If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to live like the actors on White Lotus, book a night at Six Senses Shaharut. It is luxurious, beautifully designed, and with a focus on wellness and self-care.
It all starts when you finally arrive at the property, which is as off the grid as you can get in Israel. It’s somewhere near Mitzpeh Ramon, but all you can see around you are the hills of the desert.
Before sitting down to write this article, I looked up synonyms for “stunning,” which is what this hotel is. So when I use words like “striking,” “exquisite,” and “electrifying,” that’s where they came from. The design of the hotel is simply stunning and blends into the landscape in a unique way.
The wood and stone seem to rise out of the desert in a unique way. There are few sharp angles here, everything is circular, with curves. Walking along the resort’s paths is akin to meditating.
As I walked, it came to me that life in Israel, especially now, is more about sharp angles: Israelis are often confrontational, especially when driving. Even the guns that soldiers walk around with have sharp angles. Six Senses Shaharut gives you a chance to smooth out some of those angles with relaxing curves and deep breaths.
As soon as you arrive, a “guest experience manager” (in our case, Vlad) takes your luggage out of your car and puts it on an electric golf cart, and a valet takes your car and parks it. You won’t see it until you are ready to leave the property.
“I suggest you try to completely disengage from work,” Vlad said. “Just embrace this place, embrace the quiet.”
I took his advice and left my phone in my room several times. I don’t use my phone on Shabbat, but I am pretty addicted to it during the week. It was a nice break, and I realized that I can be phoneless for a few hours, and the world won’t end.
The rooms are beautifully designed with an impressive view of the desert. I loved the fact that the TV was covered by a wall hanging that lifted at the touch of a button. The bathroom, complete with robes and slippers, was larger than the first apartment I lived in – in Jerusalem. Another nice touch for those of a certain age who might need to use the bathroom during the night: As you get out of bed, track lighting on a sensor makes sure you can find your way.
The hotel has two main areas of the hotel and Vlad assured us that ours was a “prime location.” One section houses two restaurants: the Midian, headed by chef David Bitton, and the Jamila tapas bar with a very cool stereo system that plays vinyl records. (I’m old enough to remember when that’s how we all listened to music.)
Before dinner, my favorite husband and I stopped at Jamila to hear some live music played on an instrument I had never seen before that looked like a Tibetan sound bowl. Although it was quite windy, we stepped outside for an amazing sunset.
Time for dinner
Then it was time for dinner. Now a word about the food. The hotel is not kosher, although chef Bitton himself is traditional. At the same time, no pork or shrimp is served, and no dishes include both meat and dairy. We decided to skip the meat and just eat vegetarian and dairy for the weekend, as well as fish, which is heavy on vegetables, too.
For dinner the first night, we had delicious hamachi sashimi and cannelloni in a tomato sauce with cheese. Cliff wanted dessert, but after waiting about 20 minutes for a waiter to take our order, we gave up. Several people at the hotel said they loved the vibe of the place but the service, by mostly young Israelis just out of the army, could have been a little faster.
On Friday morning, we visited the gym soon after waking. It had brand new machines as well as yet another amazing view. We then went to the other main building of the hotel, the spa, where an 8:30 a.m. yoga class was on offer. I was a bit in shock that Cliff offered to go with me, but “when in Rome…”
The class was full, but the spa manager, Efrat, offered to teach a second class outside. I worried it might be too cold, but she said the area, which is just above the outdoor pool and jacuzzi, was protected from the wind. She had already brought out yoga mats, and doing yoga in the crisp morning air, against a background sound of wind chimes, turned out to be one of the highlights of the weekend.
After yoga was an amazing breakfast spread of fresh breads, pastries, cheeses, smoked fish, and incredibly fresh vegetables that kept me full until dinner. As a coffee snob, I can happily report that the coffee was strong and perfectly made.
In the afternoon, I attended a workshop on making a body scrub, which was fun, and you could customize it with any scent you wanted.
Soon it was time for dinner, and here chef Bitton – who was also hosting chef Aner Ben Refael for a special culinary weekend – went all out. The meal started with sourdough bread, challah, eggplant butter, and kashkaval and parsley root tahini.
Five small appetizers, three vegetarian and two fish dishes, made their way to our small table – each one was more delicious than the last. There was roasted kohlrabi over a gruyere cheese fondue, charred leek, and brown butter. Next was a piece of hot feta coated with seeds on a bed of gazpacho.
Then there was a tuna tartare with smoked eggplant aioli, a charcoal seared Hamachi, and lastly agnolotti and 12-month aged gouda. The portions were thankfully small, enabling us to taste all of them. I have only eaten in one Michelin-starred restaurant in my life, but the food here was as good as the fare they offered.
The main course was lamb chops with beef and bone marrow croquette, which we skipped, although we did enjoy the side dish of maftoul risotto with butter and parmesan. Maftoul, also called “Palestinian couscous,” is a cracked wheat grain that I had never tasted before.
We finished the meal with three small desserts – a chocolate almond sponge, a citrus almond biscuit, and a Jerusalem artichoke mousse with brown butter and ice cream that was a great combination of sweet and savory.
On our way back to our room, we looked up at the sky. The stars seemed so close you could almost touch them. I saw the hotel has several telescopes for stargazing.
There are 60 suites at the Six Senses, and I enjoyed meeting some of the other guests. One young couple had become engaged the previous day at the hotel. They had grown up in the same neighborhood and his mother had even been her gannenet (kindergarten teacher). The hotel arranged a picnic basket for a romantic proposal.
Another couple had a fascinating story. Shlomi looked like a kid himself but told me he grew up haredi (ultra-Orthodox) in Bnei Brak, got married at 18, and has a 17-year-old son who is still haredi. Moriah grew up in South Africa – where her father is a rabbi – and also married young; she has a six-year-old daughter. She made aliyah with her daughter a few years ago, and the couple subsequently met and got married. She is now pregnant and says she can’t wait until they have “his, hers, and ours,” referring also to the children. And she’s started keeping Shabbat and is gradually pulling Shlomi along with her.
In terms of cost, the best way to describe it is that “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.” At the same time, “You get what you pay for.” Seriously, rooms start at NIS 3,700 per couple per night. Overall, it was a special weekend in a special hotel, and I returned to Jerusalem feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.
The writer was a guest of the hotel.
