To find a community that you just click with, a group of people that you belong to, sounds like a dream. Not many people get to experience this in their lifetime as we’re thought through life that deep connections happen only when you’re young. Those who manage to maintain a close group of friends in their adulthood, or create new, valuable relationships, are considered lucky.
The truth is that luck has little to do with it. What really matters are our attitude and actions. The moment you start opening yourself to new experiences and people and start letting others enter your life, you’ll notice that you’re finding many valuable people with whom you connect on multiple levels.
Just like that, by opening themselves to new experiences, Claudet, Laura, and Scott met and realised they belonged with each other. Feeling lucky that they found these amazing people, and understanding the value of these relationships, they decided to make space for others to find their clique as well.
With a lot of work, dedication, and great energy, they built Vineyard Eladio, a community-focused guesthouse. Now, they welcome everyone who shares their values and offers them a community for a lifetime.
Vineyard Eladio is meant for everyone who loves the outdoors and nature, has a bit of adventure inside him/her, and is looking for genuine human connections.
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How it all started
“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life”
-Amy Poehler
1. Could you tell us about how you decided to open Vineyard Eladio and a little bit about the journey that led you to that decision?
– We (Claudet, Laura, and Scott) met in a surf camp in Tenerife that also happened to be a community, we worked and lived in the same place so we were basically 24/7 together.
We all come from different backgrounds but after connecting with one another we realised that we had the same vision of life and started imagining a life project together. So we decided to put words into action and created Eladío together.
2. How would you describe the concept behind your place?
– Our vision is to build a community in which the participants can live a comfortable and joyful life by giving the opportunity to connect through outdoor activities, agriculture, and spiritual practices. Our concept is linked to this vision, we want the guests to experience the same and have a real feeling of community life.
Learn more about themselves, join the adventurous sports this island has to offer such as surfing, climbing, and diving, and learn more about the permaculture projects that we do here in the Eladío land.
3. Have you had the opportunity to stay in some other coliving space or any similar type of accommodation before you decided to open your own place?
– Yes, TwinFin, where we met was our school and home.
4. Did you find inspiration in some other coliving spaces in Spain (or beyond) that influenced your approach to building your own space?
– Yes, we did a lot of research before opening our coliving space and we were inspired by so many places. But in particular TwinFin and Maraya Coliving.
5. You have opened very recently; what was the thing you were struggling with most in the final phase before opening?
– We’ve only been on our property since 1/05/2022 and when we arrived everything was a mess, we had 3 months of hard construction, and after it was time to open.
Our biggest struggle before opening was the heat wave that Europe had this summer and that we opened in low season for Tenerife so the flow of clients was a little slower than expected.
6. Is there something that you wished you knew before starting this project?
– More business knowledge would’ve been great, as well as more information about Spanish laws, it’s not always easy to get a clear answer over here. And let’s not forget the concept of Canarian time, this can slow things down.
7. What is your relationship with other coliving spaces on the island? Do you receive support or advice from some of them?
– We have a really good relationship with other coliving spaces around the island. The owners of Maraya Coliving gave us a lot of advice before we opened and helped us to unsolved many doubts we had.
8. What is the story behind you choosing Tenerife as the location of Vineyard Eladio?
– We all came to the island for a definite time, we had an idea of what we wanted to do and then we were going to pursue our journey somewhere else but this island just gave us a place that we could call home.
This island is a treasure box, the weather is always good, you have endless possibilities in terms of outdoor activities, people here are so nice and have a tremendous heart, we can breathe a relaxed atmosphere all around us.
Like this simply the definite became indefinite for us, we saw a door for possibilities and we made the decision that Tenerife was the place to start our dreams.
9. What are some advantages and disadvantages (for you as owners) of building a place like this in Tenerife?
– Advantages: being able to accomplish our vision, follow our passion on a day-to-day basis, and live in a community full of love, honesty, empathy, and respect. Feeling alive each time we wake up, create one with nature
Disadvantages: Meeting incredible people along the way and seeing them go, even if they will stay forever in our hearts and memories.
10. Which uniqueness do you think Vineyard Eladio will offer compared to other similar places in Tenerife and other islands?
– The uniqueness of Vineyard Eladío is its people, here we have a saying that is « we accept everyone just the way they are » and it’s something you can see as soon as you arrive, everyone presenting themselves as their truest self, seeing this place grow with all the people that make us us, has been a wonderful adventure to live.
Some of our guests said: “the happiest place I’ve been, the place screams love, the moment you enter through the gate, you feel good vibrations.” This is something we work and live for.
Management
“Enlightened leadership is spiritual if we understand spirituality not as some kind of religious dogma or ideology but as the domain of awareness where we experience values like truth, goodness, beauty, love, and compassion, and also intuition, creativity, insight, and focused attention.“
-Deepak Chopra
11. What type of management will you practice?
– Our management is internal, the team lives and works on-site providing the service and creating the community.
Our core values: love, honesty, empathy, and respect, and development values: collaboration and the creativity we try to lead our team with these values.
12. How much will you be included in the community and daily activities of Vineyard Eladio?
– We are part of the community, we invest our time making sure that our values are present here, and we want to be present for the guests. A passion of ours is to meet new people from all countries of the world, we love showing them the island through our eyes and learning from each other.
13. What kind of activities are included for people who decide to stay at your place?
– Depending on the package of the guest the activities can vary.
If the guest decides to discover our surf package they will live a week of discovering different surf spots, a picnic above the clouds, yoga classes, special dinners, a night out, and much more.
If the guest decides to stay with us for a long term they can enjoy game nights, bonfires, different workshops, meditations, and many other activities.
We also offer other activities that are not included in the price such as an afternoon of climbing, surf classes, a hike on Teide, diving, kayak, windsurf classes…
Community
“Connection and connectedness are other words for community and communion.“
-Parker J. Palmer
14. What profile of people do you want to attract with Vineyard Eladio?
– We’re trying to attract people that want to live in a community, that share a love for outdoor activities, that want to discover self-growth, and that are interested in nature and permaculture.
We are creating a space where creative minds meet and explore the wonders of life.
15. What do you expect the reasons for people to choose Vineyard Eladio to be?
– Living in a community, forget about stressful city life and connect more with one another and nature. A place to relax, come closer to your true self, live in the now, and enjoy every step of the journey.
16. What is the ideal length of stay for your place to fully emerge in the experience you have created?
– We think that the ideal length of stay is a minimum of a month to fully emerge in the community.
To live the surf experience it’s ideal to stay for a week.
17. Do you have some special offers/discounts?
– Yes, we offer a special price for guests that book for a month (includes 5 dinners and 7 breakfasts per week) and for couples.
We also offer discounts for specific events such as retreats.
About the Coliving Movement
”We are all different, which is great because we are all unique. Without diversity, life would be very boring.”
-Catherine Pulsifer
18. Do you think that coliving is only dedicated to a specific group of people such as freelancers, digital nomads, and remote workers, or do you think there is a possibility to gain popularity beyond that group of people?
– Definitely not. We think this place is suitable for all kinds of people that want to live a joyful life.
At the moment we have a mother and a daughter, the mother is a masseuse that uses our space to do massages for external clients and the daughter fills the camp with playfulness and joy. We also have a DJ that produces music during the week and does performances on the weekends.
As we mentioned before, we accept everyone just the way they are, being in a community helps you to fulfill yourself through others and pushes you to go out of your comfort zone.
We also encourage people who suffer from depression, burnout, chronic diseases, anxiety, etc. to come and join in and try to find peace among us.
19. Do you think coworking is a crucial component of coliving?
– We feel that coworking is not crucial for coliving because we think that people can also work outside the coliving. But we do offer different working spaces with a good internet connection for all of our guests that work remotely.
20. One of the main selling points of colivings is the possibility to meet new people, share experiences, and maybe even develop new partnerships. Is this something you also had in mind when opening your place?
– Yes definitely, meeting people from different backgrounds and cultures gives you the opportunity to gain new perspectives. One of our development values is collaboration, in which you help each other out and create new opportunities.
21. What do you think will be the best value Vineyard Eladio will offer for the coliving and coworking community?
– Love, as we say here: “Love is all”
Secure yourself the best coliving experience
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