The Negev · Where to stay
Where to stay in the Negev
Mitzpe Ramon, a town of 5,843 people on a rim 839 metres up, holds nearly every bed within an hour of the Ramon Crater.
Population of Mitzpe Ramon
5,843
The 2024 figure for the only town on the crater rim, and the only real concentration of beds in the central Negev
Elevation of the town
839 m
High enough that winter nights on the rim are genuinely cold and summer nights are survivable
Rooms and villas at Beresheet
111
Isrotel's own figure, of which 39 are ground-level villas with a private pool
A night in your own tent inside the crater
₪64
Adult rate at the parks authority's Khan Be'erot campground, with ₪47 for a child aged 5 to 18
Most of the Negev has nowhere to sleep, and that is not an oversight. The region covers roughly 60 per cent of Israel's land area and most of it is nature reserve, firing range, gravel plain or open road. Almost everybody who does spend a night in the central desert spends it in Mitzpe Ramon, a town of 5,843 people on the northern rim of Makhtesh Ramon, or within half an hour of it. Plenty of visitors never sleep in the Negev at all: they drive down from Beersheba or Jerusalem, look at the crater, and drive back.
Which is a shame, because the case for staying is the one thing a day trip cannot deliver. The Ramon Crater was designated an International Dark Sky Park in 2017, the first in the Middle East, and the reason to book a bed here is what happens between the last light and the first. Ibex come down to the town verges at dusk, and the rim goes cold and completely silent. None of that is visible from a coach seat at two in the afternoon.
The supply is thin and oddly shaped. Two conventional hotels in the town, one youth hostel, a scatter of eco-camps and self-catering units, two parks authority campgrounds, and a run of desert farms along Route 40 to the north. Between them they cover almost every budget and almost no middle ground, and on a festival weekend they sell out together.
7 places to stay
The places to stay worth the trip in The Negev
Our pick and why, then everything the listing knows, with the date it was pulled.
01
Beresheet Hotel
The rim itself, from a villa with its own pool
Isrotel built Beresheet on the cliff edge in 2011 and it remains the only property here that is a destination in its own right, with 111 rooms and villas spread across a site the chain gives as 50,000 square metres. Thirty-nine of those are ground-level villas with a private pool, and the upper rooms trade the pool for a large balcony over the makhtesh. There is a spa with a long treatments list, a fitness room, and three places to eat including a restaurant with terraces facing the crater. Practically, it is a sealed world: the town is a short drive away but nothing is walkable from the gate, so plan on eating where you sleep. A synagogue, a Shabbat lift and glatt kosher meals by advance order are all available, which is not true of most beds in this guide.
Kosher meals have to be ordered in advance and carry a surcharge, on the hotel's own statement.
“It's not cheap, but the food is good and definitely worth it.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.64,029 ratings91% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- דרך בראשית 1, Mitzpe Ramon, 80600
- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9728-659-8000
- Website
- isrotel.co.il
02
Desert Shade
Waking up on the rim without the resort
Desert Shade calls itself an eco-camp and sits in the hills right on the crater rim, a short walk from the edge of town, which is a rare combination here. The stock is 25 air-conditioned cabins the camp calls eco-tents, built from a wood and mud construction that keeps the structures low against the desert; the units differ in ways that matter, so read them carefully. Some are front row for the view and some are not, and several have the toilet outside the room with showers shared between guests rather than a bathroom of your own. Breakfast is included across the range, there is a small boutique winery on the property, and the group behind it has run events on this ground for over 30 years. It suits people who want the silence and the sunrise and do not need a lobby.
The office publishes limited hours, Sunday to Thursday 09:00 to 13:30, so allow time for a reply.
“Great value-for-money compared to other options in the area.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.3588 ratings82% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Kakal Boulevard 1, Mitzpe Ramon, 80600
- Kitchen
- Guest house, Hostel, Hotel
- Phone
- +9728-658-6229
- Website
- desert-shade.com
03
Succah in the Desert
Going properly off the grid, with vegetarian food and no flush
Founded in 1989 on the edge of the Har HaNegev nature reserve, this is the oldest and the most committed of the desert retreats around Mitzpe Ramon, about 8 kilometres out on the desert-edge road at roughly 850 metres. Its huts are built from ecological materials without excavated foundations, all the electricity comes from the sun, the toilets are dry ones using sawdust instead of flushing, and shower and kitchen water is filtered and reused to irrigate the gardens. Toilets and showers are in two shared blocks in private cubicles rather than in the huts. Food is vegetarian, grown largely on site, and there is an ecological pool, an orchard and an open animal pen. It is the right choice for anyone who wants the desert without a town in the way, and the wrong one for anyone who wants a bathroom door.
Booked by phone or email rather than through a live availability system; stays of two weeks or more can be arranged as volunteering.
“The food is very good.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.2277 ratings80% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Near Observatory, Mitzpe Ramon, 8060000
- Kitchen
- Indoor lodging, Tourist attraction
- Phone
- +97250-345-6372
- Website
- succah.co.il
04
Daroma
A normal hotel in the town, in walking distance of dinner
Daroma is Isrotel's second Mitzpe Ramon property and the practical choice for travellers who want a hotel rather than an experience. It sits in the town at Ein Akev 1, which puts the bakery, the bars and the small restaurants within walking distance and the crater rim a few minutes away by car. The refit leaned into desert minimalism, with monochrome rooms and lighting the chain describes as standing in for the moon, and the facilities are the ones a family actually uses: an indoor heated pool, wet and dry saunas, a fitness room and a kids' club. The dining room does breakfast and Middle Eastern dinners, and arrangements for observant guests can be requested in advance. It is the least surprising bed in the Negev, which on a two-night stop with children is the point.
“Lot's of Gluten free options, the chef helped me with gluten free food.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.12,536 ratings77% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Ein Akev St 1, Mitzpe Ramon
- Kitchen
- Hotel, Inn
- Phone
- +9728-658-8822
- Website
- isrotel.co.il
05
HI Mitzpe Ramon Hostel
A cheap bed with its own bathroom, on the cliff
The Israel Youth Hostel Association's Mitzpe Ramon house stands on the cliff overlooking the crater, next to the visitor centre, and it is nothing like a bunk-and-locker hostel. Rooms are sized for couples, families, groups and single travellers, and each comes with air conditioning, a shower and toilet, a fridge, a television and a coffee corner. Breakfast is included in the rate along with Wi-Fi, a television room and teaching rooms fitted out for school and youth groups, which is who fills the place in term time. The reception staff are used to being asked what to walk and where, and the crater viewpoints are on the doorstep. For a family that wants a private bathroom and the rim location without the rim price, this is the strongest value in the town.
School and youth groups take large blocks in term time, so check availability before building an itinerary around it.
“We were there for a destination bar mitzvah.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 3.81,013 ratings66% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- האלה 2 מצפה רמון
- Kitchen
- Hostel, Guest house, Lodging
- Phone
- +9722-594-5566
- Website
- iyha.org.il
06
Desert Home
A self-catering unit with a kitchen and a host who knows the trails
Desert Home is a zimmer in the proper sense: a handful of small units on Ein Shaviv on the western edge of the town, run personally rather than staffed. The main house holds four units for couples, each with a double bed, a seating area with a sofa bed, an equipped kitchenette and its own bathroom; there is a separate one-room unit with a garden seat under a fig tree, and a two-storey villa with several bedrooms, a fireplace and kitchens for a group taking the whole thing. Breakfast is homemade and brought to you, and the villa can arrange a group breakfast for ten or more by prior notice. The address is inside a residential street, which sounds unpromising and is not: the units face out over open desert. Come here if you want to cook, to be left alone, and to ask one person for advice rather than a rota of receptionists.
“David the manager has some cool tips and knowledge about the area.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.7219 ratings93% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Ein Shaviv St 70, Mitzpe Ramon
- Kitchen
- Indoor lodging
- Phone
- +97252-322-9496
- Website
- baitbamidbar.com
07
Naot Farm
Splitting the drive from Beersheba, on a working goat dairy
Naot Farm was set up in 2003 by Lea and Gadi Nahimov in Ramat HaNegev, on Route 40 on the approach to Sde Boker, in a hollow ringed by bare hills above the Be'er Hayil streambed. The lodging is five cabins, three for couples and two for families, plus a larger cabin called Hevruta that sleeps up to 15 across three separate units around a shared kitchen and living room, with a terrace, a grill, a wading pool open from April to October and a fire pit. There is also a hostel built from decommissioned water pipes, each fitted with a bed, bedding and towels, sharing open-air showers and an equipped kitchen. The dairy makes cheese from the farm's own goats, the shop sells it, and breakfast leans on both. The owners deliberately kept the farm lighting dim so it does not compete with the moon and stars, which tells you what the place is for.
The farm asks that any outside supplier coming on site, from caterers to guides, is cleared with them first.
“Good food, brilliant chill atmosphere”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.51,216 ratings89% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- חוות נאות 1, Tlalim, 8551500
- Kitchen
- Guest house, Bistro, Cheese shop
- Phone
- +97254-686-4347
- Website
- naotfarm.co.il
The decision
The town on the rim, or a longer drive every morning
Mitzpe Ramon is the answer for most people, and the reason is arithmetic rather than charm. There is no railway to the town; from Beersheba it is a little over an hour south on Route 40. Sleeping anywhere else means adding that drive to both ends of every day, in a landscape where the good hours are the first two and the last two. Stay on the rim and the viewpoints are a walk, the sculpture park is on the edge of town, and the descent into the makhtesh starts at the end of the street.
Within the town there are two quite different addresses. The rim itself is where Beresheet sits, on its own ground at the cliff edge, along with the eco-camps tucked into the hills a short walk out. The rest of the beds are in the grid of the town proper, five or ten minutes back from the drop, where the bakery, the bars and the small restaurants of the old industrial zone are on the doorstep. The trade is real: on the rim you get the silence and the sunrise and drive to dinner, in the town you walk to dinner and drive to the sunrise.
North of the town, along Route 40 towards Sde Boker, is the other genuine option. Midreshet Ben-Gurion and the farms on the wine route put you next to Ein Avdat, Ben-Gurion's Desert Home and Avdat, half an hour short of the crater. That suits an itinerary built on the Nabataean sites and the canyon rather than the makhtesh. It does not suit stargazing: the crater rim is where the dark-sky designation applies.
Two further bases exist and both are compromises. Beersheba has hotels and is the region's transport hub, with trains from the coast and buses into the desert, which makes it the base for a car-free traveller taking a tour. The crater floor has the parks authority's Khan Be'erot campground, off Route 40 south of the town, the only place you can legally sleep inside the makhtesh. Beersheba costs you the desert; Be'erot costs you the plumbing.
The stock
Hotel, eco-tent, zimmer, khan and a hostel on the cliff
Conventional hotels here means Isrotel, twice. Beresheet opened on the rim in 2011 and is the expensive one: 111 rooms and villas on a site the chain puts at 50,000 square metres, 39 of the villas at ground level with a pool of their own, a spa, and a restaurant with terraces over the crater. Daroma, in the town, is the other: a renovated property built around an indoor heated pool, saunas, a fitness room and a kids' club. They are the only two places in the central Negev that work the way a visitor from abroad expects a hotel to work.
The category that defines the place is the eco-camp. Desert Shade, on the rim, calls its units eco-tents: 25 air-conditioned cabins built from wood and mud, some in the front row for the view, some with the toilet outside the room and showers shared. Succah in the Desert, about 8 kilometres out on the desert-edge road at around 850 metres, goes further: founded in 1989 at the boundary of the Har HaNegev reserve, all its electricity from the sun, dry sawdust toilets rather than flushing ones, shared shower blocks and vegetarian food out of its own gardens. Neither is roughing it, and neither pretends to be a hotel.
Then there are zimmerim, the Israeli term for a small self-catering guest unit run by the family next door. Desert Home on the western edge of the town is the shape of it: four couples' units with kitchenettes, a separate small unit with a garden under a fig tree, a villa for a group, and a homemade breakfast rather than a buffet. The farms to the north do the same at a larger scale, Naot Farm most fully: cabins on a working goat dairy near Sde Boker, plus a hostel made from decommissioned water pipes, a cheese shop and a bistro.
At the cheap end, the Israel Youth Hostel Association runs the Mitzpe Ramon hostel on the cliff, where rooms take couples, families, groups and single travellers, each with its own shower, toilet, fridge and air conditioning, and breakfast is in the rate. Below that is the parks authority's campground network. Khan Be'erot on the crater floor takes your own tent, hires out family tents and mattresses, sleeps people in a fixed marquee, and keeps two telescopes and a stargazing compound; the Nabataean khan at Mamshit, east of Dimona, does the same beside a ruined city. Neither takes dogs.
Practicalities
Shabbat, breakfast, parking and a bill with no tax on it
Shabbat changes the shape of a Negev weekend more than it changes a Tel Aviv one, because there is so little redundancy here. Public buses stop from Friday afternoon, several of the town's kitchens shut until Sunday, and the two hotels move to their weekend service. Beresheet keeps a synagogue and a Shabbat lift and will supply glatt kosher meals ordered in advance for a surcharge; Daroma states that arrangements for observant guests can be made on request. The parks authority is blunter: its own page for Khan Be'erot says the site is not adapted for Shabbat-observant visitors. Friday and Saturday are also the busiest and dearest nights in the town, not the quietest.
Breakfast is close to universal and it is worth knowing what it means. The Israeli hotel breakfast is a long buffet of salads, cheeses, eggs, fish and bread rather than a pastry and a coffee, and it is normally in the room rate. The hostel includes it, the eco-tents at Desert Shade include it, the zimmerim bring a homemade version to the unit, and Succah in the Desert feeds guests from its own gardens. The exception to plan around is an early start: if you want the rim at sunrise, buy something the night before.
Parking is the one part of an Israeli trip that gets easier here. Mitzpe Ramon is a small grid town with wide streets and no paid kerbside scheme worth worrying about, the hotels and camps have their own ground, and the campgrounds are drive-in. That is one more argument for driving the region rather than trying to bus it. Fill the tank in Beersheba or in the town itself; stations along Route 40 are sparse.
Finally, the tax. Israel's standard rate of value added tax was 18 per cent in 2025, and hotel accommodation supplied to foreign tourists is not charged it. That is why Isrotel's own terms state that the shekel prices on its website are for Israelis and that bookings by foreign citizens or foreign residents are priced in euros or dollars. In practice, bring the passport to check-in and expect the room to be billed in foreign currency. The waiver was targeted for abolition in the 2023 budget round, so treat it as current policy rather than a fixture, and note that smaller guest units and campgrounds may not offer it at all.
Timing
Book around the moon, and around the school holidays
If the night sky is any part of why you are coming, check the lunar calendar before you check availability. The dark-sky designation buys nothing under a full moon, and the difference between a moonless night on the rim and a bright one is the difference between the Milky Way and a grey wash. That constraint should outrank the day of the week, the price and very nearly the property.
The second constraint is that ordinary Israeli demand fills a very small town. Passover, Sukkot, the summer school holidays and the long weekends around them sell out the hotels, the camps and the campgrounds together, and there is no next town to fall back on. Midweek in spring or autumn is the opposite: quiet, cheap by local standards, and easy to book late.
Winter is the underrated season and the one people misjudge. Daytime temperatures on the plateau are comfortable and the light is long, but the town sits at 839 metres and the nights are cold in a way that surprises visitors who packed for a desert. A cabin or a canvas marquee in January is a different proposition from the same unit in April, which is why the operators heat them as well as cool them. Summer is the reverse problem, and a room without air conditioning is not a saving.
The full list
Every place to stay we found in The Negev
All 9 that Google Maps returned for this area, ranked by rating weighted for how many people rated it, so a five from three people does not outrank a four and a half from three thousand.
| Name | Kind | Rating | Ratings | Price | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desert Homeבית במדבר Desert Home | Indoor lodging | 4.7 | 219 | n/a | Mitzpe Ramon |
| Beresheet HotelBeresheet Hotel - מלון בראשית | Hotel | 4.6 | 4,029 | n/a | Mitzpe Ramon |
| Naot Farmחוות נאות- בקתות אירוח, ביסטרו הקרון, חנות גבינות | Guest house | 4.5 | 1,216 | n/a | Tlalim |
| Hadasaar | Self-catering accommodation | 4.4 | 157 | n/a | Mitzpe Ramon |
| Desert Shadeצל מדבר | Desert Shade | Guest house | 4.3 | 588 | n/a | Mitzpe Ramon |
| Succah in the Desert | Indoor lodging | 4.2 | 277 | n/a | Mitzpe Ramon |
| Daroma | Hotel | 4.1 | 2,536 | n/a | Mitzpe Ramon |
| Ramon Hotel | Hotel | 4.0 | 929 | n/a | Mitzpe Ramon |
| HI Mitzpe Ramon Hostel | Hostel | 3.8 | 1,013 | n/a | Mitzpe Ramon |
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings and counts move daily and this table does not: it is a snapshot, and it is here so the ranking above can be checked rather than taken on trust. Prices are Google's own price band, not a menu price.
Practical
What to know before you go
- Check the lunar calendar before booking. A room on the crater rim under a full moon is a room with an ordinary view of the sky, and the new moon week books out first for exactly that reason.
- Bring the foreign passport to check-in and expect a hotel room to be billed in foreign currency. That is how the tourist exemption from Israeli VAT is applied, and the rate quoted in shekels is usually the Israeli one.
- Pack for cold nights whatever the month. The town sits at 839 metres and the temperature drop after dark on the plateau catches out people who packed for a desert.
- Parking is free and easy across Mitzpe Ramon and at the parks authority campgrounds, so do not pay extra for it. Fill the tank in Beersheba or in town; stations on Route 40 are thin.
- At Khan Be'erot the parks authority sets entry between 15:00 and 22:00 on the summer clock, 21:00 in winter, and asks that tents and units are cleared by 11:00 on the day you leave.
- The parks authority states that its Khan Be'erot campground is not adapted for Shabbat-observant visitors, and dogs are not admitted there or at the Mamshit khan.
- Ask what breakfast means before you arrive. It is included at the hostel, at the eco-tents and at most guest units, but it will not be served early enough for a sunrise start.
- Sort dinner on Friday before you check in. Several kitchens in the town close from Friday afternoon until Sunday, and there is no next town within an hour.
The figures
Numbers behind this page
Each figure carries the year it belongs to and links the source it came from.
| Measure | Figure | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rooms and villas at Beresheet | 111 | 2026 | isrotel.com |
| Ground-level villas at Beresheet with a private pool | 39 | 2026 | isrotel.com |
| Air-conditioned eco-tent cabins at Desert Shade | 25 | 2026 | desert-shade.com |
| A night in your own tent at Khan Be'erot, adult | ₪64 | 2026 | parks.org.il |
| A night in your own tent at Khan Be'erot, child aged 5 to 18 | ₪47 | 2026 | parks.org.il |
| A bed in the large fixed marquee at Khan Be'erot, adult | ₪96 | 2026 | parks.org.il |
| Family camping tent with mattresses at Khan Be'erot, up to four sleepers | ₪350 | 2026 | parks.org.il |
| Standard rate of Israeli value added tax | 18% | 2025 | taxsummaries.pwc.com |
The rest of the The Negev guide
Sources and further reading
Every link below was opened and checked when this page was written. Official statements are marked as such: they are the subject's own account, not an independent one.
- OfficialIsrotelisrotel.comBeresheet, Mitzpe Ramon
The hotel's own figures: 111 rooms and villas on a 50,000 square metre site, 39 ground-level villas with private pools, the spa and fitness room, the three dining venues, and the synagogue, Shabbat lift and glatt kosher meals by advance order at a surcharge.
- OfficialIsrotelisrotel.comDaroma, Mitzpe Ramon
The Ein Akev address, the renovation and its monochrome desert design, the indoor heated pool, wet and dry saunas, fitness room and kids' club, the breakfast and Middle Eastern dinner service, and the note that arrangements for observant guests can be made on request.
- OfficialIsrotelisrotel.comTerms and conditions
The chain's statement that the shekel prices on its website exclude VAT and are offered to Israelis, and that reservations for foreign citizens or foreign residents are based on euros or dollars, which is how the tourist VAT exemption is applied in practice.
- OfficialDesert Shadedesert-shade.comStay at Desert Shade
The camp's position on the rim of the Ramon Crater a short walk from town, the count of 25 ecologically built air-conditioned cabins, the per-unit differences in bathrooms and view, and breakfast included across the range.
- OfficialSuccah in the Desertsuccah.co.ilSuccah in the Desert
Founded in 1989 at the edge of the Har HaNegev nature reserve, about 8 kilometres from Mitzpe Ramon at around 850 metres, with solar-only electricity, dry sawdust toilets, two shared shower and toilet blocks, filtered greywater reused for irrigation, vegetarian food from its own gardens, and volunteering from two weeks.
- OfficialDesert Homebaitbamidbar.comDesert Home, Mitzpe Ramon
The four couples' units with kitchenettes and sofa beds, the separate small unit with a fig-tree garden, the two-storey villa for groups, the Ein Shaviv address inside a residential street with open desert views, and the homemade breakfast including group breakfasts by arrangement.
- OfficialNaot Farmnaotfarm.co.ilAbout us
The farm's founding in 2003 by Lea and Gadi Nahimov in Ramat HaNegev on Route 40 near Sde Boker, its setting in a hollow above the Be'er Hayil streambed, the goats and cheesemaking, and the deliberate choice of dim lighting so as not to outshine the moon and stars.
- OfficialNaot Farmnaotfarm.co.ilTsavta Tube Hostel
The hostel built from decommissioned water conduit pipes with beds, bedding and towels, shared open-air showers and four toilets, the equipped kitchen and grill, the wading pool and fire pit, and the optional goat cheese breakfast.
- OfficialNaot Farmnaotfarm.co.ilHevruta cabin
The 140 square metre group cabin sleeping up to 15 across three separate units off a shared kitchen and living room, with a wooden terrace, grill, fenced wading pool open April to October, fire pit and hammocks.
- OfficialHostelling Internationalhihostels.comMitzpe Ramon Youth Hostel
The hostel's position on the cliffs above the crater beside the visitor centre, rooms for couples, families, groups and singles each with air conditioning, shower and toilet, fridge, television and coffee corner, and breakfast, Wi-Fi and teaching rooms included.
- OfficialIsrael Nature and Parks Authorityparks.org.ilKhan Be'erot campground, Makhtesh Ramon
The rates of ₪64 an adult and ₪47 a child in your own tent, ₪350 for a family tent with mattresses, ₪96 an adult in the fixed marquee and ₪430 midweek for a small room; entry from 15:00 to 22:00 on the summer clock and 21:00 in winter with an 11:00 departure; the hot showers, field kitchen, fridges, telescopes and stargazing area; no dogs; and the statement that the site is not adapted for Shabbat-observant visitors.
- OfficialIsrael Nature and Parks Authorityparks.org.ilMamshit Nabataean Khan campground
The second Negev campground, beside the ruined Nabataean city about 6 kilometres east of Dimona on Route 25, with the same tent rates, upgraded huts, caravan pitches, and the same no-dogs and not-adapted-for-Shabbat notes.
- ReportingThe Times of Israeltimesofisrael.comTour operators urge Finance Ministry to keep VAT waiver for tourists
The 2023 proposal in the Arrangements Bill to cancel the tourist VAT exemption on hotel accommodation, car hire, catering and travel agency services, and the industry's estimate of the damage, which is why the waiver is best read as policy rather than a fixture.
- ReferenceWikipediaen.wikipedia.orgMitzpe Ramon
The 2024 population of 5,843, the elevation of 839 metres, the founding in 1951 as a camp for the Route 40 construction workers, the town's six hotels and bed-and-breakfast stock, and the opening of Beresheet by Isrotel in 2011.
Where to stay in the Negev: common questions
Where is the best place to stay in the Negev?+
Mitzpe Ramon, for almost everyone. It is the only town on the crater rim, it holds nearly all the region's beds, and everything most visitors come for is either walkable from it or within half an hour on Route 40. The two alternatives worth considering are Midreshet Ben-Gurion and the farms along Route 40 to the north, if your itinerary is Ein Avdat and the Nabataean sites rather than the makhtesh, and Beersheba, if you have no car and intend to take a tour.
Can you sleep inside the Ramon Crater?+
Yes, at one place: the Israel Nature and Parks Authority's Khan Be'erot campground on the crater floor, signposted left off Route 40 a few kilometres south of Mitzpe Ramon. You can pitch your own tent, hire a family tent with mattresses, take a bed in a large fixed marquee, or book one of the small rooms. The site has hot showers, a field kitchen, fridges, fire pits, two telescopes and a stargazing area, and the parks authority publishes its rates and its entry hours on the campground's own page. Dogs are not admitted, and the authority states the site is not adapted for Shabbat-observant visitors.
Do tourists pay VAT on a hotel room in Israel?+
No, hotel accommodation supplied to foreign tourists is not charged Israeli VAT, which stood at a standard rate of 18 per cent in 2025. In practice the mechanism is that the room is billed in foreign currency against a foreign passport: Isrotel's published terms say the shekel prices on its site are offered to Israelis and that reservations by foreign citizens or foreign residents are priced in euros or dollars. Bring the passport to check-in. Small guest units and campgrounds may not operate the scheme at all.
Is one night in Mitzpe Ramon enough?+
One night works if the crater is the whole plan, but two is the honest answer for most itineraries. A single night usually means arriving in the afternoon, seeing sunset and the sky, and leaving after breakfast, which skips the crater floor entirely. Two nights buys a full day for the makhtesh, Ein Avdat and Avdat, and a second night in case the first one is cloudy or moonlit.
What happens on Shabbat if I am staying in the Negev?+
Public buses stop from Friday afternoon until Saturday night, several of the town's kitchens close for the same window, and the hotels shift to their weekend service. Beresheet keeps a synagogue and a Shabbat lift and will provide glatt kosher meals if they are ordered in advance for a surcharge, and Daroma says arrangements for observant guests can be made on request. The parks authority states that its Khan Be'erot campground is not adapted for Shabbat-observant visitors. Friday and Saturday nights are the busiest and most expensive of the week here, so book them well ahead or shift the stay to midweek.
Is there anywhere cheap to stay near the Ramon Crater?+
Yes, and there is more of it than the region's reputation suggests. The Israel Youth Hostel Association's Mitzpe Ramon hostel sits on the cliff with private bathrooms in the rooms and breakfast in the rate, the eco-camps sell cabins with shared showers well below hotel money, and the parks authority's campgrounds at Khan Be'erot and at Mamshit charge by the sleeper for your own tent. What does not exist here is a large stock of mid-range chain hotels, so the gap between the cheapest and the dearest bed is unusually wide.
Do I need a car if I stay in Mitzpe Ramon?+
Not to reach the town, but yes to make good use of it. Intercity buses run from Beersheba, and the crater viewpoints, the sculpture park and the town's restaurants are all walkable once you arrive. Ein Avdat, Avdat, Sde Boker and the crater floor are not, and a hire car turns a two-day trip into something that covers the region rather than one overlook. Drive slowly at dusk: ibex use the verges around the town and do not move for headlights.
Is it cold at night in the desert?+
Yes, and colder than most visitors expect. Mitzpe Ramon stands at 839 metres, and the plateau loses its heat fast after dark in every season, which is why the eco-tents and cabins here are heated as well as air conditioned. Winter nights on the rim are genuinely cold and want layers, a hat and something warm for standing still under the stars, which is what you will be doing.