that connects people to nature and each other. Everything that’s happened with the pandemic has really brought a spotlight onto us because people have analyzed where they're living and the impact on their wellbeing.
Wellbeing has always been one of the neighborhood’s pillars. How have you created a place that speaks to wellness in a holistic way?
SN: I grew up on a generational farm, so I understood connection with nature as a lifestyle. Then I studied architecture and ended up in hospitality. When I realized I was going to be a developer, I started pulling from a whole reservoir of ideas and impressions from travel—places that spoke to me and the kind of places I’d like to live. We created pillars based on what, according to our research, really creates vitality and growth in a place: agriculture for nourishment, arts for inspiration, education for awareness, and health for wellbeing.

You’ve launched a retreat concept called Portal. Tell us about the inspiration for that.
SN: We had talked about the fact that a wellness community needs a destination spa and boutique hotel. I got invited to a conference held by the Global Wellness Institute in Marrakech and suddenly I was in front of the top wellness hospitality brands in the world—brands we hoped to partner with to open this retreat destination. But in the end, none of them felt like a perfect fit.
Eventually, we decided to create our own, and that was the beginning of the Portal. I went to the ashram in Topanga Canyon every year for many years, so that was a model we wanted to emulate. We aimed to have groups come and run their own wellness programs from our facility, which has everything you need for a retreat, including seven bedrooms, a hot tub, and a central dining room. It’s also right next door to our wellness building, which has a yoga studio, gym, and spa.
How does a Portal retreat differ from typical wellness vacations?
SN: When you go on an art or wellness retreat, there’s a tendency for them to be remote. We start to associate that feeling—the calm and the sense of discipline—with remoteness. At Serenbe, we wanted to offer programs that are within a community, like eating together at a local restaurant. Attendees are conditioned to understand that they can be in an urban setting and still create this lifestyle for themselves.
Covid impacted so much about our lifestyle, including how we think about our health. How did Serenbe evolve in light of the pandemic?
SN: We have been building homes with greater exposure to nature for the last 15 years. Our houses open onto a preserved forest, farm, wildflower meadow, or animal-filled pasture. Even when people were rigidly socially distant they could walk down the street in Serenbe and greet neighbors on their porches. We had cocktail parties in the street. We still had connections on a level. The only thing that’s really changed is that it’s now clear we need more home offices and a co-working space in each hamlet.
Are there remote workers who have come to stay in Serenbe for a few months to get more access to the outdoors?
SN: Yes, several. Some people who came temporarily are now buying here because it’s changed their thinking about what’s possible when it comes to work and lifestyle. Everything we’ve been talking about all these years is now coming into focus. People are understanding how food choices affect you, the importance of art as part of our everyday lives—all these pillars of balance and wellbeing are integrated in meaningful ways in our community.