The 7 Best Luxury Glamping Sites & Desert Lodges in the Negev and Arava (2026)

1. Six Senses Shaharut — Shaharut, Arava Valley

The most spectacular hotel in the Israeli desert, built into a cliff.

Six Senses Shaharut is set into a cliff edge in the Arava Valley in the southern Negev, with sixty suites and pool villas built from local rock and pigments and landscaped with cactus and desert bloom.

The spa is the other half of the argument — six treatment rooms and a presidential spa suite, saunas, steam rooms, a hammam, indoor and outdoor pools, a gym and a yoga studio — and the property runs camel treks into the surrounding desert. It is the most expensive way to sleep in the Negev and, on the view alone, arguably the most justified.

It is a long way south: allow four hours from Tel Aviv, or fly to Ramon Airport and drive up.

Good to know: Book a villa on the cliff edge rather than an inner suite — the view is the entire product.

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2. Beresheet, Mitzpe Ramon — On the rim of the Ramon Crater

Villas with private pools hanging over the edge of the Ramon Crater.

Isrotel's Beresheet is built into the ridge at the precipice of the Ramon Crater, combining desert architecture — local stone, low horizontal lines — with full resort comfort, and its pool has collected international lists of its own.

The crater rim is the point. The villas with private pools look straight out over a forty-kilometre erosion cirque with nothing built in it, and the light on it at dawn and dusk is the reason people come back. Mitzpe Ramon town is minutes away for the visitor centre, the alpaca farm and the crater viewpoints.

Good to know: A crater-view villa with a private pool costs considerably more and is what people actually remember — decide which you are buying.

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3. Desert Days Ecolodge — Tzukim, central Arava

Mud-and-straw cabins with a fire pit and a hammock in each yard.

Desert Days sits at Tzukim in the Arava, with fourteen cabins hand-built from mud and straw bales in traditional methods, in several sizes from a couple's earth cabin to two-bedroom mini-khan cabins, plus a Bedouin tent.

Each cabin has its own kitchenette, private bathroom, air conditioning, ceiling fan and fireplace, and its own small yard with a seating area, hammock, grill and a fire pit stocked with wood. That last detail is what people remember: the evening is spent outside your own door with a fire going, not in a shared communal area.

It is a self-catering set-up rather than a hotel, which suits families and couples who want the desert without a dining room and a schedule.

Good to know: Shop before you turn off the main road — Tzukim is small and self-catering means self-catering.

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4. Deep Desert glamping, Mitzpe Ramon — Outside Mitzpe Ramon

Actual glamping — geodesic domes and canvas tents with real beds, near the crater.

Deep Desert runs desert glamping outside Mitzpe Ramon, with dome-shaped tents, quality mattresses and bedding, hot showers and washroom cabins, and a premium tier of white canvas tents with proper beds.

This is the format most people mean when they say glamping: you sleep under canvas with the desert directly outside, but with a bed, a hot shower and, at the upper tier, a hot tub, festive meals with menu choices and a drinks bar. It also comes with the activity side of a desert operator — the crater, the night sky, the hikes — attached rather than arranged separately.

Good for groups and for people who want the desert experience without committing to a hotel price.

Good to know: Confirm which tier you are booking — the gap between the basic dome and the premium tent with a hot tub is large.

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5. Succah in the Desert — 8km from Mitzpe Ramon

Off-grid huts in open desert, and near-total silence.

Succah in the Desert stands eight kilometres out of Mitzpe Ramon on the desert-edge road, in open landscape near the Ramon Crater. Its electricity is solar, shower and kitchen water is filtered and used to irrigate crops, the toilets are dry, and vegetable crops and farm animals are part of how the place runs.

It is the least comfortable and the most memorable option here. There is no resort infrastructure, no dining room and no distraction — which is precisely why people come, and why it does not suit everyone. Go for the quiet and the sky; do not go expecting a hotel.

Read the accommodation description carefully before booking: dry toilets and off-grid power are a feature, not an oversight.

Good to know: Bring a torch and warm layers — there is no light pollution and no central heating.

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6. Kfar Hanokdim — Kana'im Valley, near Arad and Masada

A Bedouin-style khan under palm trees — the family favourite.

Kfar Hanokdim sits in the Kana'im Valley, a desert village of Bedouin-style encampment and air-conditioned rooms among palm trees, serving traditional Bedouin meals and running camel and donkey rides.

The location does double duty: it is close enough to Arad and Masada to make the pre-dawn Masada climb realistic without a three-hour drive, and it is a genuine desert setting rather than a hotel car park. Groups sleep in the large communal khan tents, and families take the rooms.

It is the most sociable stay on this list, which is either the appeal or the reason to choose something else.

Good to know: Use it as the Masada base — the sunrise climb is far more pleasant from twenty minutes away than from Jerusalem.

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7. Beerotayim Desert Eco-Lodge — Ezuz, western Negev

A khan on the old Nabatean route, in the emptiest corner of the Negev.

Beerotayim is a desert eco-lodge at Ezuz in the western Negev, out towards the Egyptian border and the old Nabatean spice route, with dining and space for events alongside the accommodation.

Ezuz is a long way from anywhere, which is the recommendation. This is the flat, wide, ancient part of the Negev — Nitzana, Shivta, the dunes — rather than the dramatic crater scenery further east, and it gets a fraction of the visitors. Pair it with the Nabatean sites, which are among the most underrated ruins in the country.

Check what is included when you book: khan-style lodges usually price meals separately and vary in how much is shared.

Good to know: Combine it with Shivta and the Nitzana dunes — that whole corner of the Negev is quiet even in high season.

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