Our Brand Could Be Your Life

Finally, a hotel group for people who want to appreciate in every moment just how damn lucky we all are to be alive.

It takes a lot for a hotel to stand out these days. Extraordinary design and unique amenities are a given. So is careful service. To really get attention, though, it helps to have a persuasive concept. Our Habitas has one such concept. The group’s manifesto asks guests to try being truly present — to leave behind your screens and outside distractions and fully engage with the property and staff and other guests through activities like music, art, wellness, adventure, dining, and charity.

Do all this, Our Habitas declares, and you’ll experience what they call “luxury for the soul.” That may sound like the kind of abstraction dreamed up by a marketing agency, but for Our Habitas it’s a core belief, and it lets guests know that what’s expected of them is just as important as what they should expect. You don’t come to an Our Habitas and then decide whether or not to participate. You come to participate.

With beautiful hotels in remote escapes like Bacalar, Atacama, Namibia, and Agafay, it can be tempting to view Our Habitas as exotic luxury boutique getaways — and they are that — but you choose them over other exotic luxury boutique getaways because you want to connect with their brand vision that life is precious, and it should be shared. You don’t know how many more sunsets you’ll see. You came all this way, be present, be thankful, be alive.
 

Our Habitas San Miguel

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Immersed in the countryside a mere ten minutes from the center of San Miguel de Allende, each of the accommodations at Habitas San Miguel is a freestanding casita that opens onto a view of the countryside right at the foot of the bed. The pod-like casitas mix contemporary elements like floor-to-ceiling windows and modern furniture with traditional crafts and décor, and they’ve all got outdoor decks for lounging.

Our Habitas Bacalar

Bacalar, Mexico

Just a few miles from the border with Belize, Bacalar is so wild as to make Tulum look like Los Angeles by comparison. The spectacularly colorful lagoon is the main natural attraction here, and as luxurious as Habitas Bacalar may be, its tented A-frames are extraordinarily environmentally friendly, built using traditional low-impact methods, on raised platforms to protect the local flora and fauna.

Our Habitas Tulum

Tulum, Mexico

Tulum’s hotels seem to be competing with one another to see who can offer guests a more direct connection with nature — and in this kind of contest it’s the travelers who ultimately win. Habitas Tulum is largely an open-air experience, going so far as to offer tented rooms with canvas walls, palapa roofs, and hardwood floors, as well as, in many cases, terraces that face directly out to sea.

Our Habitas Namibia

Windhoek, Namibia

Habitas Namibia is something of a break from the traditions of the safari lodge — less formal, less structured, and more focused on communal living and human connection. The game reserve it calls home is a work in progress, but its game drives are complemented by other activities that highlight Namibia’s various cultures — and the wellness program benefits enormously from the stillness of the landscape.

Our Habitas AlUla

AlUla, Saudi Arabia

The word “spectacular” hardly seems up to the task of describing Habitas AlUla, an extraordinary collection of luxury villas in a box canyon in the Ashar Valley of Saudi Arabia. The founders of Habitas met at Burning Man, and this is, in a way, the ultra-luxe version of the desert festival, a literal oasis complete with impressive outdoor artworks and an array of immersive outdoor and/or cultural experiences.

Our Habitas-on-Hudson

Staatsburg, NY, USA

Please note: Our Habitas-on-Hudson is currently closed for renovation. The Hudson Valley has seen quite a few hotel openings, but few as ambitious as Habitas-on-Hudson, a high-end country-house hotel of a type that’s perhaps more familiar to English luxury-hotel travelers. The rooms are more minimalist-rustic-chic than country-house precious. Some are set in the original Manor house, while others occupy outlying buildings.

Our Habitas Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Chile’s Atacama Desert is one of the most inhospitable places in the world, which ironically makes it something of a showcase for the hospitality business, and an indication of a considerable amount of skill. It’s a particularly good fit for Habitas; their 51-room Habitas Atacama delivers immersion in nature, opportunities for adventure, and a certain subtle luxury in a setting that all but guarantees a uniquely memorable stay.

Caravan by Habitas Dakhla

Dakhla, Western Sahara

Caravan Dakhla is nothing if not immersive; Habitas aims not only to preserve the natural environment (the Dakhla Lagoon, on the Atlantic coast of West Africa), but to bring guests in close contact with the local culture, and the local culture is present here in every aspect of the experience, from the interior design to the artistic and educational programming.

Caravan by Habitas Agafay

Agafay Desert, Morocco

The Agafay Desert is less than an hour from Marrakech, but far enough out to feel like another world. It’s here, surrounded by rugged dunes, with the peaks of the Atlas Mountains in the distance, that you’ll find Caravan by Habitas Agafay, a collection of 20 upscale tented lodges inspired by Berber dwellings but containing as much luxury as an environmentally conscious hotel group can muster in a desert setting.

Caravan by Habitas AlUla

AlUla, Saudi Arabia

Airstreams in Arabia is the concept for Caravan AlUla, located in a desert canyon north of the ancient city whose name it shares. This is as clear a case of old-meets-new as you’re likely to find in the hospitality world: 22 trailers in Airstream’s distinctive polished aluminum finish, each one opening onto a shaded private patio, set amid date palms and rock walls in what must be one of the world’s most photogenic mobile home parks.