Need to know
Rooms
24, including some villa-style stays.
Check–Out
Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
More details
Rates include a light, healthy breakfast.
Also
Uneven terrain makes this stay unsuitable for guests with mobility issues.
At the hotel
Kitesurfing school and shop, lagoon, treatment room, indoor and outdoor lounging areas, and free WiFi. In rooms: minibar, bathrobes and slippers, free bottled water, and organic locally made bath products.
Our favourite rooms
There are four types of room here, all simply dressed but with Habitas’s bohemian panache (embroidered pouffes scattered on decks, Berber rugs, intricate wood panelling). The Desert Riad rooms are laid out around a shared courtyard, so are quite sociable, but if you’re arriving with a group of kitesurfing enthusiasts, book one of the villas that sleep three or four (we especially like the Dune Villa for its alfresco shower and bath tub).
Poolside
The unheated pool is a picturesque swimming spot (open 9am to 6pm), with curved edges, lanterns that softly glow after sundown and views of the lagoon. Day-beds and parasols are laid out around the curves and the bar is right beside you.
Spa
The hotel has one treatment room (with two beds for couples to be pampered together), where you can have various kinds of massages when you’re on a kite-flying comedown). Yoga and meditation sessions are held alfresco here.
Packing tips
You don’t need to bring your own gear, because there’s Naish International-branded kit aplenty at the onsite school (including wet suits to buy), but if you do, the hotel offers storing, rigging, cleaning and packing services. Otherwise bring layers for cooler evenings, a water bottle, reef-safe sunscreen, aloe vera, a sunhat and polarised sunglasses. And, bring any life-strifes – the hotel's welcoming ceremony encourages you to use symbolic sand to lock them away in a wooden box before unleashing them on a desert breeze.
Also
If you want to improve your aerial-dynamic skills, then book in for the hotel’s more intensive Pro Clinic Camp.
Children
Children are welcome to stay, but there are no facilities or dedicated diversions, and they must be 12 or over (and weigh at least 35 kilogrammes) to kite surf.