Activities

We offer a wide range of activities for you during your stay in the villages. We offer overnight stays in families homes, which include home-cooked traditional meals, and are available in both vegetarian and meat-lover's variety.

If you already have accomodations, or are on your way down south and would like to just pop in for a meal, that is also always an option. Simply contact us and tell us the details of your trip, and your personal preferences, and we will be happy to accommodate you.

Bedouin dinner usually includes mansaf, a large platter of yellow rice with potatoes, cooked vegetables, and pine nuts mixed in. The rice is then covered with meat, either chicken or lamb, and then a creamy sauce is poured over the entire plate. The meal is usually eaten either using a piece of flat-bread as an eating utensil, or with bare hands. Another popular favorite for dinner is maqluba, a traditional Palestinian meal, found only in this region. It consists of a rice and eggplant casserole that is cooked, and then flipped upside-down, and cooked a second time. It often includes lamb, as well.

Mansaf

Breakfast is usually a smorgasbord of yogurt, eggs, fresh salad, chips, and olives. Fresh home-made bread is a staple at all meals.

In addition to meals, we can offer tours of the area and a historical background of the Bedouin population in the Negev. In some cases, your hosts can take you on a desert camping excursion, where he will make a traditional meal in the desert, bake bread in the campfire, and you will sleep out in the desert sands, under the stars.

Also, your hosts can show you how to make traditional Bedouin coffee, starting with green, unroasted beans and ending with a perfect cup of Arabic coffee. Bedouin are renowned throughout Arab society and beyond as the true masters of coffee-making, and this is one activity you won't want to miss.

We currently have hosting opportunities in three villages, Khashm Zanna, Um Batin, and Bir Haddaj. In Khashm Zanna, your hosts have a petting zoo set up for younger audiences, and a traditional carpet-weaving gallery featuring work by Naameh Al-Athameen.