The Beresheet Hotel

"You will never find such a view from a hotel anywhere else in the country and I doubt if there is such another place in the world, and believe me I have travelled quite a lot”, said one of the guests at the hotel, a businessman from the central area of the country, while we sat at the Beresheet Hotel balcony which looks over to the Ramon Crater. The sunset painted the cliffs of the Ramon Crater in a scale of warm colors, a dry desert breeze pleasantly blew caressing us and we tried to speak quietly, so as not to disturb all this wonderful silence around. It is doubtful if a few years ago someone would have thought that it is possible to build here a hotel of this large scale on the cliff of the Ramon Crater without interrupting the wildness of the place. But the Beresheet Hotel, which opened a few months ago in the Ramon Crater proves that it is possible, as long as one fulfils the most important conditions of respecting nature as much as possible, integrating without being dominant and letting nature play the leading role, being in its way as little as possible.

And indeed, the prestige of the Beresheet Hotel (of the Isrotel hotels chain) which aims at the wealthier vacationers, challenges the perception according to which nature is reserved to those who are willing to sleep in outdoors conditions. The principle which accompanied the architects of the Beresheet Hotel was to allow nature into every corner of this luxurious vacation village. And indeed, while here no one can forget even for a moment where they are. And when swimming in the huge main pool of the hotel, with these wild views all around, one cannot but be impressed by the wonderful design of this unique hotel.

The Beresheet Hotel spreads over no less than 50 dunams and includes 111 small houses and a main structure. In the small houses, some of which have one floor and others two, are beautiful suites. Some of the suites that are on the ground floor include a private pool and some of which that are on the second floor have a balcony overlooking the views of the Ramon Crater. The structures are built low in order to avoid interrupting the view’s outline. In the decoration of the Beresheet Hotel, inside and out, a use was made of the local stone which was quarried near the area and the guiding principle was to maintain a modest look of traditional building, ancient architecture which takes one back to past days. And indeed, when walking around the paths of this vacation village and encountering, for example, a statue of a man in a blue cape, the feeling one gets is of being in a very highly maintained place which pays excellent attention to details without being over-decorated or adorned. The desert modesty is maintained here in an impressive manner.

The green orientation of the Beresheet Hotel is expressed in its partial use of solar energy and in the fact that vehicles are not allowed here. One walks on footpaths or uses electric vehicles in the vacation village in order to get from one place to another. The hotel’s vegetation is composed of local desert vegetation, which also helps in maintaining the natural look of the place.