What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about traveling to Egypt? Pyramids, hieroglyphs, ancient archeological sites, and ruins of course. But now, you can have a whole other reason to travel to the region.
A glorious oasis from another era, situated in a white limestone mountain in the Siwa Oasis, an urban oasis in the heart of Egypt’s Western Desert between the Qattara Depression and the Egyptian Great Sand Sea, lies one of the world’s most remote hotels; Adrére Amellal: Desert Ecolodge. Because of the Siwa Oasis’ remote location, a distinctive and unique cultural preservation has occurred here. Visitors are taken back in time through Berber (the original inhabitants of North Africa) antiquity where the Siwi language, and Imazighen cultural rituals have been undisturbed by Westernization and commodification, but back to the hotel.
The Egyptian eco-hotel has no electricity and no telephones, and while this seems like punishment to some urbanites, I think a social media cleanse is needed in this day and age, where we’re constantly plugged in to our phones. It’s an addiction that we can break free from folks! It’s therapeutic to get back living a life free from electronics and Adrére Amellal is here to help. Of course it helps that the hotel is in the middle of the lush Siwa Oasis,
Not only is the hotel made out of kershef, a mixture of clay, salt rock, and water, but the furniture is also eco-friendly, made from local olive and palm trees, covered with luxe cushions and linens. The ecolodge used local artisans and laborers to construct the hotel, and used the ancient method to build it. You’ll find that the hotel restaurant’s food is all organic, grown on the grounds in the hotels garden, — the straight meaning of farm to table. Relax in Adrére Amellal’s spa and spring water pool, while you watch Africa’s blazing sun set in the east. Your room is romantically lit with candles and lanterns, with rooms that feature an unobstructed view of a night sky, constellations hanging above you. The rooms start from $500 on up.
This unique eco-luxury isn’t everyone’s style, you know, the no air conditioning in the desert thing, but for the adventurous, and not-so-hot, this place is paradise.
Let me know if you go.
Xx,
