DESTINATION DESERT: From igloo domes to spaceship-inspired structures, travel writer Karen Gardiner showcases the world’s most secluded and spectacular places to stay – all in extreme landscapes
- Karen Gardiner shares how you can enjoy deserts from Argentina to Namibia
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I love extreme landscapes – those places where nature makes you sit up and take notice. I prefer my sand in a raw red desert than on a pristine white beach.
A sunny beach is eager to please, but the desert challenges you to take it on. It’s a forbidding landscape but one that is sublime in its solitude, starry skies, stillness and space. Not to mention beauty.
My first taste of the desert was in Australia’s Northern Territory where the hot air felt like a slap and the red earth looked like a firestorm.
Having spent most of my life up until that moment in Scotland, it was a sensation that felt out of my then small world. That sensation, and the desert, have tugged at me ever since. Here are some of my favourites…
SALINAS GRANDES CAMP, Argentina
From around £360 per night full board based on two people sharing, pristinecamps.com
You will need to pack your shades for a trip to the vast, blindingly white salt flat of the Salinas Grandes in northwest Argentina’s Jujuy province.
This dazzling landscape – a lake that dried up long ago, leaving behind a thick crust of salt that becomes reflective during rainy season (below) – is one of the country’s most breathtaking sights, particularly on a clear day.
Visitors can enjoy the silence by spending the night in one of Pristine travel group’s four igloo-inspired domes. To maintain the camp’s sense of seclusion and exclusivity, there is a capacity of only ten guests.
From around £360 per night full board based on two people sharing, pristinecamps.com
DESERT WHISPER, Namibia
From around £820 per night full board based on two people sharing, gondwana-collection.com
There’s seclusion and then there’s Desert Whisper, a hideaway for two. Resembling a spaceship that has touched down on a rocky outcrop in one of the driest places on earth, this pod-shaped villa is one of just a handful of accommodation options in the private Gondwana Collection Namibia in the Namib Desert. It is perched above the desert sands in stark terrain about an hour’s drive from Sossusvlei. As otherworldly as Desert Whisper may appear, its eye-catching design was inspired by nature. Architect Sven Staby drew inspiration from Namib’s hardy endemic nara plant, which has a tough, leafless outer skin that can survive the harsh desert climate.
From around £820 per night full board based on two people sharing, gondwana-collection.com
CAMP SARIKA, Utah
Amid an otherworldly 600-acre Wild West landscape of rust-coloured sand, slot canyons and mighty mesas, Camp Sarika is the rugged flagship property of the exclusive Aman Resorts.
A ‘camp’ in the loosest sense of the word, this luxury retreat is comprised of a shared lounge, restaurant and pool area, plus a cluster of one- and two-bedroom canvas-topped pavilions, each with its own terrace and private heated plunge pool – all placed gently in the landscape far enough apart that you need never see another guest. Bliss.
From around £2,900 per night full board based on two people sharing, aman.com
OUR HABITAS ALULA, Saudi Arabia
From around £340 per night including breakfast, based on two people sharing, ourhabitas.com
Alula is one of the oldest regions in the Arabian peninsula. A central trading crossroads along the silk road, as well as the incense route from southern Arabia, it’s steeped in history. The Our Habitas travel group’s first Saudi outpost, Alula is unobtrusively placed within the desert canyons of the Ashar Valley and surrounded by ochre cliffs and palm groves. Conscious of its impact on its surroundings, all the buildings were made using an innovative flat-packed modular technique which has no impact on the environment.
The 96 stand-alone villas are evenly spaced to ensure maximum privacy and views of the golden sands and rocky, wind-sculpted outcrops stretching to the horizon.
From around £340 per night including breakfast, based on two people sharing, ourhabitas.com
SAN CAMP, Botswana
From around £1,400 per night full board based on two people sharing, naturalselection.travel
San Camp consists of seven billowing canvas tents perched amid grassland on the edge of the Ntwetwe Pan in Botswana’s legendary Makgadikgadi. One of the largest salt pans in the world, it was once a super lake covering most of Botswana.
Inside the tents you’ll find enormous four-poster beds raised high above Persian rugs, mahogany writing desks and leather armchairs – an elegant contrast to your rugged surroundings. Part of the conservation-focused Natural Selection travel group, the entire camp runs on solar power to reduce its impact on the environment. When darkness falls, you’ll find lanterns scattered round the camp to light the way and set the mood.
From around £1,400 per night full board based on two people sharing, naturalselection.travel
This is an edited extract from Desert Escapes by Karen Gardiner, around £45, lannoopublishers.com*
*TO ORDER A COPY FOR £38.25 WITH FREE DELIVERY UNTIL 24 SEPTEMBER, GO TO MAILSHOP.CO.UK/BOOKS OR CALL 020 3176 2937
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