These are days of blistering heat across the country, but also around the world. The heat wave that has swept Europe in recent weeks, including the current one (more than 40°C in Greece, Spain, and even Germany), makes the heat in the Arava entirely tolerable.
The good Arava, which marks the southernmost part of the country, is a fine vacation spot year-round. People have not yet made the longed-for mindset shift to realize that summer is actually the desert's finest hour. Those who gain from this are the ones who choose a desert getaway, where there are few tourists but tons of things to do.
Eilat, with its hotels, pools, and shopping, does not appeal to me during the crowded summer, though if I am already in the southern Arava, visiting it is inevitable, certainly for the food that is somewhat lacking in the Arava. What is not lacking there is pure desert scenery, unique sites, and unpretentious accommodations that include a pool in a kibbutz or a moshav, evenings with pleasant activities, and a wallet-friendly price.
A small kibbutz with big dreams
I stayed at Kibbutz Lotan. It is located just half an hour from Eilat, but light-years away from it. Eighty-two families inhabit the kibbutz, which was established in 1983 and named after a family from the tribe of Esau (the slightly older brother of Jacob our forefather) who lived in the Edom Mountains, for "Esau is Edom" (Genesis 36:8). Its residents earn a living from a dairy farm, date plantations with 12,000 trees, solar panels on cow sheds and homes, an Eco-Fun complex, and a Travel Hotel that joined the kibbutz three years ago.
I went for an early morning run along the paths of the kibbutz (because of the blistering heat, remember?) and ran on narrow paths with a bit of grass and a few shade trees, around the dairy farm and the ecological complex where volunteers from abroad come to work and learn the secrets of building with mud bricks and other environmental specialties available in Lotan. On one of the paths, I met a pleasant man and we started talking. It turned out I had bumped into Ofir Alon, the new business CEO of the kibbutz, who arrived a month ago after leaving a senior position at Fuel Company to recalculate his route and practice a little Zionism.
"Until five years ago, people here showered with brackish water, and that is also the water the cows drink here," he said, speaking of the kibbutz's challenges, "and in the old houses, there were two faucets: One for fresh water and one for brackish water." According to him, everything in the Arava is harder. "You have to add 20 percent to the price for every service person you invite here because of transportation," he explains, but that will not stop Alon. His plan is to create synergy between tourism and businesses in the kibbutz to foster growth. For example, renovating the kibbutz's somewhat neglected pool, which the Travel Hotel also uses for its guests. "There is already a budget for this," he says, meaning that the Mishkei Hanegev agricultural cooperative association will support the renovation along with the hotel.
Green lodging in the Arava
Let us return to the Travel Hotel. In 2023, the Travel Hotels chain entered the kibbutz, marking its first foray beyond northern borders (seven northern lodging sites) and its expansion south. It took the 26 rather old rooms in the kibbutz (which it was supposed to renovate) and added another 26 new rooms.
We slept in the new rooms. They are suitable for up to a couple plus two children and have almost everything needed for a family vacation, even a fairly well-equipped kitchenette with a refrigerator, microwave, and tableware. There is a double bed and a pull-out sofa for the kids, a bathroom with a spacious shower, and good soaps in large, eco-friendly containers (only conditioner is missing), which blends well with the character of the only ecological kibbutz in the Arava.
Breakfast is accurate and good, containing everything needed, and there is even a toddlers' station with cereal and everything necessary for the little ones. It takes place in the Eco-Fun complex: Another place the little ones will love, built entirely from eco-friendly materials, mud bricks, and more. The complex also features a playroom where young and old learn the secrets of ecological life in an earth-sculpting workshop, building sand castles, playing disc golf, and constructing geodesic domes and arches from earth bricks. This playroom activity is part of the Summer Card, probably the most worthwhile perk available to Israelis in the country. I will expand on this shortly.
Summer vibes
More than a year ago, people in the southern Arava thought about how to get people to visit the area, which suffers unfairly from negative PR and other stigmas regarding heat, distance, and reasons not to come or to simply continue on to Eilat. Lital Shmueli, the tourism manager at the council, went on a family vacation to Austria and was exposed to a regional attraction card at a very attractive price, and she immediately imported the idea to the southern Arava.
Thus, the Summer Card was created - a card granting entrance or a visit to 23 attractions in the Arava and Eilat for NIS 165 per person (valid for three days, or NIS 250 for five days), including a water park. Among the attractions are a sunset tour in Timna Park as evening falls, a guided stargazing session in Neot Semadar, a vehicle tour in Hai-Bar Yotvata in your air-conditioned car among biblical and other animals, and while in the area, free ice cream at the Yotvata Inn, a fun day at the U Splash water park in Eilot with all its slides, and even an indulgent fruit sushi workshop with Liati, where you can sample all the delicious summer fruits. In short, these are just some of the attractions offered by the southern Arava's summer card, which is valid not only for the summer but also into early September (until Rosh Hashanah).
Ultimately, the Arava does not try to be something it is not. It does not compete with Eilat over giant pools or hotels with grand lobbies; instead, it offers something completely different: Space, quiet, people with a story, and scenery that cannot be ordered on any hotel booking site. It is high time to stop thinking of the Arava as a place you pass through on the way somewhere else, and start seeing it as a destination in its own right. Because precisely in a place that seems empty, distant, and blistering hot (by the way, the same heat as in Eilat), you discover there is quite a lot of life. And much of it is just waiting for you to arrive.
The price per night for a couple plus 2, including breakfast: NIS 1,200.
The writer was a guest of the Travel Hotel and the southern Arava.